One of our lovely readers e-mailed me a while back and requested that some of the mad hattery sported by the late Diana, Princess of Wales be featured on the site -- and what better day to do it than today, which would have been her 49th birthday?

Here's Lady Di back in 1989 on a visit to Dubai (back when she was still HRH The Princess of Wales), wearing one of the very maddest hats she ever sported.  Is it a turban?  is it a satellite dish?  No -- it's both!  And with feathered chopstick embellishments to boot!

And, in a move that would have raised groans among all of you back in '89, she repeated the wacky chapeau only a few weeks later at that year's Royal Ascot!

Sigh.  Now I'm imagining '80s-era Mad Hattery again, with Fergie's bow explosions and Di's crazy shapes and colors.  If only!

Here's a familiar face to anyone who's been watching American television over the past week or so -- Princess Di!  (Non-American hatters: has your royal wedding coverage been as Diana-centric as ours?  Not that I dislike Di -- it's just a bit overwhelming at times!)

This wacky little three-cornered business has always been one of my favorite crazy Diana toppers.  Love the bold colors mixed together -- so '80s, so Di, so wonderful.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: every time I see a photo of Diana in a hat, I get all melancholy thinking of the WONDER that would have been Mad Hattery in the '80s.  Can you imagine how much fun events like this would have been if we'd had the internet?  (And if I hadn't been, you know, three years old.  My hattery skills were still in their formative stages back then.)  Magnificent, that's what it would have been!