Here are three royal hats worn on this day by three generations of the British royal family. While the timeline here covers sixty years, we still see iterations of these hat styles and shapes today.
Queen Mary, February 12, 1932
Queen Elizabeth in Kuwait, February 12, 1979
Princess Diana in India (wearing a Philip Somerville design), February 12, 1992
Yesterday marked 20 years since the wedding of Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones and Daniel Chatto. After looking at the gowns and headpieces worn by the bride and her bridesmaids, we now turn our attention to the hats worn by Lady Sarah’s royal relatives. Lady Sarah’s mother, the late Princess Margaret, wore a pale blue hat with large, flat crown, short brim and side spray of silk roses. The hat is very much in tune with early 1990s style and scale which I think was too large for petite Princess Margaret. The hat seemed to dwarf her although the colour was very pretty.
Lady Sarah’s sister-in-law, Viscountess Linley, wore a large black straw hat with front raised brim designed by Philip Treacy. The transparent straw hat brim was edged in a wide black band of fabric and the crown of the hat looks like it was an oversize bubble of cream straw. It is a fascinating hat but again, the oversize 1990s scale seems a little too big for Serena.
Queen Elizabeth wore a coral and white straw hat with a simple white band and bow around the crown. If you look closely, you will see that the front of the brim has a diagonal seam- the brim is coral on one side and white on the other (and vice versa on the underside of the brim). This two toned feature is a unique one for Her Majesty and was the design of Ian Thomas (who was once assistant to Norman Hartnell). The brim size is also unique- we seldom see the Queen in hats with such a large brim anymore and I think she wore brims very well. The scale and coral colour of this chapeau was lovely on her.
Lady Sarah’s grandmother, the late Queen Mother, wore a cream hat with wide brim trimmed with a wrap of ostrich feathers around the crown (see bottom photo in this post for a better sense of the scale of this hat). The large brim of this hat now seems like it was quite a departure for the Queen Mum, who usually wore calot style hats with upturned front brims that did not obscure her face. This hat was a very stately departure in her millinery style and I think she looked marvelous.
Princess Anne wore a smart cream hat with raised slit brim in the back. It is another hat that now looks rather dated but twenty years ago, I think it was a fairly stylish piece. Lady Helen Taylor wore an embroidered white skull cap. While her ensemble might look a little odd, I have a feeling the Punjabi kurta-style outfit might have been a gentle nod to the country where Sarah and Daniel met (and returned for their honeymoon). That being said, the form fitting hat was an interesting choice for Lady Helen, who was eight months pregnant with her first child at the time.
Princess Diana wore a somber navy dress and picture hat with a large sash that wrapped around the crown and knotted on the side of the hat. The brim was gently raised in front and turned sharply downwards in the back. It is certainly not my favourite of Diana’s hats as it seemed a little severe on her.
One of the surprise guests at this wedding was Sophie Rhys-Jones who accompanied Prince Edward. Sophie’s cream top hat with tulle around the brim and large trailing bow at the back seems to capture the essence of early 1990s millinery fashion. Thankfully, styles changed by the time she joined the British royal family in 1999.
While Lady Sarah’s bridal ensemble seems timelessly elegant, the hats at this wedding seem to reflect the fashion of the day. I am curious, dear readers, which royal hats at this wedding do you remember liking at the time? Which ones did not strike your fancy?
Photos from Tim Graham via Getty; Matthew Polak via Corbis; Chip Hires, Chip Hires, Stringer and Tim Graham via Getty; and APL and Topfoto via The Royal Forums
If we were able to turn back the clock twenty-five years, one of the designers we would be talking about most on this blog would be Frederick Fox. Australian born Freddie, as he was known, moved to London after completing his training and was called upon to make several hats for the Queen in the late 1960s. By the 1980s, he was not only making hats for Queen Elizabeth, but also the Queen Mother, Princess Alice, Princess Alexandra, Princess Anne, Princess Michael of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester and the Princess of Wales. He held a royal warrant as “Milliner to the Queen” from 1974 until his retirement in 2002.
Frederick Fox passed away last week in his eighty second year. Here are a few of his hundreds of royal hats and some final words from the millinery genius himself.
Queen Elizabeth, May 1999; Princess Diana in the USA, 1985; Queen Elizabeth in 1983
Queen Elizabeth in Fox hats in April 1989 and October 2000
Queen Elizabeth in Jamaica, February 2002; in 1981; and at the King’s Cup in 2005
Queen Elizabeth in the ‘marble run hat worn in Italy, Oct 17, 2000; at the June 19, 1999
wedding of the Earl and Countess of Wessex; at the June 1988 Epsom Derby
Princess Diana in Italy, 1985; Princess Michael at Ascot, 1996; Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee June 2002
Photos from Tim Graham via Getty; Vogue; Walters/Rex USA via Vanity Fair; Vogue; Vogue; Tim Graham via Getty; Woman’s Day; Chris Jackson, Tim Graham, Ian Waldie, Tim Graham, via Getty; Tim Graham/AP via People; Tim Graham and Tim Graham via Getty
Reader Arianna submitted a question I suspect many readers are wondering about: And now you must allow me a silly question, but I’m always wondering about it: how do these hats stay on? Especially the ones placed at an angle… Is there a comb inside? I think I’m not the only one among your followers who asks herself this question!
This is a great question (and for the record, not all royal hats stay on royal heads!). For an answer, I turned to talented American millinery designer, Jill Courtemanche. Her perspective, from the ‘inside out’, is most insightful. Here is what she had to say:
In my shop in southern California I have a wall of these little perchers and it is always the first stop for clients looking to play dress up, and they always ask the same question, “I love fascinators but how do I keep them on my head?”. There are as many answers to this question as there are heads, as everyone has a different sense of how a hat feels comfortable and every milliner has their own special trick on how to make it fit just right. Here are a few of the more commonly used options:
My personal favorite, as I find it to be the most comfortable for all day wear, is an elastic. Preferably the elastic should be the same color as the wearer’s hair and is worn under the hair at the back, resting below the bump on the back of the head. You can see an example of this here on Princess Marie of Denmark.”
Princess Marie attending the opening of Danish Parliament, Oct. 6, 2009
“Probably the most common way to attach a fascinator is with a headband. One of the advantages for the designer of using a headband is one can be sure the hat is perched just so. A headband can only be worn one way ensuring perfect positioning every time. The milliner can choose to make the headband very narrow so that it blends in with the wearers hair as seen here on Zara Phillips or incorporate the headband into the design itself for a more seamless look, as seen here on the Countess of Wessex.”
Zara Phillips, Dec. 25, 2012 in a Karen Henriksen design
The Countess of Wessex in a Jane Taylor percher for the royal wedding, April 29, 2011
“One of the more classic ways of keeping on a hat which is traditionally worn further back on the head, such as a pillbox style, is with combs. Seen here on Princess Diana and Princess Beatrice, there is usually a wider comb at the front of the hat, acting as a true anchor and then floater combs or loops for hair pins on each side of the hat for added security.”
Princess Beatrice in Stephen Jones for the Diamond Jubilee, June 5, 2012;
Princess Diana in John Boyd while on tour of Australia in April 1983
“Of course, we can’t talk about any of this without touching on the most classic method of all for keeping ones hat in perfect position, the ever traditional hat pin. This method has been used for centuries and it is fool-proof although less than gentle on the hat! Hat pins are generally 8″ to 10″ in length and go first through the hat, then through the ladies hair and back out through the hat and can be elaborate with jewels or feathers, tone on tone like the ones seen here on Queen Elizabeth or simple with a pearl tip as seen here on Queen Máxima.”
Queen Elizabeth in Rachel Trevor Morgan for Easter, March 31, 2013 with pink felt ‘chicklet’ hatpins
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Queen Máxima in Fabienne Delvigne April 12, 2011; Queen Elizabeth in Philip Somerville May 2, 2002
Queen Elizabeth in a Philip Somerville design worn at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party, May 14, 2002
“Of course there are many other methods used but these are the most popular and in my opinion the most comfortable. Feeling secure in your hat is the most important thing, it should look and feel effortless!”
Thank you so much, Jill, for sharing your hat knowledge with us. I now find myself looking at hats analyzing if there is a comb, elastic, a hidden headband or a hat pin! For those of you unfamiliar with Jill’s marvelous hat design work, do check out her website here.
Photos from Getty as indicated; Hanne Juul; Tim Graham and Chris Jackson via Getty
The wedding of Viscount Linley and The Hon. Serena Stanhope twenty years ago today was a “mini” royal wedding – while not a prince himself, David Armstrong-Jones was the son of a princess and a member of the extended British Royal Family. And we all know that being a member of the extended British Royal family means there will be some great hats at your wedding! After looking at the bride’s veil and dress earlier today, let’s now turn our attention to the guests’ hats.
David’s mother Princess Margaret wore a deep claret velvet pillbox hat topped in pomegranate and black spiky feathers. His sister, Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones, wore an unembellished rust coloured straw cloche.
Queen Elizabeth wore a salmon pink fabric covered hat with rounded crown and high, upturned, pleated brim by Philip Somerville. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (and grandmother of the groom) wore one of her signature veiled capulet hats with upturned front brim and side spray of feathers.
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Princess Anne, who had married Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence less than a year earlier, repeated the turquoise blue veiled pillbox with side rose she had originally debuted during the mid 1980s. (Anne would later wear this hat to Charles and Camilla’s wedding in 2005 and her grandmother’s 100th birthday in 2000).
Lady Helen Taylor wore powder blue bowler hat with wide ribbon wrapped around the crown. Princess Diana was also in blue- a large blue lampshade style hat with white ribbon trim around the brim and wrapped around the crown designed by Philip Somerville. At the time, I believe some were surprised to see her at this wedding as she and Prince Charles had announced their separation ten months earlier and her future royal role was unclear.
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Princess Alexandra of Kent wore a dove grey hat with rounded crown wrapped in a black ribbon and trimmed with flowers and net. I think this hat translates fairly well today, as do the hats of Julia Ogilvy (her daughter-in-law) in black and and the Duchess of Gloucester in dark teal blue.
The only foreign royals I could find at this wedding were Queen Anne-Marie of Greece and Princess Salimah Aga Khan. Queen Anne-Marie wore a large black (or chocolate brown?!) hat with an upturned brim and a high almost Puritan shaped pointed crown. That hat was a little too Halloween-esque for my taste. My favourite hat at this wedding was the brown capulet worn by Princess Salimah Aga Khan. The shape is so chic and the black band around the crown and trim around the upturned brim gives a bit of punchy contrast.
Serena’s mother Virginia looked very elegant in a purple picture hat with slightly curved brim (she is to the left of Princess Margaret, below). Her hat, like several others, has aged very well- surprisingly well, in fact. While many hats at this wedding do seem rather dated, there are an equal number that could easily be worn today.
As I sign off this post and wish Viscount and Viscountess Linley the happiest of anniversaries, I can’t resist asking- Which hat at this wedding is your favourite?
Photos from Getty as indicated; Dave Parker via Corbis
Royal Hats 