The races at Royal Ascot are in full swing, and the royals may be going with a color coordination strategy this year. The ladies busted out the blues today for the first of five days of hatted fashion fun:
Best Start to the Week
Queen Elizabeth
Throwing a wrench into your Ascot brooch bets right from the start, QEII busted out the massive brooch from her Brazilian Aquamarine parure which we don't get to see so often on day duty. I hope this isn’t the only surprise Liz has in store for us this week…
Best in Déjà Vu
The Duchess of Cornwall
Oh, Camilla. When she gets a good outfit (and this one, just seen at the Thames pageant, is), she just runs with it. Even when it makes her look like she only has a handful of outfits in her closet total and breaks the unspoken family color code.
Worst in Walking the Line
Princess Eugenie
There are new dress code rules at Ascot this year, particularly for those in the Royal Enclosure. Fascinators are strictly forbidden, as are miniskirts and puny little straps on your dress. The Ascot powers that be meant business, too: they stationed “Dress Code Attendants” at the gates to judge the riffraff. Leave it to a princess to test the rules in her “it’s a hat but I’ll wear it at a fascinator angle and you can’t stop me, hat police!” chapeau and her “I’ll cover my shoulders but only barely and I won’t make it look good!” dress. What a rebel. Too bad the dress code didn’t specifically address butt ruffles.
Best in Ascot Spirit
The Duchess of Gloucester
Ascot’s supposed to be about nutty hats, but with fascinators out of contention even the only York on point today didn’t bother making a run for it. Birgitte did, though! This is her outfit from William and Kate’s wedding, and the hat’s fierce enough for me to skip right over that ruffle that’s out to strangle our fair duchess.
Cutest Dress
Princess Haya
Ascot means not just an assortment of Windsors but the always lovely equestrienne Princess Haya of Jordan, wife of Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, coming out to play. Doesn’t she just look so friendly? Anyhoo…that’s a super cute dress (from Dior), and I’m a sucker for anything with a whiff of a full skirt.
