thirty years to March 25, 1988 and the Duchess of Kent in a prim pink straw boater with printed silk hatband for a visit with the Duke to St. Albans.
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Photo from Getty as indicated
Tag Archives: Duchess of Kent
Windsor Wedding, Thirty Years On
Thirty years ago yesterday, the Duke and Duchess of Kent’s eldest son, George Windsor, Earl of St. Andrews, was married to Canadian professor Sylvana Tomaselli. At the time of the nuptials, the bride was Catholic and divorced, issues which prevented a church wedding and caused the Earl to give up his rights of succession (thankfully, times have changed). As such, a civil wedding was required and the young couple married in Scotland.
We don’t see many British royal weddings where the bride is not in a gown and veil but the unique circumstances at the time of this one made the bride opt for a suit and hat. Sylvana topped her royal blue dotted velvet suit and muff with a matching hat in matching silk. The tall, upfolded bumper brim gave the design a relaxed Cossack shape and the hat was simply trimmed with a large button in the same dotted velvet as Sylvana’s suit. The pieces combined to give a glamorous winter ensemble with luxurious texture and beautiful sheen.
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The Duchess of Kent went with a more traditionally shaped Cossack style hat in crimson, trimmed with wide black velvet ribbon piping and a giant bow at the back (perhaps anchored to her hair, below the hat?). Lady Helen Windsor, as was her title at the time, was also in red and black- her red cloche variation was trimmed with black brim piping and a wide velvet hatband and bow.
Barely visible at the far left of the photo below, Princess Alexandra looked to be wearing a brown fur papakha style hat. On the far right, Princess Michael of Kent wore an oversize, angular black brimless hat (perhaps also a modified Cossack shape?) with bow.
In combination, these hats always seemed like a technicolor Russian winter fantasy to me. We don’t often see tall Cossack shapes on royal heads, making this group all the more memorable. Thirty years on, what do you think of these hats?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Trooping the Colour: Gloucester & Kent Families
Trooping the Colour was attended today, as in years past, by the Queen’s cousins and their families. The Duchess of Gloucester, who rode in a carriage with her husband and the Duke of Kent, repeated her grey straw cuffed bumper hat with net veil trim. The men wore in morning dress with top hats.
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The Countess of Ulster wore a natural straw percher hat with button base and large straw twist. Lady Rose Gilman wore a red percher with straw beret base trimmed with red feathers.
Designers: Claire’s hat is Gina Foster. Rose’s hat is unknown
Previously Worn: uncertain
Previously Worn: uncertain
The Duchess of Kent made a rare public appearance today in a denim blue percher hat trimmed with what looks to be lace on the hat and a spray o feather at the back. Princess Alexandra stood nearby in her large cream hat with high, domed crown, wide moulded hatband, net tulle covered brim and front feather pouf. .
Designer:both are unknown
Princess Alexandra’s hat was Previously Worn: May 15, 2015; July 16, 2012; here; here; here
Princess Alexandra’s hat was Previously Worn: May 15, 2015; July 16, 2012; here; here; here
The Countess of St. Andrews wore an interesting hat in what looks to be lattice printed straw (or hemp? or burlap?) with a cartwheel brim fanning out from a narrow, diagonal crown. There does not seem to be any further embellishment on the hat besides a slim navy ribbon hatband and fringed brim edge. Sylvanna’s daughter, Lady Amelia Windsor, repeated the distinctive navy ruched turban with lattice printed crin accent we saw Sylvanna wear last year to the Service of Thanksgiving for Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday.
Designer: both are unknown. I suspect the navy turban is Philip Treacy
Lady Helen Windsor wore a stylised white Homberg hat with indented crown, short brim raised around one side and a navy bow at the front. This piece is from Stephen Jones’ Miss Jones SS 2017 collection. Helen’s sister-in-law, Lady Nicholas Windsor (Paola, who is peeking out from behind the Duke of Glouster, below right) wore what looks to be some sort of large cream saucer percher.
Designer: Helen’s hat is Stephen Jones. Paola’s hat is unknown
Previously Worn: I think both may be new.
Previously Worn: I think both may be new.
Julia Ogilvy repeated her cream picture hat with square crown, cartwheel brim and flying bow on the side. In today’s sea of cream hats, I liked the styling of this one, with Julia’s sand and teal printed dress and her pearl necklace, best.
Designer: Philip Treacy
Previously Worn: June 10, 2016; June 11, 2011; April 30, 2011
Previously Worn: June 10, 2016; June 11, 2011; April 30, 2011
Flora Ogilvy repeated her large cream straw picture hat with multi-looped side bow. Her cousin, Zenouska Mowatt, topped her olive dress with a cream straw teardrop shaped sidesweep lavishly trimmed with feathers. The trim on Zenouska’s hat makes it come to life and I love how her blue shoes at a hit of contrast and make her ensemble look very polished from head to toe.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVczBc2hEk9/
Designer of Flora’s hat: unknown
Previously Worn: June 11, 2016
Designer of Zenouska’s hat: Jane Taylor
Previously Worn: I believe this is new
Previously Worn: June 11, 2016
Designer of Zenouska’s hat: Jane Taylor
Previously Worn: I believe this is new
Princess Michael of Kent repeated her white straw wide brimmed hat with ostrich feather boa wrap/overlay.
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Lady Frederick Windsor (Sophie) wore what is described by the designer as a “window sinamay coolie with a dip dyed silk rose”. There also appears to be light feathers trimming the underbrim of the raised side of this gently sloping pyramid shaped piece. It’s a pretty piece that I think might be showed to greater effect with a non-monochrome outfit.
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Lady Gabriella Windsor wore another cream hat, this one with an upswept brim and trimmed with a large multi-looped bow of lattice printed crin. This view shows the slightly oval shape of the brim- a view we don’t often get to see on hats with upswept brims.
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Designer: Philip Treacy. It looks like a bespoke version of OC 264 from SS 2017
Previously Worn: this hat is new
Previously Worn: this hat is new
That covers all of the 21 royal hats that appeared today at Trooping the Colour. This group has less diversity than in previous years- without Lady Rose’s red hat, the Duchess of Kent’s blue hat and that mod navy turban on Lady Amelia, this branch of the family would be an entire sea of cream. Thankfully, this trio joined Autumn Philips and the Duchess of Cambridge in bringing some colour to liven up the balcony scene today.
What hats stood out to you today, most? Are there any pieces from this final group that you would like to add to your own millinery closet?
To see hats worn by other members of the British royal Family, jump over to these posts:
Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh
Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry
Duke of York, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and the Earl of Wessex
Princess Anne and Autumn Philips
Photos from Getty and social media as indicated; Samir Hussein, DMC, James Devaney, James Devaney, James Devaney and James Devaney via Getty; Mark Stewart via Twitter
Hat From the Past
to this day in 1963 that saw a young Duchess of Kent attending church in Buckinghamshire in a coral pillbox hat.
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Photo from Getty as indicated
Ogilvy Wedding, Twenty-Eight Years On
Over the weekend, James and Julia Ogilvy (James is the son of Princess Alexandra and the late Angus Ogilvy) celebrated their twenty-eighth wedding anniversary. We don’t often look back at millinery fashion from the late 1980s so I thought we’d grab the opportunity of this milestone to do so.
James Ogilvy and Julia Rawlinson met during their first year at St. Andrews University and married on July 30, 1988 at St. Mary The Virgin Church in Saffron Walden, a small market town in the bride’s home county of Essex just south of Cambridge. Julia wore a gown in white dupioni silk with a v-neck, fitted bodice, and full, ballgown skirt that swept into a short train. The dress is firmly dated in the late 1980s by the voluminous leg ‘o mutton sleeves trimmed with bows (a popular design detail that in all likelihood was also on the back of the dress!). Devoid of lace or beaded trimming, the stars of this dress are its silhouette and the silk of which it is made. Not surprising for a country wedding of a more distant member of the royal family, Julia forwent a tiara and anchored her silk tulle veil with a crescent of fresh flowers to match her bouquet.
The bridesmaids, which included Lady Gabriella Windsor (front left, below), wore dresses in the same white dupioni silk with pale pink sashes and similar floral headpieces to the bride. The bridal party had a quintessentially English country look that might seem familiar thanks to the popular movie “Four Weddings And A Funeral” which screened just six years later.
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Princess Alexandra topped her cerulean blue suit with a matching straw hat. While not as tall as the designs we see her favour today, the hat had many design elements that seem “oh-so Alexandra”- a pork pie shaped crown, wide brim and lavish silk flower trim. It’s a wonderful hat and the saturated colour was particularly beautiful on her. Alexandra’s daughter Marina, shown on the right in the photo below, wore a classically shaped hat in black textured straw with a wide brim.
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Queen Elizabeth wore a two toned straw hat with rounded black crown and flat, yellow brim. A wide yellow hatband and spray of black cherries completed the hat. The cherries were an unusual and fun trim and while the graphic hat did an excellent job of grounding the eye-assaulting paint splattered suit, I think the entire ensemble was so firmly rooted in the late 1980s that it’s best left there.
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Diana, Princess of Wales, topped her Catherine Walker dress and grey coat with white straw picture hat by Philip Somerville. The hat, with a short upturn on the brim, was simply trimmed with a ruched white hatband and marks a time when the princess was transitioning from the smaller, fussier hats she wore in the early years of her marriage to the more streamlined style she adopted over the next decade.
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The complete antithesis of Diana’s streamlined hat, Princess Margaret’s hat was textbook 1980s excess! In vibrant royal blue, her halo brimmed design was entirely covered in silk blooms on the underside of the brim that framed her face like a peephole in a rose garden. Attractive? I’m not sure. Memorable? Absolutely!
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While just twenty-two years old at the time of this wedding, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (now Lady Sarah Chatto) was already showing signs of her uncluttered millinery style and preference for classic hat shpaes with a simple straw wide-brimmed hat with contrasting hat band.
The Duchess of Gloucester topped her red suit with a large boater style hat in straw trimmed with side sprays of flowers both above and below the brim and a monochrome hatband. The Duchess of Kent went for fashionable 1980s polka dots with her ensemble, matching her pale pink dotted suit to the bumper brim of her hat. It looks like the hat was finished with a bow at the back and a pale pink straw domed crown.
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The Duchess of Kent’s daughter, Lady Helen Windsor (now Lady Helen Taylor) was typically fashion-forward in a crownless straw hat with upturned brim trimmed with a large scarf of blue organza at the back that trailed down her back (see it at the 6:00 mark in the video below)
Finally, Princess Michael of Kent wore a pale pink straw hat edged in black piping, placed at a rakish diagonal angle on the side of her head. We’re so used to grand design elements (soaring brims, huge feathers etc.) on Marie Christine’s current hats that the smaller scale and gentle shape of this piece makes for a great surprise.
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1980s fashion is often not regarded with kindness and while several design elements in the hats seen here seem rather dated, I think they are wonderfully elegant examples of the millinery fashions of the day. What hats stand out to you most at this wedding?
Photos from Getty as indicated; Rex/Shutterstock; and Princess Diana Archive/Stringer via Getty
Royal Hats 