So far in our look back at Maundy Thursday services from years past, we’ve seen the hats Queen Elizabeth wore in the 1950s and 1960s; the 1970s and early 1980s; and the later 1980s and 1990s. Today we wrap up this series with a look at the designs the Queen has worn to this Easter weekend service so far this millennium:

2000, 2001 and  2002  

Marie O’Reagan in 2003; 2004 and 2005

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Pale yellow and cream in 2006 and pale dusty pink by Rachel Trevor Morgan in 2007

Rachel Trevor Morgan in 2008 and 2009; Angela Kelly (made by Stella McLaren) in 2010

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Angela Kelly (made by Stella McLaren) in 2011; Rachel Trevor Morgan in 2012; Kelly/McLaren in 2013 & 2014

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Trio of turquoise designs by Angela Kelly (made by Stella McLaren) in 2015, 2016 and 2017

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Royal blue silk cloque with brown faux fur by by Angela Kelly (made by Stella McLaren) in 2018

While the shapes here are familiar, what greatly surprises me is with the exception of the magenta boater in 2014, every hat worn to this event in the past decade has been some shade of blue. No question, there are some lovely blue hats here but this streak of one colour at the same event is rather curious. An interesting side note- in preparing this post, I learned that the Queen has visited every single cathedral in the UK for Maundy Thursday (the last to be checked off her list was in 2017 at Leicester Cathedral). Back to the hats- what do you think of this group and what colour do you think we’ll see the Queen wear for this year’s Maundy Thursday service, later today?

With a weather forecast tomorrow calling for a sunny 22 degrees and my great wish for an end to this decade-long blue streak, I’d love to see Her Majesty in one of the vibrant yellow hats she debuted last summer (this one or this one).

Photos from Tim Graham, Tim Graham, Tim Graham, Alex Livesey , AFP/Getty, Anwar Hussein Collection, via Getty; Peter Muhly/Stringer and Chris Radburn/PA Images via Getty; Getty as indicated

After looking at Queen Elizabeth’s Maundy Thursday hats during the first two decades of her reign and through the 70s and early 1980s, we turn our attention now to the designs she wore to this service in the later 1980s and 1990s:

Royal purple and bumble bees in 1986, 1987 and 1988

High upturns in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992

1993, 1994 and 1995

1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999

Special thanks to readers Jimbo and Scarfie for helping me track down the 1990 and 1992 hats! Until preparing this post, I hadn’t realized how the Queen’s early 90s millinery style was dominated by these wide, upturned fly-away halo brims. The late 90s experimented with more rounded shapes until 1999 when we finally see something familiar and close to the sort of millinery shape we see the Queen wear today.

Next up we’ll look at the hats so far this millenium, many of which will be familiar to your eyes. Until tomorrow, I’m curious what you think of these 80s and 90s designs?

Photos from Tim Graham, PA Images, Tim Graham, Tim Graham and Tim Graham via Getty; Glenn Harvey; Chester Chronicle; John Shelley Collection/Avalon, John Shelley Collection/Avalon, Wojtek Laski, Tim Graham, John Shelley Collection/Avalon, PA Images and Tim Graham via Getty

Yesterday, we began our look at Queen Elizabeth’s Maundy Thursday hats with those worn until 1969. Today, we continue through the mid 1980s and a period which brought some memorable (and voluminous!) millinery looks:

1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974 (the Queen was in New Zealand in 1970 and did not attend)

1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979 (photos from the April 7, 1977 service at Westminster Abbey can’t be found)

1980, 1981 and 1982

1983, 1984 and 1985

My thanks to Jimbo for hunting down the 1978 photo! This series shows another interesting evolution in the Queen’s hat shapes- the voluminous turbans of the late 1960s and 1970s are intermixed with equally inflated fabric tam ‘o shanters. The early 1980s sees a series of embellished pillboxes with two brimmed designs: the lovely floral trimmed fedora of 1984 and the low-crowned cowgirl design (with veil!) in 1983 . It’s simply a colourful bunch that makes me smile!

What do you think of this bunch of Maundy Thursday hats from the past?

Photos from Keystone/Stringer, PA Images, Serge Lemoine/Stringer, PA Images, Popperfoto, Anwar Hussein, PA Images, Tim Graham, PA Images, PA Images, David Levenson, Ron Bell/PA Images, PA Images

Queen Elizabeth took in one of her favourite past times today, attending the second day of the Dubai Duty Free Spring Trials Weekend at Newbury Racecourse.  For this day at the races, the Queen repeated her modified dark green felt cloche with high, stacked asymmetrical crown and short brim. The hat is trimmed with a wide dark green felt hatband punctuated with an under-hatband in lime green, a knot in these two green shades and a pair of curved dark green quills.

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I really appreciate the textural contrast between the felt hat and nubbly wool coat and admire how those small lime green accents lighten and brighten the dark hued hat. While I love the knotted trim (something we just don’t see often), it’s the quills that make this hat for me, giving the design such a lovely sense of movement. Overall, it’s a restrained piece but I’m OK with that, particularly when we think about some of the other hats in Her Majesty’s millinery wardrobe that are more exuberantly trimmed. What is fascinating, however, about today’s ensemble is <gasp>… the complete absence of a brooch. We certainly don’t see that very often.

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