At the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, two things stuck out.
Literally.
The fascinators of princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Sure, they were
gigantic and pretty outlandish, but to be fair the princesses were just following
the dress code.
And on the wedding invitations to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding,
you'll notice the same thing.
You got to wear a hat.
Since the sixties, formal hats have sort of faded out of fashion.
Hats have always served multiple functions.
They protect us from the cold and the Sun, they're
symbols of religion or trade or military station.
Or in the case of the top hat,
they can show how stylish you are.
There's a really popular story that the
first time a guy wore a top hat in London, it caused such a stir that a
woman fainted, dogs yelped, and a kid broke his arm in a mob.
This probably didn't happen.
But it is true that top hats weren't really a thing in the UK until the
early 19th century.
Beau Brummell, a fashion-forward dandy introduced them to
his friend and future king, George IV, and top hats officially received royal approval.
Brummell was a big hat guy and he's also responsible for the
decadent fashions you see at places like this.
That's the Royal Ascot, the biggest
race of the London social season.
In 1807, it introduced the Gold Cup, a shorter
race that brought larger crowds.
It was around this time that Brummell
introduced a strict dress code for the race, so that even those from lower
social classes looked the part.
Including Eliza Doolittle.
Come on. Come on Dover.
Come on Dover! Move your bloomin' arse!
I suppose historically people have worn hats to the to the races again,
because of that formality.
Nowadays, you know, women like to dress up. So if
they're going to the races it's a fantastic excuse to to wear a hat.
That's Rachel Trevor Morgan who's made more than 80 hats for Queen Elizabeth II,
including those she's worn to Royal Ascot.
Brummell's dress code, now known as
"Morning Dress," was the direct inspiration for races like this one.
And it also
became the de facto style of dress for all high society events held in the daytime.
Meanwhile women's hats ebbed and flowed according to fashion trends at court.
Bonnets in the early Victorian period, followed by tall ornamental hats, and
then elaborate Edwardian creations with enormous brims.
At the end of the 19th century,
we had women wearing hats all the time. They'd always go out wearing a hat.
After World War II the traditional social season began to decline, as
aristocrats abandoned their London homes.
But morning dress still remained ,most
notably at horse races and weddings.
I think there was a definite shift in hat
wearing in the 1960s and I suppose it's because fashions became a bit more casual.
I think the young were experimenting with more exciting hairdos
you know, you had beehive haircuts and people piling their hair up and then
really short sharp cuts
and somehow it was left to the older generation to
carry on that hat wearing, I think.
Hats were still, of course, required at the
fanciest events for the fanciest people.
Which is why hats tend to peak in
popularity around the same time as royals do.
When Kate and William got
married there was definitely an upsurge in hat wearing.
People looked at
everybody attending the service and all the wonderful creations they had and
they wanted a part of that.
And when you think in the 1980s and we had Princess Diana,
who always looked so beautiful and always wore hats and think of the Queen.
She's a great hat wearer so I, you know, I think it really does affect people.
And that's maybe the real reason why we associate British Royals with hats.
Whenever we see them, it's likely because there's a big event going on and
for Royals, big events mean hats.
People might want to wear a hat to stand out
and because they're quite an extrovert,
or they might want to wear a hat in
order to sort of slightly hide behind.
And there are those people who've
never worn hats and feel very awkward about the whole thing, but it's really
satisfying when people come back saying,
"that was fantastic I really enjoyed it and had a great, positive experience."
So you can read quite a lot into people and
it's getting to know where their comfort zone is.
But they're a great sort of
extension of people's characters I think.