Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan attended a swimming competition yesterday as part of the 13th National Sports Festival for People with Disabilities. The empress must have heard your recent compliments about her grey hat (a slightly larger hat than she usually wears) as she wore a similarly sized hat in cream with slate blue trim. We’re used to seeing her in teeny tiny saucer hats; I think this larger sized saucer hat suits her very well.
Photo from The Asahi Shimbun
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attended a ceremony in Tokyo today commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Japanese Disabled Veterans Association. Michiko wore one of her characteristic saucer hats in light grey, trimmed with a bow at the front.
Photos from the Asahi Shimbun
Empress Michiko, Honorary President of Japan Red Cross Society, presented the Florence Nightingale Medal to several nurses at an award ceremony in Tokyo yesterday.
The Empress wore one of her customary small grey, this one with a rimmed edge and layered bow. While this does look like many of Michiko’s other hats, I can’t find another instance of her wearing this particular design and guess that this one might be new. I have come to accept these flat millinery designs for The Empress (it really is her signature style) but I dearly wish she would break away from her many, many grey hats and wear a little more colour.
Princess Kiko, Empress Michiko’s daughter-in-law, wore a large white silk pillbox decorated with a flat bow at the back. This is the same hat she wore in September 2006 to present her son, baby Prince Hisahito, to the Shinto Shrine on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Princess Hanako, wife of Emperor Akihito’s younger brother Prince Hitachi, wore a pale blue silk bumper hat with a rolled brim. I think the bunch of blue and white cooked spaghetti trimming her hat was a little odd, although it did provide a hit of interest and colour in the otherwise monochrome and very plain hats of the Imperial ladies!
Princess Hisako, widow of Emperor Akihito’s first cousin Prince Takamado, wore an dove grey silk hat with a tightly upturned brim. I think it looked quite flattering on her although I prefer hats with brims that don’t look so sewn in place. This hat does look great with the high collar of her dress and that fabulous string of pearls.
We don’t often see the Japanese royal ladies at an engagement together so I can’t resist asking you, dear readers, which hat you liked best?
Photo from The Asahi Shimbun via Getty and The Tokito Blog
With our focus on Ascot, we missed two hats worn by Empress Michiko of Japan this week. On June 21, 2013, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan arrived in Kyoto to visit the Myōshin-ji Buddhist Temple. This temple is significant as it stands on the grounds of the former palace of the late Emperor Hanazono of Japan. The Empress wore a petite white pillbox style hat trimmed with grey fabric in an origami-style fold. This hat, which she wore in July 2009 during a visit to Canada, is another one of Michiko’s signature mini-hats.
On June 23, 2013 the Imperial couple traveled to Osaka where they visited the Osaka Prefecture Environmental Learning Center Eco Museum of Osaka and toured a manufacturing company. For these events, Empress Michiko wore an elegant dove grey saucer style hat embellished with a two-tone grey bow. She first wore this hat in October last year at the Emporer’s Cup at the Tokyo Racecourse; I like larger hats on the Empress and this one is particularly elegant although I would love to see Michiko in a little more colour.
Photos taken from Ann News Footage and Ann News Footage
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan officially welcomed the president of France, Mr. François Hollande, and his partner, Ms. Valerie Trierweiler, to Tokyo this morning. The Empress wore a new grey disc hat covered in charcoal grey silk with a flat bow and a pale lavender rosette.
Photo from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 