Catching Up With European Royals

November 8: Queen Máxima repeated a plum felt hat with brim pleated on one side for the National Coalition Financial Health Action Meeting in Eindhoven.

Designer: Fabienne Delvigne. It is the “Flavia” design.
Previously Worn: Nov 21, 2018;  February 5, 2018October 13, 2015October 30, 2014October 15, 2014March 19, 2014November 12, 2013

November 22: Crown Princess Victoria and Crown Prince Haakon donned colourful hats on a visit to a mangrove reforestation development program in Kenya.

November 24: Queen Máxima attended the jubilee of the multicultural network for government officials at the ministry of Interior affairs in her muted burgundy melusine felt fedora. The combination of hat with sienna dress, cranberry coat and oxblood leather gloves and boots is a close-tonal one that works unexpectedly well.

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Designer: Fabienne Delvigne. It is the “Borsamalia.” Natan dress, Valentino cape.
Previously Worn: Oct 9, 2019; Oct 2, 2019Jan 31, 2019 

November 24: Queen Mathilde welcomed Mr. Ignazio Cassis and Mrs Paola Rodoni Cassis, the President and the first Lady of the Swiss Confederation, on state visit to Belgium in a repeated a cranberry felt brimmed hat with high, angular crown simply trimmed with a slim hatband knotted on the right side.

Designer: Dior (my guess is Stephen Jones for Dior). Outfit, bag and shoes all by Dior.
Previously Worn: Dec 16, 2019

November 30: Queen Máxima opened an exhibition on royal embroidery, stories and craftsmanship in the Tilburg Textile Museum in a repeated toque hat of safron and navy printed ikat silk.

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Designer: unknown. Dress and skirt by Natan.
Previously Worn: Dec 6, 2018

December 1: Queen Máxima repeated an emerald braided straw pillbox to attend the 70th anniversary of an organization supporting international education.

Designer: unknown. Dress and coat by Oscar de la Renta.
Previously Worn: May 27, 2021 

December 6, 2022: Queen Margrethe repeated her red and aubergine boater hat for a visit to the Danish Church of St Katharine’s in Camden for a celebration service for her Golden Jubilee.

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Designer: Mathilde Førster
Previously Worn: Nov 11, 2021; Oct 5, 2021Apr 23, 2021Nov 27, 2020

December 6: Prince Alexander was christened in Moscow at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Princess Victoria wore a pale grey disc percher hat trimmed with feathers. Grand Duchess Maria of Russia wore one of her signature kokoshnik halo headpieces, this one in black with a white floral spray on the side.

December 10: For the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Queen Sonja repeated a teal felt pillbox with ribbon trim and back bow.

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Designer: 
Previously Worn: Dec 10, 2015; May 9, 2015

Crown Princess Mette Marit wore a red double crepe covered bandeau headpiece with bow across the back.

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Designer: Jane Taylor Small Bow Band. Coatdress by Catherine Walker. 
Previously Worn: This headpiece is new. 

Which hats here catch your eye?

Images from Getty as indicated 

Imperial Royal Wedding: Guests

Guests at today’s wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Rebecca Bettarini included several from royal houses, beginning with the groom’s immediate family.

George’s mother, Grand Duchess Mariya Vladimirovna Romanova, wore a pleated blue silk Kokoshnik headpiece with brown sable trim. The headpiece has layered blue silk bows around the back.


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The Grand Duchess’ sister, Helene Kirby, Countess Dvinskaya, wore a hat in the same orange boucle as her suit with a wide brown fur bumper brim.


The bride’s mother, Carla Virginia Cacciatore, topped her blue and green ruffle collared suit with in a brown hat. The hat features freeform sinamay ruffles atop a shallow pillbox base.

Crown Princess Elia of Albania wore the loveliest pale gray-green beret percher trimmed with green silk flowers, leaves and a net veil.

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Princess Isabelle of Liechtenstein wore a black velvet pyramid hat with wide faux fur cuffed brim.

Princess Lea of Belgium wore a brown fur Cossack style hat.
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The Duchess of Braganza wore a deep eggplant veiled pillbox placed on the back of her head.

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Princess Marie-Marguerite, Duchess of Anjou, wore a statement oversize saucer in peachy-tan sinamay with steep sidesweep. The hat is trimmed with feathers studded in raw-edge crin and sinamay ruffles en masse beneath the brim on its raised side.

What do you think of the hats that stepped out today in St. Petersburg for this event?

Images from Getty and social media as indicated  

Monaco Royal Wedding: Guests from Non-Reigning Royal Houses

We wrap up our week-long look at the hats worn to Prince Albert and Princess Charlene’s religious wedding on July 2, 2011 with those worn by guests from non-reigning royal houses.

Empress Farah wore a pleated turban in the same lime green silk as her jacket and dress that tied at the back in a bow. It was a very coordinated look with subtle contrast provided by the use of both matte and shiny sides of the fabric twisted together and narrow fringe on the bottom of the back bow’s tie.

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Princess Marina of Savoy wore a picture hat in layered navy and black straw, sharply raised on one side and simply trimmed with a slim black straw hatband. The layered straw gives an interesting effect, merging the two colours surprisingly well, especially with the top layer of the straw brim cut shorter than the bottom navy layer to give some lightness to the design around the outer brim’s edge. On its own the hat was great. It’s the pairing with this feather-hemmed, bedazzled, cocktail-all-the-way dress that gives me issue. It’s a dress that simply doesn’t suit a hat.

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Marina’s daughter-in-law, Princess Clotilde, paired her ruffle trimmed scarlet dress with an oversize flower headpiece in black silk. While the black accessories work with the dress, I’d have preferred a sleeker percher hat to provide a more streamlined counterpoint for the statement dress.

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Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is well known for her dramatic sartorial choices and attended this event in the ultimate (most literal? cheesiest?) symbol of love. Her large heart-shaped hat was covered in the same pink silk as her outfit, emphasized with the same magenta handpainted ombre effect as on the collar of her jacket. Well known to be one of Prince Albert’s closest friends, I always wondered if Camilla’s pink statement of love was directed at the unfortunate rumours that plagued the run up to this event… or if this was always her plan. My guess is the latter. Either way, it was quite a hat.

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Maria Margarita de Bourbon, Duchess of Anjou, paired her beautifully embellished grey dress with a statement hat in slightly lighter grey straw. The design was lavishly trimmed with grey silk oversize roses and crystal studded cut feathers placed below the brim of the saucer’s raised side.

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Princess Micaëla of Orleans wore a warm tan-hued raffia sun hat with wide, pleated brim from the Madagascar Hat Company. A twisted sash hatband in the same magenta silk as her skirt was added to the hat, presumably to link the ensemble together.

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The Duchess of Bragança paired her pale blue silk suit with a simple ecru straw hat with flat crown and upturned kettle brim.

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Crown Princess Margarita of Romania was a sunny vision in yellow with wide brimmed hat. The design, by Romanian milliner Kristina Dragomir, featured a shallow, flat crown and gently downcurved brim and was trimmed with a yellow silk hatband and swath of dotted veil wrapped around the crown and tied in a bow across the back. I’m not always a fan of one-colour looks but this shade of yellow is so happy and well suited to Margarita (and successfully grounded by the cream accessories and pearl jewellery) that I can’t help but like it.

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Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia paired her ice blue silk beaded dress and jacket with a feminine headpiece of large white and blue ombre flower petal ruffles trimmed with loops of blue tube crin. I can see how the headpiece linked with her ensemble and I love the unconventional design but I think a less fussy piece (anything that didn’t look like layered cabbage leaves) would have been a better option.

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Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia wore a tall, peaked Kokoshnik-style headpiece in the same floral silk as her dress. Maria’s committment to this traditional Russian millinery shape is admirable (she has worn the shape many times over the years) but this particularly combination of headpiece and dress (with those drapery-esque sleeves) was a LOT of look.

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Princess Sophie of Isenburg, who would marry Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia a month later, paired her colorful couture dress and jacket with an equally vibrant headpiece. Built on a pale beigey-pink silk abaca bandeau with swishy curving edge, the headpiece was trimmed with a birdcage veil, an over-arc of black burnt feathers and a trio of blue, caramel and pink flower feathers on the side. There are countless reasons not to like the headpiece with the ensemble that I continue to ignore, simply because it was of the few ensembles at this event that felt free and fun.

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Stephanie, Hereditary Princess of Baden, wore a giant ivory silk chiffon rose headpiece with petal edges tinged in pink. I love a millinery statement but this this one was dulled by her ‘whole lot of biscuit’ ensemble. Princess Ursula of Bavaria, on the other hand, played up her black straw bow headpiece with feathers, pairing it with a black and white suit. The feather work on this headpiece is worth a second look- a fantastic dahlia flower of black and white striped goose biot feathers with a red center was surrounded by dotted pheasant feathers with a firework display of black coque feathers shooting around the top and side.  Yes, it’s dated now but I still love its bold design and scale.

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Princess Virginia von Fürstenberg, who had been a longtime friend and companion to the widowed Prince Rainier, topped her navy silk dress and scarf and lace jacket with a shiny straw cloche hat in the same colour. The design was simply trimmed with a navy hatband and wide binding around the extended brim.

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That wraps up our look at the Monaco royal wedding nine years ago, and the 44 royal hats and headpieces that attended its multi-day celebration. Which hats in this last group stand out to you most? Which overall royal hat at this event was your favourite?

Jump to this post for an index of other royal hats that appeared at this wedding. 

Photos from Getty as indicated