Another great hattery outing for Princess Alexandra!  She’s really embracing her inner glamorous royal here rather than her inner mumsy gran, and I love it.  This silvery hat is just wonderful — it has just enough embellishment to be interesting.  Bravo!

Crown Princess Victoria and the future Prince Daniel look so happy lately, don’t they?  Here, after the lysning ceremony, they’re receiving a gift from the Swedish government: a 1,000 piece set of handmade Swedish glassware, designed for official entertaining. I’m sure you all received similar gifts for your wedding, right?

My only qualm here is that Victoria decided to accept the gift wearing a feathered pancake on the back of her head:

These flat, back-of-the-head fascinators are going to become a thing this summer, aren’t they?  Maybe they’ll grow on me.  But really — first Mette-Marit, now Victoria.  Maybe the crown princesses just all got together and bought them in a bulk deal, similar to the one the Daniel and his parents, Olle and Ewa, apparently got from Lenscrafters?

First they share a kidney, now glasses.  That’s love, people.

It’s not just a Beatrix Cake Hat, ladies and gents: it’s an iridescent Beatrix Cake Hat!  (And I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I sort of like it!)

More importantly, though, this visit to mark the 75th anniversary of the Royal Dutch Guide Dogs Fund has proved one of my pet (ha!) theories: that dogs love royals as much as royals love dogs:

Awwwww!

Photos like these make me think that HM is a closet mad hatter — look how she’s eyeing the ridiculous hattery sported by the man on her left!

(Her hat’s a repeat, of course — we last saw it on Armed Forces Day last year.  A good one to bring out again, I think!)

Okay, here’s something unusual: HM chose to wear the same hat to today’s dedication service at Norwich Cathedral that she wore barely more than a month ago at this year’s Royal Maundy service.  How often do we see Lilibet repeat a hat that quickly?  I hope Queen Margrethe isn’t rubbing off on her…

(Different brooch this time, though — a really gorgeous and unusual one, too!  Any info on that, jewelry experts?)

HM’s at Derby Cathedral for today’s Royal Maundy Service, an ancient British tradition.  In the olden days, the monarch used to wash the feet of British subjects on Maundy Thursday, but these days, The Queen hands out small purses of “Maundy Money” instead to elderly Britons who have been recognized for their charitable work.

The hat’s a repeat — we saw it last during the Indian State Visit in October.  I liked it then, and I still like it quite a bit now, though the triangular, pointy shape of the hat is more pronounced in these new pictures.  I think if that angle were a bit less severe, I’d like it even better.

But my most pressing question is this: jewelry experts, what’s the 411 on this super-sparkly brooch?

Here’s HM leaving church today in her car with her traditional companion, Sophie Wessex.  I’m not sure when the two of them started riding back to Sandringham together, but they’ve done so for several years.  Maybe HM just wants to gossip about the service with her in private?

As far as the hattery goes here, I again have this weird hattery deja vu feeling where I think I’ve seen these two hats before, but I can’t for the life of me find them on this blog.  HM’s silver number looks almost quilted, which I like; but I’m not a big fan of the upturned brim on the side. 

And Sophie’s hat looks very similar in shape to others we’ve seen on her fairly recently — most notably the Easter ’09 wildlife feather explosion — and I’m ready to see a new silhouette, I think.  A little exaggerated is okay, but these are starting to look a little costume-y to me.

(Also: must be cold in that car, huh?  It’s nice of HM to share her blanket with her daughter-in-law, isn’t it?)

An early Christmas treat: it’s Zara Phillips, out at a wedding in Canterbury, wearing a lovely fascinator!  I quite like this one, with its silvery color and the interesting shape and embellishments.  But if it looks a little familiar, it’s because it has been seen on one of the Windsor women before:

Here’s Autumn Kelly joining the royals for Easter at Windsor just before her 2008 wedding to Zara’s brother, Peter, wearing the same fascinator.  I suppose that the sisters-in-law who hat around together stay together?

I think we all know why HM’s smiling so brightly — she knows I’m going to praise her chapeau again!  She’s really on a roll lately, isn’t she?  I love the contrast of the dove gray and the black, especially with the black fabric lining the underside of the brim.  And that silver curlique is a perfect addition to make the hat a little whimsical and fun.  Lovely!

A little whimsy is always necessary when inviting foreign heads of state over to the house, isn’t it?  Lilibet is all dolled up today to meet Pratibha Patil, the president of India.  I love that the Brits hold state visits at Windsor Castle — it’s such a proper castle.  I’m going to have to pop in the DVD of Windsor Castle: A Royal Year this evening to watch the footage of the state visit from France in 2004, just to imagine what all the pomp and circumstance is like there tonight while we all wait for tiara pictures!

Unfortunately, this was the clearest picture I could find of Princess Alexandra opening the new Teddington Health and Social Care Centre.  But what I can see here, I’m not a big fan of.  Why all the stuff all over the place?  This looks like an Easter Basket gone wild.  Oh, dear.