Tag Archives: Zara Tindall

Day Four of Royal Ascot, Part 1

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Royal HatsI’m so thrilled to have milliners Christie Murray, Fiona Mangan and Jill Courtemanche joining us this week to dish about this year’s royal hats worn at Ascot. The fourth day of the races today saw five royal hats- here is a peek of the first two.

Queen Elizabeth in a new hat by Rachel Trevor Morgan

Queen Elizabeth, June 19, 2015 in Rachel Trevor Morgan

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Jill: I quite like this hat, the texture is beautiful with her suit and the simple flower trim is elegant. I particularly like that the flowers have a realistic, fresh picked from the garden look to them. This pale yellow has been the color of the week and this is a very smart look for the Queen.

Royal Hats: Rachel Trevor Morgan’s silk flowers always look amazing. This ha shape is a standard one for Her Majesty and while beautifully done, I’m on the fence regarding the colour.

Fiona: I find this colour of yellow  a little harsh against her colouring though the flatter brim seems to be less severe than the hat she wore yesterday. I love the detail in the trimming and the layering over the parasissal on this hat is quite interesting.

Christie: What a lovely hat! Again, a beautifully colour balanced look for the Queen. I love how Rachel’s made her hat more textural by adding the weave to the beautiful straw base. Those silk flowers are light and just gorgeous. It just oozes femininity. The broach is so delicate and it plays with the softness of the trim. Paired with the necklace and earrings, it’s all just right.  She is such an incredible milliner.

Zara Phillips Tindall in a new hat by Rosie Olivia

Christie: I’m loving the outfits today so far! I love how Zara Phillips has dressed up a bit today, she looks just gorgeous in those heels and in French Navy! Rosie’s headpiece is just gorgeous. Beautifully finished and crisp sisal base, and you really get a sense of the flow of the trim from the side shot of the piece. The feather trim works well texturally with her tweed jacket, whilst the clean lines keep it modern and elegant. This is my favourite look of Zara’s for the carnival so far.

Fiona: Zara: Absolutely love this whole look on Zara. I have worked with similar type swirls so immediately am a fan of her hat. Love the delicate two-tone going on in the swirls, it’s quite a feat to get the positioning of them to look perfect, which they do. The beret style is such a good look on Zara. Love the outfit – the floating waistline of the jacket sitting above the waistline really suits her. And the ankle cuffs on her shoes just fit in with the whole look perfectly.

Royal Hats:  I’m a sucker for navy and white and this hat is a beautiful modern take on this classic scheme. The beautiful white crin trim takes the hat from great to astounding! It’s one of my favourite hats this week.

Jill: This hat is tailored with just the right amount of frill for her suit. I agree- Zara looks great in this shape, it suits the angle of her profile perfectly and the soft, dark flowers are a lovely compliment to the full skirt of her dress and adds a little height that takes her up out of the high collar. The small pop of white in the crin trim is a nice accent and bring the whole outfit together.

It seems that the royal hats worn today for the fourth day of Ascot races are off to a great start! We’ll weigh in on the remaining hats later tonight.

Photos from Mirrorpix / Splash News via Corbis; and Getty as indicated

Ascot Day 1: British Royals Part 2

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Royal Hats Is there anything more fun than chatting about Royal Ascot hats? I am so honoured to be joined by milliners Christie Murray, Fiona Mangan and Jill Courtemanche, here to share their millinery expertise and thoughts on the final royal hats we saw today on the first day of the Ascot races.
Princess Anne in a new hat of unknown design

Jill: This is a hat seemingly more fit for a hunt than the races. I think the colors are lovely on her but the detailed, feathered up-brim feels too fallish and the billowy fabric around the crown is dated. It doesn’t convey the joy or freshness of the fashion that is more customary at Royal Ascot.

Royal Hats: Jill, it might not feel ‘fresh’ because the coat is from 1980!  2 words come to mind- feather overdose.

Christie: I think that the shape of the hat is very age-appropriate and I love the look of the feathers on the upturned brim.  I just can’t say that I’m a big fan of the trim.  The material is quite wide and heavy, and is draped quite loosely. I’m not 100% on the feather and brooch detailing either. I think, the shape and idea of this hat is there, but tend to think that less-is-more in this instance.  Princess Anne is so elegant and I’d love to see this hat paired back a bit, even with no trim, to let the feather work and shape speak for itself.

Fiona: Oh dear….I feel the hat is more suited to a winter race meeting with all those guinea fowl feathers (I suspect, they are some kind of guinea fowl) to the underside of the brim although it is a sinamay hat. Not particularly liking the loosely draped fabric around the crown either and it looks a little shoddy on the top edge, as though it was badly blocked or perhaps squished in a suitcase!!!! The outfit wouldn’t be my favourite, not a fan of that rich beige colour. On the plus side, this hat shape is nice on her and I love her skinny belt. So I think Anne on this occasion, in my opinion, has not got it right!

Zara Phillips Tindall in a new cocktail hat by Rosie Olivia. Dress by Paul Costelloe.

Fiona: Nice, simply detailed hat which suits Zara very well. I like the combination of nude sissal and primrose yellow flowers though there is nothing particularly stand-outish about this hat, she played quite safe today! The yellow colour she seems to like a lot and we see it on Zara quite a bit. That dress is beautiful – the cap sleeves and turtle-neck collar do wonders for her figure. Overall a nice look.

Jill: Lovely and those daffodil yellow flowers, made from goose feathers are gorgeous (if I was there I would have a hard time keeping from reaching out to touch them)! From all angles this hat is chic and suits her perfectly.

Royal Hats: I adore the fresh,unexpected colour scheme. At first glance, I missed that the flowers are constructed from feathers and agree that they are fantastic. It’s a very pretty hat with a sense of humour that I really appreciate.

Christie: How lovely is this colour on Zara Phillips! The feather flowers are very clever, they bring a floaty, lovely element to the piece. Again, I don’t think it’s actually on quite correctly, which does make it difficult to comment on balance. It’s looks as if it should be sitting slightly lower and more forwards on her face, which I think would then help the straw drape to work with the lines in her look.  I really love how she’s accessorised this outfit, it really nails the summer racing brief.

Autumn Phillips in a new saucer hat by Gina Foster. It is the “Anzio” design.

Christie: It looks like a beautifully constructed hat, again I just want to go and tilt it on her head so that it’s sitting beautifully! The curls in the half-burnt ostrich feathers work well the the lace detailing in her outfit. As a blonde, and with the hat in sinamay, she can get away with more black in her look, without it being too heavy.  Although, I’d still love to see it broken up a bit ~ I do love colour for Royal Ascot!

Jill: Very nice, I love the saucer shape and that the floral trim frames her face above and below the brim. The most important factor here is that she is wearing it correctly, so often these platters are sitting flat on the head and without the angle they can be too harsh to the profile. My only comment on this would be that it would have been nice to pull a little white into the trim to match her skirt and brighten the whole thing up a bit.

Fiona: Nothing spectacular about this whole outfit, looks very last minute and possibly a little cheap and nasty overall! That wrap-top does nothing for her and the hat might be improved if the placement was slanted more. The twisted spines needed to be better thought out and less crazy looking for such a safe outfit. Sorry Autumn, not a huge fan of the outfit today!

Royal Hats: Fiona, you have me rethinking my adoration for this hat! I still love it it but agree that the outfit isn’t Autumn’s best.

Lady Sarah Chatto in a repeated saucer hat by Stephen Jones

Christie: How lovely is this image! I think that Lady Chatto has stayed very true to her personal style with this headpiece, I can’t imagine her being comfortable in anything large and ostentatious.  I like how there’s a sneaky fur felt crown with a sinamay brim, it works well with the lines in her jacket. I would have loved to have seen her hat slightly more tilted, and her hair up with this look, but other-wise it’s very paired back elegance, and very her.

Royal Hats: The hat is lovely (although I would love to see a different shape on Sarah) but since the straw brim shows as grey, I really don’t like it paired with with this black and brown striped coat. Sarah has a cream hat in this style that I think would worked much better.

Fiona: I think this hat is a little small and would look better placed at a slant. I do however like the simplicity of it and the velvet juxtaposed with the sinamay, it is a good combination. Although I am not a mad fan of brown I think she can carry the horizontally striped coat well.

Jill: This is very safe, it’s a clean line and very classic. My only issue is that it is sitting too far back on her head, the brim line should be more in line with her eyebrows. I don’t even mind the velvet as it is paired with the open weave straw but it would have been more adventurous in brown or with a bit of trim to mark the liveliness of the occasion.

Immense thanks to Christie Murray, Fiona Mangan and Jill Courtemanche for your contributions today. We will all be back late tomorrow to chat about the hats from the second day of the races.  To sign off now, here is a peek at a few more royal hats spotted at the Ascot racecourse today:

Duke of York and Prince Harry, June 16, 2015 | Royal Hats
Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Prince Harry in silk top hats – one polished and one not. After our wonderful tutorial on buying a silk top hat last week, I find the look of an unpolished silk hat rather ragged in comparison!
Lady Grimthorpe, June 16, 2015 | Royal Hats  Duchess of Devonshire, June 16, 2015 | Royal Hats
Lady Grimthorpe and the Duchess of Devonshire

The Duchess of Gloucester in a repeated navy straw beret

And my pick for favourite non-royal hats today? A fantastical headpiece by master milliner John Boyd and an elaborately flowered saucer hat by Edwina Ibbotson. I think they both capture the spirit of Royal Ascot millinery!
Photos from IKM/Splash News,  Anthony Stanley/Retna Ltd. and Anthony Stanley/Retna Ltd. via Corbis; Getty as indicated

Birthday of Zara Phillips Tindall

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Royal HatsBorn on this day in 1981, Zara Phillips Tindall celebrates her 34th birthday today. As we do on royal birthdays, we are going to accompany our best wishes for Zara with suggestions of hats we would most like to see her repeat in the coming year.  My pick for Zara is this grey felt beret hat with large monochromatic flower trim designed by Amy Money Millinery. With her luxe coat, it makes for such a chic winter outfit and I would love to see her wear it again. Which one of Zara’s hats would you like to see her repeat in the coming year?

At the Cheltenham Festival, March 13, 2012

Photo from Getty as indicated

British Royal Wedding Four Years On: British Royal Family

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A wedding For those of us royal hat fans, a royal wedding is a millinery extravaganza and no royal family does hats at big events like the British royal family. After looking at hats worn by the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s nuptials four years ago, we turn our attention for the rest of the day to those worn by the British royals. First up, the hats worn by members of the Queen’s immediate family.

In 2011, the Countess of Wessex had started wearing Jane Taylor’s designs and that’s where she turned for a bespoke piece to wear with her Bruce Oldfield suit. Taylor created a beige pink straw cocktail hat which was liberally trimmed with silk roses and three large vertical feathers in the same shade. The hat heralded a new era of hat styls for Sophie and was the first of numerous beret-based cocktail hats that she appears to still favour today. While the visible headband was a little awkward, the hat looked great on Sophie.

Princess Anne splurged for a new hat in royal purple. The flat, curved base, which was edged in slim white ribbon and came to sharp points on both sides of the piece, was topped by a large flat silk rose and a swath of white net. The randomness of the hat still puzzles me- the shape is a little odd and the trim looks like it was plonked on top with little thought. The shape of this piece may work well with Anne’s antiquated hairstyle but for me, this was not a brilliant hat.

Zara Phillips topped her metallic coat with a show-stopping Philip Treacy hat. Made of black and silver straw, the large picture hat featured a sharply upturned ‘slice’ brim. The underside of the brim was trimmed with a giant multi-looped bow. It was a dramatic hat but really- would we have expected anything less from Zara?

Autumn Phillips topped her grey and purple printed coat with a cocktail hat of fluted grey straw. Tucked inside the smooth folds of the hat were grey silk flowers and slim feathers. The shape is pretty enough but I did not like the placement, way out on the side of Autunn’s head.

As for the York Princesses…. you already know about THAT hat.

For me, this hat was a complete disappointment and error in judgement. I couldn’t stand it then and I can’t stand it now. I despise the sheer ridiculousness of it. I loathe the way it upstaged Princess Beatrice’s gorgeous Valentino coat. I detest the way it monopolized attention at an event where Beatrice was not the star. I abhorred the way it ruined all shots of the Queen inside the Abbey (Bea was seated behind her granny) and I continue to curse how the press STILL refers to it as a fascinator (see the visible base? That clearly makes it a cocktail hat!). Most of all, I deeply resented how it this single piece created the perception that all royal hats were silly.

UPDATE: Several insightful commenters have reminded how Princess Beatrice turned this lemon into much lemonade, auctioning the hat for charity. It was a very classy move on her part and I admire her for it. And, as much as I didn’t like this piece worn to this wedding, it did get the entire world talking about royal hats. I just wish she had worn it to Ladies’ Day at Ascot instead.

Lucky for Princess Eugenie, Beatrice’s infamous hat drew attention away from her chapeau. Also a Philip Treacy design, her vertical cocktail hat was a bespoke creation to go with her Vivienne Westwood suit. Neither, I’m afraid, were a success. Eugenie’s hat, a crescent shaped electric blue boat worn smack on the top of her head, was trimmed with a bouquet of dark purple flowers and a large spray of pale grey feathers. I appreciate that the colours tied in with her suit but the shape of this piece was both unattractive and unflattering. I remember wishing it would just sail away…

In this group of hats, I see one as beautiful, one as bold, and several as bizarre. What did you think of the hats worn by Prince William’s royal aunts and cousins at his wedding?
Photos from Getty as indicated

Tindall’s Horse Finishes Third in Grand National

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Mike Tindall and Zara Phillips Tindall attended ‘Grand National Day’ at at Aintree Racecourse yesterday to cheer on Mike’s horse, Monbeg Dude. The horse, whose racing success has astounded everyone (including his owner), surpassed 40-1 odds and finished in third place. Zara tapped into the festive nature of the event with a light beige felt percher beret cocktail hat trimmed with a cream silk rose and vertical plume of white feathers.

It’s a lovely enough hat but I wasn’t fond of its pairing with her navy coat- I think the coat needs a hat with a larger brim to balance the wide shoulders. I hope, however, that Zara keeps this charming cocktail hat but pairs it with a more tailored look for it’s next outing. What do you think of this hat?

Designer: The Cotswold Milliner (Bridget Robbins)
Previously Worn: I believe this is a new hat

Photos from Getty as indicated