On Christmas Day, King Harald , Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Princess Ingrid and Prince Sverre attended the Christmas service at Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo. Queen Sonja repeated her wintry chocolate hat with velvet crown and fur bumper brim. The brim coordinates with the collar on Sonja’s coat, a touch which adds a bit of formality to piece, and the rich colour works wonderfully with her royal purple silk dress.

On Wednesday, Queen Sonja opened the 66th Bergen International Festival, kicking off a lineup this year that will see 300 events in the areas of theatre, dance, opera and performing arts. For this event, the Norwegian Queen wore a light new summer hat in stripes of white crin. The design features a rounded crown and upturned kettle brim with what looks to be a embellishment (fluted bow? leaf?) of some variety on the right side.

I try to showcase all new hats (especially ones worn by reigning queens) in stand alone posts here but have resisted hitting the ‘publish’ button on this one. Why? There’s nothing memorably about the shape or style and I really do not like the veined seam that runs down the center of the crown. Perhaps with some different embellishment, it can be improved. I hope we’ll get a better look at the detail of this design on its next outing because, as it stands now, it seems to be lacking in quality and design. I hate to say it but it looks like the kind of thing any of us could pick up at a local discount department store, and that makes me sad. Here’s hoping I’m wrong on this one.