You remember this hat from earlier this month, right?
Certainly you do, because the Duchess of Cambridge turning
up at this year's Commonwealth service in a gray John Boyd hat with an upturned and angled slice style brim was something
different.
The hat quickly drew several comparisons to other royal hats, and of course it did, because while it was different for Kate, it wasn't necessarily unique. It's a classic style in a useful neutral color that has been interpreted many times by many different milliners on many different royal women.
Two of our regular leading ladies were most frequently cited in said comparisons, so let's see how two different styles of this classic have been handled in other situations.
First we have Crown Princess Mary and her more angular version.
One of the things I love about Mary's style is the way she finds new color combinations for her accessories. She wore this hat
with a black coat before pepping things up for the Luxembourg royal wedding in 2012 with a wine colored suit, driving the color combination home in beautiful fashion with the ruby and diamond stud earrings with gray pearl drops from her
Ruby Parure. This is how you give a neutral accessory a new life.
If you want to talk about getting full value out of a hat style, then you need to talk about the second royal that came up when discussing Kate's hat: Queen Máxima.
This version is similar in shape and darker in color, but fear not, she has lighter colors and other variations, no problem. The Royal Hats Blog catalogs no fewer than
fifteen slice hats in Máxima's wardrobe, and no less than
seven different looks for this dark gray hat. Nobody owns this brim style quite like Máxima does, and there's no better example of how to have as much fun as possible with a classic shape...even if it is just another gray hat.
Photos: via Getty Images
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