I didn’t see Queen Elizabeth with her hair uncovered often. There was a crown or tiara on top of a coif. At the stables of Balmoral, where she tended to her horses in Wellington boots and a Barbour jacket, a scarf was always tied under her chin.
Most of the time, it was a hat.
It’s hard to see it in isolation. The senior curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of London said in a phone interview that there are brooches, pearls, and white gloves. There was a matching hat.
The Queen was photographed in bonnets and berets when she was younger. She would wear them through adolescence and young adulthood, often with her younger sister Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother.
1928
As a toddler the Queen was familiar with impressive headgear. She wears a bonnet that is rippled with diaphanous ruffles.
CNN has an illustration of the Hulton-Deutsch Collection.
Her tastes were bold from the start. She embraced unconventional shapes, floral appliques, feathers and the full spectrum of colors, like Simone Mirman and Freddie Fox.
Elizabeth was a pioneer during the early days of her reign as a princess. In February 1944, when she wore a creation based on an officer’s service cap to the wedding of Lieutenant (later Captain) Christopher Wake-Walker and Lady Anne Spencer, the Associated Press reported that copies had been selling fast.
1944
In 1944, Elizabeth left the wedding of Lady Anne Spencer and Lieutenant Christopher Wake-Walker with Princess Margaret wearing a peak cap and smart double-breasted coat.
ANL/Daily Mail.
When the Queen wasn’t setting trends, she was embracing them, following in the footsteps of Barbra Streisand and Bianca Jagger, who embraced turbans in the 70s.
1975
During a visit to Mexico in 1975, the Queen wore a turban and a belted dress.
Serge Lemoine/Hulton Archive.
The president of the Lord & Taylor department store chain declared to the Los Angeles Times in 1957 that the Queen doesn’t have to be “in fashion” and that she has inspired her generation to return to elegance.
Changing attitudes and trends led to the removal of hats by the ’60s. But the Queen was not deterred. Everyone would have worn a hat when she was a child. It becomes a trademark when she keeps wearing them.
Elizabeth’s dress was scrutinized and critiqued as usual with women in politics. She often used her accessories as vehicles for subtle messages.
She wore an oversized beret to meet a group of Girl Guides and a pill box hat and bedazzled ushanka to Slovakia in 2008, wrote Oliver Watts in The Conversation. It has to be a kind of joke, a piece of humor to set people at ease.
1986
In 1986 the Queen wore a sky-blue pillbox hat and veil while inspecting the 2,000-year-old terracotta army in China.
Bregg/ AP/CNN
She wore a blue-and-yellow hat, matching the colors of the European Union flag, to open British parliament in 2017, just as the negotiations to leave the EU were starting. “Is the Queen wearing an EU hat?” was a question that was asked on social media. She never said so.
2017
During the opening of the House of Parliament, the Queen wore a lapis blue hat. Due to its similarity to the EU flag, it was quickly interpreted as an anti-Remain symbol.
Carl Court/WPA pool
Her hat-wearing has left an indelible mark on Britain.
She helped cement the hat as a symbol of high-society sophistication, an attractive anachronism and a beacon of Britishness over 70 years.
Across Europe, queens like Letizia of Spain and Mxima of the Netherlands reserve hats for the most formal occasions.
2018
The Queen wore a blue and teal coat with a matching hat embellished with a peacock feather at the Royal Air Force 100th anniversary event.
Chris Jackson is with CNN.
Hats stay alive because ofPatronage of the royal family. Philip Treacy said on a “Desert Island Discs” radio show that the Queen has kept hats alive in the imaginations of people all over the world.
If the royal family didn’t wear hats, I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you because hats are part of the culture of Englishness and Britishness.
2019
The Queen wore a gray outfit with floral and feather details on her hat and jacket.
Adrian Dennis/CNN illustration
There are occasions on the British calendar where wearing hats is not frowned upon, like Royal Ascot, a horseracing event where the Queen was once a guaranteed attendee. According to William Hill, British bookmakers accepted bets on what color she would choose for the annual meet, with pinks and blues among her most frequently worn colors in recent years.
Even though she was no longer in public life, the Queen still took every opportunity to be visible, often wearing bright colored coats and matching hats so she was seen by her subjects.
Elizabeth II made one of her last public appearances during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022, which seemed to epitomize her approach. Bright green provided a moment of joy for the thousands of people gathered at Buckingham palace, but it was counterbalanced by a black pin attached to her hat in remembrance of husband Prince Philip, who had died a year before.
2022
At her Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the Queen wore a black pin on a bright green hat in honor of her late husband.
CNN illustrated Max Mumby.