Ten years ago, I missed the royal wedding. Not in person, naturally. William and Kate didn't actually invite me to their Westminster Abbey shindig. But I didn't even see it on TV. Having booked a weekend away to visit friends in Copenhagen before the couple set the date, I honoured my prior booking, flew to Denmark and assumed that my mates would be as keen as I was to sit in their flat in front of the TV instead of exploring a beautiful European city. Reader, they were not.
I was dragged kicking and screaming around Copenhagen - beautiful, of course - when I would rather have been consuming every second of an historic day for the monarchy. Luckily, I got glimpses. I kept an eye on the big moments on Twitter. I passed a TV screen or two, visible in bar windows. And that's when I saw it. The most beautiful fashion moment I have ever witnessed. No, not Kate's Alexander McQueen gown, or Pippa's apparently bum-hugging bridesmaid Alice Temperley. Princess Beatrice's hat.
I say 'hat'. It was actually a fascinator. And boy, I was fascinated. I loved the shape: its swirls and points, like a starched ribbon, reminded me of a cameo brooch or a frame around a masterpiece. I loved the colour: was it blush? Was it taupe? To me, the unorthodox shape and the understated colour created an iconic, memorable fusion. On a day of safe options from hundreds of guests, Beatrice was my style heroine of the day. I was blown away.
Many people were blown away too. Unfortunately, though, they felt like they'd been swept up in a storm. The internet exploded with jokes and mockery. Beatrice, and her sister Eugenie - whose look was also brave but, for me, less impactful - were slammed by the fashion police. Memes and visual jokes swept social media. It was compared to a toilet, and a pretzel. 'There was a moment where I thought I would find myself with my head on a spike outside the Tower of London,' Philip Treacy, the piece's designer, told Desert Island Disc's Kirsty Young later. 'But it was a very modern hat and modernity is always unusual things.' I agree. The fact that people still remember that fascinator is all I need to know to confirm what I felt on that day ten years ago: that was one hell of a hat.
Aside from my contrary stance - that Beatrice looked absolutely amazing that day - I also took umbrage with the way in which she and her sister were mocked. Worst dressed lists were far more common than they are today (they are thankfully now a staple for only a few titles) but I can respect that, back then, they were popular and that those who compiled them had their right to their sartorial opinion. If that opinion differed with mine, then so be it. But the jokes got personal. The young women were pilloried for their appearance. One still-prevalent meme compared them to the Ugly Sisters to Kate's Cinderella. It rubbed me up the wrong way: pundits have as much right to say 'I don't like that hat' as I do to say 'I do'. But it blurred into wider conversations of Beatrice's looks, and stepped firmly into the realms of cruelty.
Beatrice doesn't care that her style has at least one fan. But I'll say it anyway. That hat was a complete triumph, and established her as a successor to her Aunt Anne as the royal family's quiet style maverick. On a day when we look back at Kate and William's ten years as man and wife, I propose a toast: to Beatrice, to Philip Treacy, and to the most incredible hat of modern times.
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