IF YOU WANT TO GET AHEAD, GET A HAT !!
This week, our biggest annual race-meeting got under away - Royal Ascot opened with a flourish on Monday, with several key members of the royal family, peers of the realm, and other aristocrats, and various celebrities and stars in attendance, all dolled up to the nines...this is definitely the place to come and get inspiration for that wedding outfit that you have been puzzling over for the last few weeks!!
Two years ago, the powers that be at Royal Ascot decided that these big race-meetings have been getting a tad slatternly of late, and so they issued a new dress code for admittance to the Royal Enclosure...
I have to say that I didn't think these new rules were a bad thing at all, because things have been going down hill recently - witness the ladies at the Grand National every year, making an absolute chavvy spectacle of themselves !! However, I do think that they are a little draconian in some respects, as you will see...
THE ROYAL ENCLOSURE RULES:-
This is what not to wear or do, in front of Her Majesty...
No miniskirts
No bare legs
No strapless dresses
No shoulder straps less than inch wide
No bosoms falling out of dresses
No trousers unless they match the jacket ( no jeans in other words ! )
No streaky fake tans
No chewing of gum
No swigging out of champagne bottles
No chatting on mobiles
No generally Chavvy behaviour...
and last but definitely not least, ( and this one gave me a laugh)...
Knickers must be worn but not seen !!
WHAT ABOUT THE MEN ?
For the men, it is morning-suits ( the suit with the tails ), ties, top hats, and definitely waistcoats...and nothing else will do !! If you are going to wear a black top hat, it really must be silk, otherwise you are best off going with grey. Don't wear a cravat - that's a big faux pas. Cravats are for weddings, and ties are for Royal Ascot ...however, there are no restrictions on the patterns for ties and waistcoats - you can be as flamboyant as you like...
So, as you will see, the Rules are very strict, but this is just for the Royal Enclosure, where you are in the rarified company of the Queen and her family...if you are simply going to Ascot for a bit of a day out, then wear something ultra-smart and weddingy, but also suited to the weather, and above all, have fun !! I have to say that certainly not all of my favourite hats were worn within the bounds of the Royal Enclosure...
There were so many absolutely fantastic hats being worn all week, but most of them turned up on Ladies Day on Thursday, so I decided to wait a few days in order to get the very best of what has turned out to be something of a vintage year for Ascot hats...there have been the most incredibly creative silly hats on show too - men's as well as women's, so they will be given a brilliant post of their own in Part 2...
For now though, come and see all the gorgeous colours....starting with white, I will go through the creams and browns, to black and then, starting with blue, I will go through the spectrum, from navy through royal blue, duck-egg blue, turquoise, lime green, orange, red, pink and purple... a fantastic array of really colourful and interesting hats to get your fashion taste buds going !!
BE BRAVE !!
If you ever thought that you couldn't possibly wear a hat, or even a fascinator, then you may be inspired to give it a go, perhaps for that wedding that you are going to later in the year...hats can be the best fun if you approach them with a few basic rules in mind and an open attitude !! Go on - you know you secretly want to !! At the end of this post, I will lay out some basic ground rules for choosing a hat, and invite you to send in your photos...
So we'll start with the most basic neutral colour possible - white:-
WHITE
White is the best neutral colour to go for, during the Spring and Summer months, as it will go beautifully with all the pastel shades of Spring, and all the bright zingy colours that abound in Summer...
JASMINE GUINNESS
Designed by my old college chum, top milliner Stephen Jones, this little hat is delightful...white orchids on a fascinator comb-base, which is a good choice for Jasmine as it's both light and beautiful - and will go with any dress.
JOAN COLLINS
Here's our very own Joanie looking like something out of a 'Dynasty' re-run...remember her as Alexis Carrington ? Her best role to date, and here she is looking like she borrowed an Alexis outfit for posterity's sake !! Wonderfully retro and so very Joan...
She looks fabulous for age doesn't she ?!!
She is actually 77 years old, and has probably had untold amounts of surgery...but hey, I do hope I look this good when I'm as old as her...
KATE SILVERTON
Kate looked lovely in this all white ensemble, with a black and white hat - very smart indeed !!
SUZI PERRY
A spectacularly beautiful white lace dress and hat ensemble for Suzi on Ascot Day 3 - Ladies Day, when they race all the fillies apparently !!
White is often combined with black on hats, like this one on the left, to great effect !! I love the diamanté brooch being worn by the girl in red...
CREAM
The other pale neutral, often combined with chocolate, tobacco, caramel, toffee, coffee, mocha and all the other delicious shades of brown that you can possibly think of !!
PRINCESS ANNE
Princess Anne looked lovely in this cream and brown outfit on Ladies Day - I love the huge cream flower with the brown edging to all the petals...
The second photo looks like she has long hair, but it's actually just someone else standing behind her - interesting to see what she would look like if she should ever let her hair down !!...
SOPHIE, COUNTESS OF WESSEX
We don't see Sophie out and about very much, but when she does emerge, she always looks nice - here she went for an ultra-smart, grey and cream print jacket over a mid-grey dress, with a cream feathery fascinator-style pill-box hat - I don't regard this as being small enough to call it a fascinator as they are usually no more than a glorified comb with feathers attached !! This is definitely a hat, albeit a small one, and I love the interesting curly feathers...
RANDOM RACEGOERS
Here, we can see what long feathers look like on a cartwheel hat - the lady on the left is actually designer Isabell Kristensen, who crops up in this post several times from different days at Ascot, wearing her own creations - she used Ascot as a great opportunity to get her designs out there among the people - and why not ?!!
Here's Taiwanese model Lin Chi_ling, identified by
clouds_above , wearing the most pretty cream suit with a hat that is actually the palest palest pink....beautiful !!GREY
Grey doesn't have to be as dull as ditchwater, but sometimes is, it has to be said !! Here, I have purposely picked out grey hats which aren't in the least bit dull...
SUZI PERRY
Suzi chose this beautiful silvery-grey, corsage-flower pill-box to go with her ice-blue-grey suit, which is so pale that it probably looks like white in real life...
OTHER GUESTS
I reckon grey works best combined with cream or white in an interesting print, or even just a broad Regency stripe, like the dress on the right...on the other hand, it might look just as good in the form of tipped feathers on the hat...
BLACK
GEORGIE THOMPSON
Here's Georgie looking great and accompanied by Declan Donnelly in his morning suit...she chose a little black dress, which is saved from looking too hot by consisting of quite sheer layers over a lining !! I love her little black handkerchief fascinator pinned down in the middle with a large pearl...
LOUISE REDKNAPP
A gorgeous little black pill-box with pink roses adorning it...to go with her little black lace suit !!
NAVY BLUE
There weren't too many dark blue hats - I think people think of navy as a work colour, and so it doesn't get chosen as much as it could be for this type of event...
There were a couple of people who ventured forth though !!
HOLLY VALANCE
The main key to wearing a colour like dark navy to a fun social event like this, is to use a print to ease up on the severity of such a sombre shade. Holly managed to do this look very well...
HRH PRINCESS BEATRICE
Prince Andrew's eldest daughter managed this look well too, combining the dark blue with a very scrummy shade of toffee...almost exactly the same colour as her hair ...
Bravo Beatrice !!
I love this race-goer's little hat with the big corsage flower and feather combination on the top...several shades of blue all working well together is a good thing !!
DUCK-EGG BLUE AND TURQUOISE
This has been an incredibly popular shade for interior furnishings over the last few years, and now it is emerging as a popular colour for events like this...all of these royals did well here !!
HRH PRINCESS ANNE & HM QUEEN ELIZABETH ll
Princess Anne's outfit looks lovely - duck-egg blue combined with navy looks like an elegant and smart combination...and I like Queenie in turquoise - it really suits her well...
HM chose not just one, but two outfits in this colour on two seperate days at Ascot - on Day 1, the first hat was duck-egg blue with white trimmings and then, later in the week, on Day 4, her second hat was white with turquoise trimmings...
For all you non-Brits who love the English custom of royal pomp and pageantry, here is a photo of the Queen and Prince Philip in their open horse-drawn carriage arriving at Royal Ascot, attended by two liveried footmen at the back !!
Wonderful stuff - you really can't buy this sort of thing...
CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL
Not everyone likes Camilla - she has at last got herself a prince, but whilst she and Charles undoubtedly carried on regardless behind Princess Diana's back, I am of the strong opinion that they would have saved an awful lot of bother and heartache if they had got married in the first place, when they first met, all those years ago - she is clearly meant for Charles, and in retrospect, has been right from the start...they were meant to be !!
Anyway, she looked very smart in her turquoise coat, with its interesting opening down the front, and her feathery hat in the same colour...
Of course, the royals weren't the only people who wore this lovely flattering colour...
AMANDA HOLDEN
Amanda looked absolutely gorgeous in this turquoise cocktail dress with a lovely heart-themed fascinator - what a charming and fun design !!
GREEN
Green wasn't too much in evidence at Ascot this year, but this fascinator stood out for its wonderful use of peacock feathers in a huge fan-shape, echoing the real thing !! I will go out on a limb here and say that I think this is a home-made job, and therefore she gets full marks for innovation !!
Lime green should have been more popular this week, but this is the only hat I could find in this colour...nice hat though !! Designed by Vladimir Straticiuc, this hat was one of the twelve finalists in the 'Who Wants to be a Milli-naire' Competition to design a hat for Royal Ascot, and was due to be judged against the other eleven on Ladies Day...
I also rather like her barcode print top !!
ORANGE
Here's Brucey with his wife Wilnelia Merced Forsyth, looking fantastic in bright orange - such an amazing colour - it's hot, zingy, and sizzling, and looks amazing with other hot colours too. Here, on the right, a race-goer wears it combined with a dark plummy magenta colour to brilliant effect - I love it !!
Even older women can wear it - here is a woman who clearly loves her bright colours - I have a picture of her at Ascot two years ago wearing brilliant purple and looking amazing in it - and she does it all again in orange here this week !!
RED
Red was an incredibly popular colour for hats this year - along with pink and purple, it was one of the top three colours, usually combined with a dark neutral like this navy ensemble....
JACKIE ST CLAIR
Here's Jackie accompanying Bruno Tonioli, and wearing a giant poppy on her head - what fun !!
I'm so glad she didn't go for a red bag too - that would have been too much !!
OTHER RACE-GOERS
The flower-corsage fascinator is proving to be immensely popular with many women, and I think that this is because it is a very easy hat-style to wear...usually on a headband, or a comb, it gives an immediate impact of colour for very little effort !!
However, if you don't really go for the tiny hat thing, and find the fascinator size a bit too small, then this is a teensy bit more substantial in size, but still easy to wear for a lot of people !! A slightly bigger, more medium-sized hat with just enough decoration to make it interesting, in a bright colour for the best impact - perfect !!
I love these two creations, especially the red-flowers-on-a-twig fascinator on the right...
This looks for all the world as if she has laid a feather boa all around the brim of a plain white hat, which is probably exactly what she has done - but that's the point, isn't it ?!! An amazingly dressy hat can be as simple as that...all it needs is a bit of imagination !!
A hat can be as simple or as complex as you like...I love this enormous rose shape below...this hat was designed by Rachael Shackleton, and was also one of the twelve finalists in the hat design competition...
The outfit above was my favourite at this event so far - a perfectly delicious combination of hot pink and orangey-red, with large stones decorating the neckline and waistband of her dress and the best and biggest hat to die for !! Wonderful stuff - I love it !! As I couldn't decide whether it went in the red section or the pink one, I decided to compromise and place it in between the two...
PINK
HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II
Here's what Her Maj wore on Day 2 - isn't it a wonderful colour combination ? Fuschia and lilac looks great together, and I like the fact that the hat matches the suit and was clearly designed to go with it. So many of her outfits are like that, but then she is one of the richest women in the world and our Sovereign - it wouldn't do for her to slum it !!
HRH PRINCESS EUGENIE
Princess Beatrice wasn't the only one who managed to look great on Ladies' Day - here's her sister Eugenie sporting a beautiful shocking pink knot creation...wow, don't they look alike ?
You can see bits of Andrew and Sarah in both of them - quite uncanny !!
I thought that I recognised this dress...
It is one that I picked out from the L'Wren Scott RTW collection for Spring 2010 last September...and it was one that I particularly loved at the time too...this whole outfit has a touch of the Audrey Hepburn's about it - don't you think ?!!The wide-necked straight dress and the wide-brimmed cartwheel hat, covered in feathers - so very "Breakfast at Tiffany's"...all she really needs is a gracefully long cigarette holder !!
ISABELL KRISTENSEN
Here's Isabella again, modelling another of her beautiful hats...
FAYE TOZER
Faye looks lovely in a navy hat with a bright magenta band and a magenta dress - beautiful !!
Here are another four fun feathery hats all in shocking pink...fab !!
I love the pink butterflies all over this one below-right...
FLORENCE CLARIDGE
Mrs Claridge has been coming to Ascot for over twenty-five years and never fails to impress with her amazing outfits - she looks wonderfully dotty!! This is the first of two outfits that she has caught my eye with...
Down at this pastel end of the pink section, I really love these two hats, especially the left-hand one with all the beautiful overblown roses in muted shades of dusky pink and purple, picking up the colours in her dress print perfectly...this is the best way to choose a hat - go to a shop where they have loads of choice and match your dress exactly...
The right hand one is another Isabell Kristensen creation which reminds me of some exotic spiny flower, and is quite amazingly quirky...I love it !!
PURPLE
Purple is the third popular colour here this week, and comprises most shades of lavender, violet, lilac, plum and regal purple...here's Queenie...
HRH QUEEN ELIZABETH II
On Ladies Day - Thursday, Day 3 - she came out with the lilac suit accompanied by a matching hat with pink and cream flowers - beautiful and very flattering...
FLORENCE CLARIDGE
Oh, here's dotty old Mrs Claridge again - don't you just want to sit down and chat to her for a bit ? She looks so sweetly eccentric, in the way that only the aged English aristocracy can be - I bet she has a tale to tell or two...
I just love her gorgeously daft Hydrangea hat - isn't it amazing ?!!
SOPHIA HYATT
Model Sophia Hyatt impressed me with her lovely hat that looks just like a huge sweet-pea flower, and her exceedingly original LP bag...how inventive is that ?!!
I'll warrant that her dress would be too short for the Royal Enclosure though - see the bit about Roxanne Pallett below...
These two hats below were a bit hard to classify into any of the sections here - they are both unusual colours, the first being made of purple, burgundy, blue and grey zips all coiled up to great effect !! The second appears to be feathers that have been sprayed gold...designed by Mimi Theobald, this was the third of the twelve finalists in the millinery design competition that I picked up on from all the press photos of Ascot this year, and there will be more information regarding this annual competition in my next post !!
Both are quite unusual and original !!
This is a rather unusual hat, also designed by Stephen Jones, who has very probably had a hand in quite a few of the other hats being worn in this post, if I but knew...
I really liked this one though - it has a lot of movement in the design, which I find very interesting...
ROXANNE PALLETT
Now then, I have included Roxanne in this post to show you how draconian this Royal Enclosure Rule List really is...
She turned up in the black dress on the left, which is pretty inoffensive you would think...it has sleeves, and a high enough neckline - no cleavage on show, and is quite reserved really...well, she was promptly turned away and refused entry by the stewards who are entrusted with the enforcement of these rules...the reason ? It was about two or three inches too short !!
Well, it is quite short, but it's hardly showing anything that it shouldn't, is it ? I mean, she is still decent, and she is very tall, I think...
Anyway, she had to go back to the theatre where she is currently appearing in the town, where she had a convenient dressing-room luckily, and got the wardrobe mistress to help her out with another dress...she ended up going to Debenhams in the town and buying a complete outfit to replace the black one she had originally chosen...how utterly annoying !! She was allowed in wearing the second dress eventually.,..
However, it just goes to show that you MUST abide by the rules if you are expecting to be allowed into the Royal Enclosure...you can and will be turned away, if you don't conform, no matter who you are !!
TIPS ON SUCCESSFUL HAT-WEARING
All these beautiful hats are successful, because of one major factor in every case...and one which it would never be a great idea to venture out in any hat without... Confidence !! If you ain't got it, and you have to wear a hat to some great occasion or other, then it would be a very good idea to get some...and fast !! Trust me, there is nothing worse than seeing someone wearing a great outfit, without confidence...you may as well stay home !!
How to get the confidence ... There are a few rules for hat wearing, and sticking to them will go a very long way to giving you the confidence to wear your hat with pride...yes, BE the centre of attention for once !!
1) Choose your hat with care, and take someone along whose opinion you trust...not all sales assistants will tell you the truth...( unless you are shopping in Peter Jones, of course...we believe that truth is a far better option than hard sales talk, and one which will get the customer to come back and shop with us again !! )
2) Always take the outfit that will go with it along you, and try it on with the hat...no sales assistant should ever mind you using the fitting room for this...
3) Try and match the colour exactly...no half measures about this !! Either it matches or it doesn't...If it matches exactly, it will look a million times better...all the pictures above work well because of the colour match, in every case !! No exceptions...
4) Choose a hat that suits your build well....there is nothing worse than being swamped by a huge hat, if you are anything under five foot three or a size ten !! Leave the huge cartwheels to the huge beanpoles !! If you are, however, over five foot ten and only a size twelve, then congratulations...you have everything going for you, and probably shouldn't be needing my advice !!
5) Make sure it fits your head...sounds like a complete no-brainer this one, but you would be surprised to find out how many ladies fall in love with a particular style and are determined to have that and no other, even though it teeters around on the top of their head, and will undoubtedly be lost to the first gust of wind...besides, a badly fitting hat will cause you no end of trouble and shatter your confidence totally, when you should, by rights, be brimming with the stuff !!
6) Choose a hat that suits your face-shape...There are many instructions for suiting the shape of a hat to the shape of your face, but, in my opinion, you will know when you are happy in a hat, and your trusted friend that you have brought with you will tell you if it doesn't suit...
Those with longer faces should avoid too much height on the crown as this will accentuate the face length; headpieces worn closer to the head and cutting across the face are good, or opt for an upturned brim.
Squarer faces should go for a wider brim; sharp, horizontal shapes work well and complement the face. Rounder faces should look for more angular styles, an asymmetrical shape and sharper lines.
If you have an oval, or heart-shaped face, then practically every shape of hat will suit, and therefore all you need to care about are all the other points !!
Whatever your face shape, if you’re going for a large brim always make sure it’s no wider than the width of your shoulders.
7) Try on loads...don't be content with the first one you see, as there are so many to choose from, but try and narrow it down to about three maximum for your final choice...don't think that prices are going to be too high either...sure, you can part with over three hundred pounds for a beautiful hat, but you don't have to !! They start from about twenty pounds and go up and up and up...the sky's the limit, frankly, but for one event, you don't really need that little Phillip Treacy number, do you ?....or maybe you do !!
THE ALTERNATIVE OPTION...
If the thought of wearing a proper hat truly fills you with horror, there is a perfect solution if you really don't want to go the whole hog, which comes in the shape of a fascinator. These are little more than a nod towards the idea of wearing a hat, and have evolved from the kind of headgear that bridesmaids often wear...they are little more than a comb or hairclip which sports an array of ribbons and feathers, or indeed, a corsage flower, and perches on the side of your head like a small humming bird...they are rather a beautiful alternative, I think !!
There you go then - brilliant advice that should help you when you go shopping...
BRILLIANT PHOTO-OPPORTUNITY !!
As an incentive, why don't you e-mail me your photos - I would love to see any of you who are brave enough to show off, in a hat-based outfit, and if I get enough, I may do a post especially putting you all in the spotlight ( I won't be commenting though or criticising !! I want to encourage you to wear hats, not put you all off for life !! )
How about it ?
