Great Britain
Pardon our dust … we’re still under construction here!
 |
HM The Queen is the big cheese of the British royal family – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth Realms. Whew! Daughter of the late HM King George VI and HM The Queen Mother, Liz has been the monarch since 1952. As such, she’s the one parading about in hats most often, opening hospital wings, unveiling plaques, and visiting schools and businesses. She’s also got the best and brightest of all regal headwear: check out the “crown” and “tiara” tags to see for yourself! |
*
| Alas, HM The Queen Mother is, today, only wearing new hats in statue form: she died at the ripe old age of 101 in 2002. When she was alive, she was famous for wearing the same hat styles over and over again, so her entries on the blog might have gotten a little monotonous – except that she had one of the biggest collections of blingin’ tiaras in all the kingdom. Today you can frequently see those tiaras crowning the heads of her daughter, HM The Queen, and her granddaughter-in-law, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. |  |
*
 |
HRH Princess Alexandra, The Hon. Lady Ogilvy, has not only one of the longest titles in the family but also one of the most elegant hat collections. The first cousin of HM The Queen and daughter of HRH Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark almost always looks calm, cool, collected, and ready to order about a wayward servant at a moment’s notice. I love her and her hattery so much that I’ve nominated her to put Kate Middleton through princess school should William ever get around to popping the question. |
*
| All hail the maddest of all hatters, HRH Princess Beatrice of York! The erstwhile daughter of HRH The Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York earned her title by wearing the big butterfly fascinator, which is radical all on its own but takes on a whole new level of hattery madness when you remember that she wore it to a wedding where she wasn’t the bride! Bea tends to favor fascinators with architectural flair and lots of random embellishments sticking out at unusual angles. |  |
*
 |
While HRH Princess Eugenie of York may not have yet reached the hattery heights achieved by her big sis at the Phillips-Kelly wedding, I appreciate that she always gives it her best – most recently with a bizarre satellite/frisbee concoction at Royal Ascot. Eugenie may soon be abandoning the royal arena for university in the wilds of Newcastle, but I think we’re all crossing our fingers that she’ll use her summer vacations to hat about to the best of her abilities! |
*
| Few members of the royal family have taken to their roles with as much gusto as the always-entertaining HRH Princess Michael of Kent. Born the daughter of a German baron and an Austro-Hungarian countess and married to HRH Prince Michael of Kent, a cousin of HM The Queen, Marie-Christine seems always to remember that she’s royal and therefore must flaunt it. Look for her in hats with theatrically-oversized brims or ‘60s-style pillbox contraptions, dah-ling. |  |
*
 |
HRH The Countess of Wessex is a working lady at heart, and sometimes she seems to stumble in her efforts to grasp the brass hattery ring. Not so great for Sophie, but excellent for those of us who write hattery blogs! Reportedly HM The Queen’s favorite daughter-in-law, Sophie’s been known to sport fascinators with wild attachments, feathers from multiple exotic beasts, and flying saucer hats that could summon observatory watchers. And I love her for it! |
