As promised, here is the first of two weekly open posts (Mondays and Thursdays) for you to chat and share current royal hat happenings. Please post news, links and your thoughts about royal comings and goings (especially all those which involve hats!) in the comments below. Here is a wonderful yellow hat from the past to kick things off, worn on this day in 1985 by Queen Elizabeth to the School of Equestrian Art.
Happy Easter! Members of the British royal family joined Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh for Easter Sunday service this morning at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. For this long standing tradition, the Queen led her family in a new hat in yellow straw with a gently upturned brim on one side. The piece is finished with a small yellow bow and blue flowers which tie in with the vibrant print of Her Majesty’s silk dress. It’s a beautiful young shaped piece and the colour is perfect for a bright spring day such as this.
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Princess Beatrice chose this occasion to debut a new saucer hat in copper straw trimmed with slim straw bows and curling pheasant feathers. The scale is wonderful on her and the colour suits her beautifully.
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Princess Eugenie topped her navy coat in a pink percher hat. With a felt beret base in a teardrop shape, the piece is lavishly trimmed in interlaced felt ribbons and velvet blooms. It’s a lovely piece that looks wonderful against Eugenie’s dark hair.
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The Countess of Wessex paired her eye catching red coat with a black beret based percher hat.
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Lady Louise Windsor looked chic and rather grown up in a Jane Taylor designed black wool beret worn with her cream coat.
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Princess Anne joined those in the ‘bright coat neutral hat’ uniform with a vibrant orange coat topped by a fanciful cream picture hat. Something about this hat’s lavish trim (note the different types of feathers, roses and a light, lattice straw net on the brim) surprises me as a choice for Anne, although we have seen her in other fussy pieces before. The greatest surprise about this hat, however, is that despite going back in my archives to the 1960s, I can’t find any trace of this piece. Shockingly, I think it might be new!
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Autumn Phillips topped her bright pink coat in a gun metal grey silk percher hat with curling ribbon trim. It’s a a fun piece that balances her bright coat very well.
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Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh attended Maundy Thursday service today at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. For this service, the Queen, who distributed traditional Royal Maundy money, repeated her turquoise straw hat with navy lace trim. The boater hat shape of this piece is a nice change from the Queen’s usual millinery shapes and the colour is perfect on her (and perfect for Easter!). While I still have some reservations about the coat, I have completely warmed to the hat and think it looks great on Her Majesty.
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Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the London Zoo today to officially open ‘The Land Of The Lions’ exhibit. For this adventure, the Queen repeated her triangular beret with tall white feather anchored by a large button on the side. Seeing this hat in daylight today showed a surprise- it and its matching coat are actually the palest shade of blue instead of the grey it has read as in photos until now. This colour confirmation improves the hat slightly in my estimation but the odd feather trim and too-pale hue remain hurdles to me really liking this piece.
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After looking at the numerous new and repeated royal hats we saw in February, two clear winners have emerged:
Queen Máxima on a visit to West-Brabant on February 16, 2016 in a hat by Fabienne Delvigne
That makes Queen Máxima undefeated in favourite repeated designs so far in 2016! Jump over to the bottom of the original poll posts (new hats here and repeated hats here) to look at the results in greater detail. You can also follow our growing list of favourite hats this year at the new “Fan Favourites” tab at the top.
Photos from Max Mumby/Indigo via Getty and Patrick van Katwijk/dpa/Corbis
Royal Hats 