Tag Archives: Princess Beatrice

This Week’s Extras

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Royal Hats

Princess Alexandra opened the new offices of Sightsavers in a smart cream hat on Thursday (The British Monarchy)

Empress Michiko in one of her go-to grey saucer hats to celebrate a lasting legacy from her wedding (The Imperial Family of Japan)

Crown Prince Haakon participated in a youth construction course and commemorated the 75th anniversary of the joint Allied victory at the Battle of Narvik (Royal House of Norway)

Infanta Elena in her trusty fedora last weekend at a bull fight with her children and father (Diez Minutos)

Princess Beatrice and Beatrice Borromeo at the Getty wedding in Rome today (Daily Mail)

Summer royal hats often include silk blooms. Here is a great peek at the process to make these hand made beauties (John Boyd Hats)

Royal Hats

Crown Princess Mette-Marit opened the Norwegian Festival of Literature. She is taking a hands-on approach to literacy advocacy, setting off on a “Literature Train” tour across the country (Royal House of Norway).

Queen Maxima thoughtfully wore the Canadian national colours in her tiara at a state dinner in Ottawa where she looked stunning (Daily Mail). You can see a great video report on the reasons for Dutch monarch’s visit here at NPO.

Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Luxembourg (who is an accomplished violinist) joined Queen Mathilde of Belgium for the final of the 2015 Queen Elizabeth music competition (Cour Grand-Ducale de Luxembourg)

Queen Rania looked amazing for Jordanian Independence Day celebrations (Daily Mail)

Add your tiara predictions for the upcoming Swedish royal wedding over at the Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor.

British Royals Enjoy Season’s Third Garden Party

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It has been a  busy season of Buckingham Palace garden parties as the Queen hosted the third in as many weeks yesterday afternoon. For this event, Queen Elizabeth repeated her peony pink straw hat with teardrop shaped crown, curved brim and feather trim. While the shape of this hat is not a favourite for me, the Queen wears this bright shade of pink so well and the whimsical feel of the hat feels fitting for a summer party.

Queen Elizabeth, May 28, 2015 in Angela Kelly| Royal Hats

Designer: Angela Kelly
Previously Worn: March 21, 2014; May 14, 2011; February 17, 2011; April 27, 2010; May 21, 2009

Princess Anne, who looked to be enjoying herself immensely, repeated the purple percher hat she wore for the royal wedding in 2011. it seems to me, however, on this outing she changed the angle of the hat’s placement which highlighted its tear drop shape. This change has warmed my reception for this hat and planted a spark of admiration at Anne’s willingness to try a millinery shape so different from what she usually wears.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: June 21, 2012; April 29, 2011

Princess Beatrice wore a lovely new percher hat described by the designer as an “almond teardrop with silk roses and hand cut feather flowers”. The rosy-tan hue of this piece looks wonderful with Beatrice’s colouring and the lush trimming gives the small hat a substantial sense of occasion. I hope to see this hat again with a different outfit- while the elegant grey dress and white jacket look great on Beatrice, the cool grey hue does not relate in any way to the warm rosy brown hat. This is another case where the individual pieces of this ensemble are individually beautiful but don’t work together.

Designer: Juliette Botterill. It is the “Silk Feather Flower Teardrop” design
Previously Worn: This hat is new

Princess Michael of Kent, who is recovering from eye surgery, coordinated her eyepatch with a black and white ensemble. Her hat, with a squared black crown and oval shaped white brim, was simply trimmed with an oversize white feather. Hats with different coloured crowns and brims can be difficult to balance well (especially with an oval brim) but this one gets it just right.

Princess Michael, May 28, 2015 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: June 8, 2002; June 27, 2000

Which one in this fun quartet of royal hats stood out to you?

Photos from Getty as indicated; Splash News and Splash News via Corbis

British Royal Wedding Four Years On: British Royal Family

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A wedding For those of us royal hat fans, a royal wedding is a millinery extravaganza and no royal family does hats at big events like the British royal family. After looking at hats worn by the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s nuptials four years ago, we turn our attention for the rest of the day to those worn by the British royals. First up, the hats worn by members of the Queen’s immediate family.

In 2011, the Countess of Wessex had started wearing Jane Taylor’s designs and that’s where she turned for a bespoke piece to wear with her Bruce Oldfield suit. Taylor created a beige pink straw cocktail hat which was liberally trimmed with silk roses and three large vertical feathers in the same shade. The hat heralded a new era of hat styls for Sophie and was the first of numerous beret-based cocktail hats that she appears to still favour today. While the visible headband was a little awkward, the hat looked great on Sophie.

Princess Anne splurged for a new hat in royal purple. The flat, curved base, which was edged in slim white ribbon and came to sharp points on both sides of the piece, was topped by a large flat silk rose and a swath of white net. The randomness of the hat still puzzles me- the shape is a little odd and the trim looks like it was plonked on top with little thought. The shape of this piece may work well with Anne’s antiquated hairstyle but for me, this was not a brilliant hat.

Zara Phillips topped her metallic coat with a show-stopping Philip Treacy hat. Made of black and silver straw, the large picture hat featured a sharply upturned ‘slice’ brim. The underside of the brim was trimmed with a giant multi-looped bow. It was a dramatic hat but really- would we have expected anything less from Zara?

Autumn Phillips topped her grey and purple printed coat with a cocktail hat of fluted grey straw. Tucked inside the smooth folds of the hat were grey silk flowers and slim feathers. The shape is pretty enough but I did not like the placement, way out on the side of Autunn’s head.

As for the York Princesses…. you already know about THAT hat.

For me, this hat was a complete disappointment and error in judgement. I couldn’t stand it then and I can’t stand it now. I despise the sheer ridiculousness of it. I loathe the way it upstaged Princess Beatrice’s gorgeous Valentino coat. I detest the way it monopolized attention at an event where Beatrice was not the star. I abhorred the way it ruined all shots of the Queen inside the Abbey (Bea was seated behind her granny) and I continue to curse how the press STILL refers to it as a fascinator (see the visible base? That clearly makes it a cocktail hat!). Most of all, I deeply resented how it this single piece created the perception that all royal hats were silly.

UPDATE: Several insightful commenters have reminded how Princess Beatrice turned this lemon into much lemonade, auctioning the hat for charity. It was a very classy move on her part and I admire her for it. And, as much as I didn’t like this piece worn to this wedding, it did get the entire world talking about royal hats. I just wish she had worn it to Ladies’ Day at Ascot instead.

Lucky for Princess Eugenie, Beatrice’s infamous hat drew attention away from her chapeau. Also a Philip Treacy design, her vertical cocktail hat was a bespoke creation to go with her Vivienne Westwood suit. Neither, I’m afraid, were a success. Eugenie’s hat, a crescent shaped electric blue boat worn smack on the top of her head, was trimmed with a bouquet of dark purple flowers and a large spray of pale grey feathers. I appreciate that the colours tied in with her suit but the shape of this piece was both unattractive and unflattering. I remember wishing it would just sail away…

In this group of hats, I see one as beautiful, one as bold, and several as bizarre. What did you think of the hats worn by Prince William’s royal aunts and cousins at his wedding?
Photos from Getty as indicated

British Royal Wedding Ten Years On: The British Royal Family

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Royal Hats At the wedding of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall ten years ago, guests predictably included members of the British Royal Family. As you might expect, the hats and headpieces worn by this group give us great insight into millinery fashion a decade ago.

The Countess of Wessex’s hat fashion at the time included numerous stovepipe cloche hats with unexpected curves and slopes and the hat she chose for this event followed this trend. Made of in straw printed with a grey faux snakeskin pattern, it was trimmed with a handful of vertically placed Lady Amhurst feathers at the side. While the Philip Treacy design felt daring, bold, and at the cutting edge of millinery fashion at the time, its relevance has passed and it does not translate well today.

The young York princesses were mere teenagers a decade ago and as such, were fairly inexperienced hat wearers. Inexperience aside, they wore hats at this wedding that I adore. Princess Beatrice’s fascinator of chocolate and taupe straw lilies and taupe feathers brought out the warm tones in her complexion and hair and perfectly framed her face. During a time when fascinator fashion often included feathers flying madly off in all directions, the relative simplicity of this piece have always struck me as particularly lovely. While the lines of Princess Eugenie’s cream straw cloche were as exaggerated as those on the Countess of Wessex’s hat, the proportion was more flattering. The navy band and bow added a youthful touch and paired with her navy coat, created a charming ensemble for this young princess.

Princess Anne recycled a turquoise silk pill box hat that was more than 20 years old at the time. While the pill box shape does transcend time and the vibrant colour was wonderful on her, the voluminous veil brought a bee keeping vibe into the ensemble that did not do it any favours. Two years ago, Princess Anne repeated this turquoise coat at a Buckingham Palace Garden party, paired with an updated (and slightly more successful) hat.

Not surprisingly, the trendiest fashion at this wedding was worn by Zara Phillips. Zara sported a simple black fedora over her Pucci-inspired dress. The choice of a fedora for such a high profile event is a gutsy one and I adore Zara for it. The choice of the dress, however, remains a head scratching mystery.

Royals are often criticized for not keeping up with current fashion and I think this group of hats shows this is not the case. Strangely, it seems that the most fashionable hats are the ones least likely to transcend time.

Next up? The hats worn by the extended members of the British Royal Family. Stay tuned for these Linley, Chatto, Gloucester and Kent hats later today.

Photos from Getty as indicated

British Royals Celebrate Easter

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As in years past, members of the British Royal Family attended Easter Sunday service together this morning at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The Queen led her family in a repeated sky blue wool hat with feathered chrysanthemum trim. While this Easter-y hue of blue is so pretty on Her Majesty, the finishing on this hat (bubble at middle top of the crown, awkward back seam etc.) just isn’t up to snuff in my books. I’m afraid that even the feathered flower, which is a nice touch on this hat, pales in comparison to the amazing feathered flowers Rachel Trevor Morgan has created for some of the Queen’s other hats.

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Designer: Angela Kelly, made by Stella McLaren. Coat designed by Stewart Parvin  
Previously Worn: October 24, 2014; April 8, 2014; October 23, 2013

Princess Beatrice topped her blue dress and navy jacket with a repeated blue cocktail hat. While the hat was clearly intended to coordinate with the multiple shades of blue in Beatrice’s lovely patterned dress, the voluminous mass of feathers unfortunately looked like a feather duster plonked on her head. I adore the colour of this hat on Princess Beatrice and would love to see it reworked – a feather haircut and placement further off center, down over Bea’s right eyebrow.

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Designer: Philip Treacy. Dress desgined by Markus Lupfer.
Previously Worn: August 28, 2010; June 12, 2010

The millinery surprise of the day was the Countess of Wessex, who repeated the same feather covered beret cocktail hat she wore for Easter last year. The photos today show more detailed view on this hat than we have seen before – the painterly effect of the layered feathers is truly exquisite. It’s a great hat for Sophie and I thought its pairing with her elegant pale grey coat made for a very sophisticated ensemble.

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Designer: unknown. Coat designed by Armani
Previously Worn: December 28, 2014;  April 20, 2014

Princess Anne repeated a pale blue hat with split crown detail. The hat is trimmed in a beige straw ruched band around the base of the crown and several flat rosettes ceretered with pale blue faux pearls. My favourite part of this piece is the brim shape which jauntily folds up on one side, giving a sense of diagonal movement to the hat. It’s not my favourite of royal hats but its pairing with the streamlined blue dress and coat made for one of the best looks we have seen on Princess Anne in a long time.

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Designer: unknown. The split crown is an Angela Kelly signature shape. 
Previously Worn: June 20, 2013; June 19, 2007

My favourite hat of the day was worn by Autumn Philips. Described by the designer as a “neutral-toned beret hat, hand-blocked in rich peach bloom felt and trimmed with taupe silk flowers”, this hat was all about the oversize cabbage rose trim. It is such a pretty Easter hat on Autumn and paired with her floral print skit and navy cape, made for a chic, modern and very feminine ensemble.

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Designer: Emily London. It is the “Oving” design.
Previously Worn: This hat is new

On first glance, it appeared that Lady Sarah Chatto (left below, beside Prince Edward) had repeated her black straw saucer hat.On a closer look, Sarah has ordered another saucer hat to go with her existing trio. This version follows the same shape as the others but varies in its use of two materials- black velvet felt on the crown and piping, and dark grey straw on the brim. While I like the contrast in texture that results, the summery light brim feels at odds with the wintry crown and piping. Perhaps with a different frock or coat, the question of season could be resolved. With this coat, however, the ensemble is regrettably off balance.

Lady Sarah Chatto, April 5, 2015 in Stephen Jones | Royal Hats  Lady Sarah Chatto, April 5, 2015 in Stephen Jones | Royal Hats

Designer: Stephen Jones
Previously Worn: I believe this hat is new

Aside from a certain feather duster, I thought today’s British Royal Easter hats were a fairly elegant bunch. Which hat stood out most to you?

Photos from Getty as indicated; FDJD/Newspix/Corbis and FDJD/Newspix/Corbis