Imperial Royals At Calligraphy Exhibition & Medical Award

Last Thursday, July 27, Princess Hisako of Takamado attended an international calligraphy exhibition in Tokyo. For this event, she paired a black floral suit with a pyramid-centered saucer hat in black straw. This is one of my favourite Imperial royal looks in a long time- the streamlined, modern shaped hat and traditional floral print of the suit are a slightly unexpected combination but so chic.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: I believe this hat is new

Today, Princess Nobuko, Princess Kiko and Crown Princess Masako joined the Empress at the annual Florence Nightingale awards in Tokyo. Empress Michiko repeated her white raised edge saucer with transparent lattice underbrim, trimmed with a pale celery silk knotted bow and silk leaves. It’s another ensemble of exquisitely subtle touches that the Empress wears, beautifully.

Empress Michiko, Aug 2, 2017 | Royal Hats  Empress Michiko, Aug 2, 2017 | Royal Hats

Designer: likely Akio Hirata
Previously Worn: Mar 1, 2017

Princess Nobuko looked to be wearing a pillbox in the same grey silk print as her dress. Princess Kiko topped her pale blue suit with a coordinating pillbox and Crown Princess Masako wore a demure cream bumper hat.

Imperial Royal Family, Aug 2, 2017 | Royal Hats

 Thoughts about these Imperial royal hats?

This Week’s Extras

Royal Hats

Queen Silvia and Princess Benedikte of Denmark both wore black straw hats for the funeral of Alice Trolle-Wachtmeister on Wednesday. The younger Swedish princesses were in hair bows and bands.

On July 12th, Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako attended the 53rd National Blood Donation Promotion convention in Akita. Crown Princess Masako wore an ice blue bumper hat to match her suit.

Crown Princess Masako, July 12, 2017 | Royal Hats

Queen Sonja wore a white wool beret with wool flower trim to open Riddu Riđđu, an international indigenous festival in Kåfjord in Nord-Troms (Royal House of Norway)

Grand Duke Guillaume sported a fedora at Wimbledon (Luxarazzi)

During Ascot week, there was some discussion about Mike Tindall’s new silk hat. Here’s an interesting snipet from The Telegraph:

At the Oliver Brown top hat stand, salesman Charlie Mingay is doing a solid trade in antique, one-of-a-kind toppers. He explained: “The looms that makes this sort of plush silk have been out of production since 1968, so there is a finite supply, and a very high demand.” The most expensive of the black hats on display is £8,000. As of Friday morning he had sold eight, including one to Mike Tindall. The former England rugby captain has a surprisingly small bonce: a size seven. Or, as Mingay put it: “Big guy, peanut head.”

On July 9th, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attended the 100th anniversary of the National Welfare Committee in Tokyo. Empress Michiko repeated her large white raised rim saucer with pale grey bow.

Empress Michiko, July 9, 2017 | Royal Hats

I’m seeing boater hats are popping up all over the place (see here, here, here, and here!). Here are the other hats that caught my eye this week (I’d love to see what you are liking- please share in the comments!):

Colourful fedoras from Canadian brand The Saucy Milliner and vibrant trilbys from British Milliner Jess Collett
Beautifully sculpted black straw and crin hat by Texan milliner Bay Willow
Statement cocktail hat from Susanne Juul
Beautifully frayed sinamay rose cocktail hat from Bounce Your Millinery

 

 Royal Hats

Lovely photos of Crown Princess Victoria and her family taken today at the continuation of her 40th birthday celebrations at Solliden Palace in Borgholm

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images  Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images

 Photos from Jiji, Sankei and social media as indicated

Catching Up On Royal Hats

After a short vacation, I’m back refreshed and ready for what will be a very busy upcoming month of royal hats! Thanks so much for keeping the conversation going while I was away- you readers are absolutely wonderful. A few of you have requested a post with photos of all the hats we missed over the past week – here we go.

May 21:  Princess Anne attending Day 2 of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2017 in a repeated hat with tall, navy straw crown and cream brim trimmed with navy straw bow loops, silk flowers and feather quills. She wore it most recently in June 2015 at garden party (jump to this post for better views).

May 24: Queen Sonja of Norway opened the 65th Bergen International Festival in a repeated gold straw hat with high, domed crown, flat brim and wide silk hatband we saw her last wear in June 2015.

Queen Sonja, May 24, 2017 | Royal Hats

May 24: The Duchess of Cornwall presented RAF Halton with new colours. She repeated a hat by Lock and Co. with a tall crown, upturned kettle brim and side bow in nubbly natural straw.

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May 24: The Duke of Edinburgh and the Earl of Wessex presented the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award gold awards at Buckingham Palace in a pair of straw Panama hats

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May 25: Queen Elizabeth visited the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and an equestrian farm in Staffordshire, repeating the orange straw cloche with wrap around the crown that she first wore for Ascot last year. Designed by Angela Kelly, the hat is trimmed with orange straw bows, silk roses and royal blue feathers.

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May 25: Empress Michiko, Princess Kiko, Princess Hisako and Princess Nobuko attended the Japanese Red Cross Society annual meeting. Empress Michicko repeated a white saucer with blow and transparent lattice underbrim and Princess Kiko repeated a bowler variation with upturned, kettle brim and pleated hatband in the same ice blue printed silk as her suit. Princess Hisako wore a charcoal grey straw design with wide, dotted hatband sash that tied in a bow at the side while Princess Nobuko repeated a white hat with rolled brim and crisp navy hatband with white pinstripes.

Imperial Royal Family, May 25, 2017 | Royal Hats

Empress Michiko, May 25, 2017 | Royal Hats  Princess Kiko, May 25, 2017 | Royal Hats

Princess Hisako, May 25, 2017 | Royal Hats  Princess Nobuko, May 25, 2017 | Royal Hats

May 25: Princess Eugenie co-hosted a Buckingham Palace garden party with her father to celebrate the Centenary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). She wore a new gold straw hat with inverted crin brim by Nerida Fraiman (it’s the Crin Disc Gold from SS 2017). I adore the shape and sheen of this design.

Embed from Getty Images  Embed from Getty Images
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May 26: Princess Anne delivered closing remarks at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2017 (read parts of her speech here). She looked fantastic in an emerald green dress topped with a cream straw hat with diagonal crown and sharply upturned brim on one side. The hat is trimmed with a mass of cream feathers on the lowered side of the brim and stacked hatbands in gold and caramel straw. While the hat follows a very similar shape and colour to the one she debuted for Easter last year, I think this one is different. Have any of you seen it before?

May 27: Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko travelled to Toyama to attend the 68th National Tree-Planting Festival. On the first day of their three day visit, Empress Michiko repeated a large, white, domed saucer hat trimmed in a black and caramel striped silk bow she most recently wore during their last visit to this region in October 2015.

Empress Michiko, May 27, 2017 | Royal Hats

May 27: Charlotte Casiraghi photographed attending a wedding in Italy in a white cuffed calot hat. It’s a repeated pice that was worn several decades earlier by her mother, Princess Caroline.

May 28: Empress Michicko on Day 2 in Toyama in a large white saucer with a coordinating bow to her lime and black and white hounds tooth checked suit she first wore June 1, 2014. How wonderful is that hit of lime!

Empress Michiko, May 28, 2017 | Royal Hats  Empress Michiko, May 28, 2017 | Royal Hats

Empress Michiko, May 28, 2017 | Royal Hats 

May 28: Queen Elizabeth en route to Crathie Church for Sunday Service in a repeated magenta straw hat with upswept brim, white straw hatband, straw loops at the side and a pair of magenta feathers. Jump over to this post for better photos from this Rachel Trevor Morgan design’s most recent outing in May 2016.

May 29: Empress Michicko wrapping up the visit to Toyama in her repeated, teal blue, rimmed saucer with grey, black and white plaid bow in the same silk as her skirt. She wore it last June 4, 2016

Empress Michiko, May 29, 2017 | Royal Hats  Empress Michiko, May 29, 2017 | Royal Hats

May 31: Today, The Duke of Edinburgh hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the London Youth charity’s 130th anniversary. He looked rather dapper in his straw Panama hat.

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I think that catches us up! I think there’s only one hat here that didn’t make it into your discussion- Princess Anne’s cream straw hat worn with the green dress. I think this is a knockout outfit for her and am curious to hear what you think. Any final thoughts on the hats we’ve seen over the past week?

Catching Up With The Imperial Royals

The Imperial royals have been busy over the past week, leaving us several hats to catch up. On April 20, Princess Akiko repeated her white cloche with upturned brim on a visit to the Mie Prefecture Museum. This design is a larger scale than many of Akiko’s other hats and works well on her.

Princess Akiko, April 20, 2017 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: July 22, 2015
Last Tuesday, April 26, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko commemorated the 100th anniversary of RIKEN, Japan’s largest research institute. The Empress repeated a pale blue saucer hat with raised rim around the back and a large, stacked, circular origami bow.
Empress Michiko, April 26, 2017 | Royal Hats
Empress Michiko, April 26, 2017 | Royal Hats
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: October 29, 2016October 11, 2014May 16, 2012
On Wednesday, April 27, Prince Masahito and Princess Hanako of Hitachi attended the 35th Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize award ceremony in Tokyo. Princess Hanako repeated her sage green silk covered hat with cloche shaped crown  and mushroom brim with lace overlay.
Princess Hanako, April 27, 2017 | Royal Hats
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: November 13, 2015August 5, 2015; June 26, 2015; May 19, 2015
And finally, On Thursday, April 28, the Emperor and Empress presented the 11th Midori Academic Prize in Tokyo. Empress Michiko repeated her white saucer hat we first saw her wear during the Imperial couple’s tour of Vietnam in March this year. Like much of the Empress’ millinery, this hat is all about subtlety- a gently raised rim, transparent lattice underbrim, flat bow in ombre grey silk and monochrome silk anemone blossoms and leaves. On its own, the piece falls a little flat tonally but combined with Michiko’s ombre silk suit, it really works.
  Empress Michiko, April 28, 2017 | Royal Hats
Empress Michiko, April 28, 2017 | Royal Hats Empress Michiko, April 28, 2017 | Royal Hats
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: March 3, 2017
Thoughts about this quartet of Imperial royal hats?
Photos from Line News, AsahiSankei; and The Asahi Shimbun via Getty

This Week’s Extras

Royal Hats

Queen Silvia in black straw hat with lovely twisted hat band detail at yesterday’s funeral of Carl Adam “Noppe” Lewenhaupt, a very close friend of the King since childhood (Svenskdam)

Queen Silvia, Mar 30, 2017 | Royal Hats

On March 22, members of the Imperial family joined the Emperor and Empress a concert by music college graduates at the Imperial Palace. Princess Kiko wore a blue bumper hat, Princess Kako a white bowler, Princess Nobuko a large white toque and Princess Akiko, a white trilby with sea foam green hatband. The same day, Princess Hanako attended the 75th Award Ceremony of All Japan Youth Invention and Innovation Exhibition. She wore a pale blue felt hat with jauntily upturned short brim. (Imperial Family Of Japan)

Princess Kiko, Mar 22, 2017 | Royal Hats Princess Kako, Mar 22, 2017 | Royal Hats Princess Nobuko, Mar 22, 2017 | Royal Hats Princess Akiko, Mar 22, 2017 | Royal Hats Princess Hanako, Mar 22, 2017 | Royal Hats

On March 29, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko offered prayers for Emperors Showa and Kojun at the Imperial Musashi Mausoleum in Hachiōji, Tokyo. The Empress wore a grey saucer with raised rim around the back and a folded bow at the side. 

 King Carl Gustaf opened a ski resort on Monday in his trusty brown fedora.

I absolutely adore these very happy, bouncing pink polka dots on this John Boyd design. If I was going to Ascot, this would be my pick because I can’t imagine a happier hat to wear.

Don’t worry- I haven’t forgotten Prince Felix’s confirmation in Denmark yesterday. We’ll look at the hat and headpieces from this event in a full feature post tomorrow.

Royal Hats

Adorable snap of wee Prince Jigme Namgyel of Bhutan enjoying the snow with his father King Jigme Khesar and grandfather King Jigme Singye

We enjoyed the hats from this week’s two state visits- here’s a peek at the formal fashion

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Photos from IBL; The Asahi Shimbun and The Asahi Shimbun via Getty; Biglobe