Tag Archives: Princess Mette-Marit

Norwegian Royals Celebrate King Olav V

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Members of the Norwegian Royal Family gathered on Sunday at Oslo’s City Hall Square for the dedication of a statue of King Olav V (father of present King Harald and Princess Astrid). For the event, Queen Sonja topped her ecru dress and coat with a hat in the same hue. A simple straw piece with a straight-sided, domed crown and short brim brim gently curved down in front and up at the back, the hat was trimmed only with a wide silk ribbon around the crown.  While not the most exciting of hats, it combined well with her coat, dress and gold jewellery to create an elegant ensemble.

Queen Sonja, June 7, 2015 | Royal Hats Queen Sonja, June 7, 2015 | Royal Hats Queen Sonja, June 7, 2015 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: September 2, 2014;  May 12, 2011

Princess Astrid’s hat, while small in stature, showed considerably more personality. The creamy yellow bumper was lavishly trimmed with an explosion of white feathers at the back and a swath of dotted net veil that covered the main body of the piece. It is a piece that works well with Astrid’s short hairstyle and shows a cheeky sense of millinery humour. After sadly loosing her husband this year, it is wonderful to see Princess Astrid looking so well.

Princess Astrid, June 7, 2015 | Royal Hats   Princess Astrid, June 7, 2015 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: May 8, 2015

Crown Princess Mette-Marit continued her trend of minimal hat wearing with a slim beaded gold headband in lieu of a hat. while it is a nice enough piece, a hat most certainly is not. I also thought the intricate detail of the headband was lost against her finely embroidered Valentino coat. In this case, I think she might have done better following Princess Maertha Louise’s lead and forgoing a hat altogether.

Princess Mette-Marit, June 7, 2015 | Royal Hats   Princess Mette-Marit, June 7, 2015 | Royal Hats

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

It is always wonderful to see royal families together for special engagements and while the hats were not plentiful, it appears that the Norwegian royals had an enjoyable day.

Photos from Getty as indicated 

Norwegian Royals Celebrate National Day

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Members of the Norwegian royal family celebrated their national holiday yesterday with an annual appearance on the balcony of The Royal Palace in Oslo. While Crown Prince Haakon sported a traditional top hat, Crown Princess Mette-Marit stepped out in a small cocktail hat we have not seen her wear in a long while. Built on flat disc base, this navy piece is all about its trimmings- a large navy cabbage rose, multiple bow loops and a net tulle. This is a larger piece than Mette-Marit has worn recently- I welcome the larger scale and celebrate the beautiful detail but struggle with the placement. In the end, I’m afraid it looked like she was wearing one half of a pair of very fancy earmuffs.

Designer: I believe it is Philip Treacy
Previously Worn: December 10, 2006; June 6, 2006; 2006

Queen Sonja also used this occasion to début a winter white wool fedora simply trimmed with a slim, knotted band around the base of the crown. We don’t often see Sonja in fedoras and I think it’s a great shape for her. Great shape aside, there is something bland about this hat (the colour? the lack of embellishment? the pairing with this coat?) that makes it less classic and more boring for me.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: This hat is new

What did you think of these two new hats in Norway yesterday?

Photos from Getty as indicated

Seeing Double: Crown Princess Mette-Marit

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Royal HatsThese days, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway seems to be on a hat-strike, favouring fascinators and small pillboxes for the occasions when a hat is required. This wasn’t always the case. Back in June 2006, Mette-Marit choose a pair of navy and white hats that looked very much alike

The twin cream straw hats both featured flat crowns (one slightly rounded and one square) and sweeping upturned brims that were raised on one side. While navy stripes were woven into the straw of one piece, the the brim on the other was covered in large navy fishnet. Both hats were trimmed with a large embellishment (bow on one, fishing net tangle on the other) on the side.

Both hats were worn for events celebrating the centenary of King Haakon VII and Queen Maud’s wedding- events that were just two days apart. While it is curious for a royal to own such similar navy and white hats, I find it most peculiar that both hats made their début in the same week. While the navy striped hat was worn for National Day 2011 and another state visit, the fishnet trimmed hat hat not been repeated since this initial outing. What do you think of this pair of navy and cream millinery twins?

Photos from Getty as indicated

This Week’s Extras

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Royal Hats

More on Prince Charles and Prince Harry’s visit to Turkey to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli (BBC). A photo gallery of this event can be seen at Getty here.

Wonderful look back at many of Princess Nobuko’s hats on the occasion of her 60th birthday (Imperial Family of Japan)

The Crown Prince and Princess of Norway braved very cold visits to the Svalbard archipelago and to the research vessel ‘Lance’ this week (Royal House of Norway)

Prince Harry on military patrol and exercise in the outback last weekend (The Daily Mail)

Royal Hats

A look back at Queen Elizabeth’s 89 years (The Telegraph)

Queen Sonja’s celebrated the success of her international art prize with an exhibition in New York (Royal House of Norway)

One Headband, Five Looks

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Royal Hats When Crown Princess Mette-Marit appeared at Queen Margrethe’s 75th birthday celebration yesterday in chunky gold headband, I was reminded that this headband has been changed up several times with the use of different ribbon trims. Don’t get me wrong- a changed ribbon does NOT elevate this headband to the status of a hat but it gives us something a little out of the ordinary to debate. Which version of this headband works best, do you think?

Version #1: With a side bow in oyster silk worn at Queen Margrethe’s 70th birthday celebration, April 17, 2010.

Princess Mette-Marit, April 17, 2010 | Royal Hats

Version #2: With a wide navy silk side bow at King Harald and Queen Sonja’s 75th birthday celebration, May 31, 2012

Version #3: Woven with a navy ribbon tied at the side in a bow for the Luxembourg royal wedding on October 20, 2012

Version #4: Woven with a red velvet ribbon and worn yesterday at Queen Margrethe’s 75th birthday lunch

UPDATE- Version #5: Woven with black velvet ribbon which continues around her low ponytail. This was worn for the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony on December 12, 2015

Which outing of this golden headband to you think works best?

Photos from Bauer Griffin via Zimbio and Getty as indicated