King Willem Alexander and Queen Máxima began their state visit to France this morning. For their official welcome and itinerary today, Queen Máxima wore a new slice picture hat in coffee coloured straw.

Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images

We all know and love this shape on Máxima- the height gives it great drama while the soaring brim makes her animated face fully visible. This piece was clearly dyed to perfectly match the silk trim and lace on Máxima’s coat and the coordination between the two makes for an utterly stunning ensemble.

Queen Máxima attended the tenth anniversary of the ‘Leerorkest’ Learning Orchestra today in Amsterdam. For this celebration, she repeated her  ‘double u’ open topped headpiece in padded silver silk. We’ve seen her wear this piece with three different outfits so far and today, she went back to it’s original pairing of a silver cutout jacket in the same fabric and brocade skirt (many of you will recognize this from Princess Arianne’s christening in October 2007 and the Swedish royal visit on April 4, 2014).  As with all other times we’ve seen this piece, I prefer it viewed from the front than from the back.

Since beginning her royal life fourteen years ago, Queen Máxima’s vibrant and confident sense of style has certainly extended to her millinery. Surpassing even Queen Elizabeth, Máxima is currently our royal with the most red hats. Since beginning her royal life in 2002, we have seen her in seventeen different designs:

1. Embed from Getty Images  2.
Introduced: June 8, 2002; September 17, 2002
Designers: unknown; Philip Treacy

3.
Introduced:  March 19, 2003- flower removed and hat worn again October 26, 2007; flower worn on it’s own as a headpiece June 22, 2017)
Designers: Fabienne Delvigne

4.  5.  6.Embed from Getty Images
Introduced: April 30, 2004; July 1, 2004; August 27, 2005 
Designers: Fabienne Delvigne; unknown, Fabienne Delvigne

7.  8.  9.
Introduced: June 19, 2006; March 1, 2007; September 8, 2009
Designers: all are Fabienne Delvigne

10. 11. 12.
Introduced;  October 9, 2010; November 3, 2011; May 22, 2012;
Designers: all are Fabienne Delvigne

 13. 14.
Introduced: June 21, 2013; November 9, 2013;
Designers: both are Fabienne Delvigne

15.Embed from Getty Images  16.Embed from Getty Images  17.Embed from Getty Images
Introduced: September 16, 2014; October 1, 2014; March 20, 2015
Designers: all are Fabienne Delvigne

UPDATE: Since this post was published, Queen Máxima has added the following red hats to her wardrobe:

18.
Introduced: June 27, 2022
Designers: Fabienne Delvigne

Even with five turban-esque designs, there is still much diversity of millinery shapes and styles within this group. #2 remains one of my favourite royal fascinators of all time while #14 shows how effortlessly chic a Garbo hat can be. While #6, #7, #8 and #10 are living proof of Máxima’s immense millinery bravery, I’m drawn to the classic lines of #5, a hat that has curiously only been worn once (and one I’d love to see repeated). I continue to be amazed at how Queen Máxima’s style encompasses designs that are traditional as well as pieces that can only be described as avant garde and I can’t wait to see what red design she adds to this collection next. Which of these hats do you like on her best?

Photos from Jasper Juinen and Julian Parker via Getty; RoyalPress Nieboer/dpa/Corbis; Pier Marco Tacca, Julian Parker and Michel Porro via Getty; Corbis; Burak Kara via Getty; Corbis; Michel Porro via Getty; AP; Patrick van Katwijk via Getty 

King Willem Alexander and Queen Máxima visited the Dutch province of West-Brabant today. Máxima repeated her grey velvet felt picture hat with ‘slice’ brim trimmed simply with a wide band around the base of the crown.