at Trooping the Colour 2026
Pale blue fine straw bell with multi-colour flowers
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A headpiece in soft grey and blush pink with a whisper‑fine veil
A pale‑pink hat with a single rose with cloud‑like tulle and opera gloves
Green fine straw pillbox with blush pink roses
Ivory leaf disc with handmade silk flowers
Royal Ascot exerts such a fascination on our imagination that it becomes the ultimate source of inspiration whenever we ourselves are called upon to wear a hat. My suggestion is not to miss any opportunity to do so. A hat is the accessory that completes an outfit, in ways that are varied and deeply engaging for those who interpret its materials, shapes, and decorative elements. Wearing a hat is also an exercise in posture, almost comparable to wearing twelve-centimeter stilettos.
The greatest challenge lies in wearing wide-brimmed hats such as those displayed by the Princess of Wales at Trooping the Colour 2026 or at the Order of the Garter ceremony on June 15. These hats require complete mastery and control of one’s distance from the surrounding environment. They can only be worn once one has achieved the natural ease that allows the artificial to blend seamlessly with the natural. Catherine Middleton maintains perfect alignment, as if a thread were pulling her upward, preventing her from sinking toward the ground, like a ballet étoile. This imaginary line runs through the circumference of her most spectacular hats, which rotate elegantly with her face without ever colliding with the surrounding space. This is the perfection of bearing.
The sky-blue hat worn at Trooping the Colour is set at a perfect angle to the right, along a line that rises from the lower right to the upper left, toward the heart. It is one of the latest creations by Philip Treacy, to whom Filippo Iarocci devoted an article in Vanity Fair last May, calling him the “mad hatter.” The Irish milliner is certainly a favourite of the Princess of Wales, and the most prominent figures in pop culture agree. The “Flying Dutchman” headpiece—a ghost ship—worn by Madonna at the 2026 Met Gala was by Philip Treacy, as were the fascinators featured in Dior’s Cruise 2027 show: feathers that trace the words of Jonathan Anderson’s collection across the head.
In Philip Treacy’s Spring 2026 collection, there is a yellow hat in ultra-fine rigid straw, adorned on the right with a giant silk rose. Pure poetry, in the most elegant and ethereal shade of yellow—a color perfect for summer ceremonies, evoking historic gowns by Oscar de la Renta and Ralph Lauren, to the point that wearing it is already an entry into the secret code of fashion lovers.
Curiously, Philip Treacy does not appear this year in the Royal Ascot Millinery Collective lookbook. Rachel Trevor-Morgan does, however—a British milliner renowned for the hats she created for Queen Elizabeth II, who granted her a Royal Warrant in 2014. Trevor-Morgan’s latest collection evokes spring gardens. I would recommend two in particular: one in pink, like the roses that cover it, with a disc structure veiled in tulle that enhances its lightness; and another in sky blue, in fine rigid straw, adorned with multicolored flowers. A hat that brings joy—a tautological hat, because this is what milliners do: they create bursts of joy, provided one has the courage to step into their ateliers and be drawn in by these magical accessories. A hat for a smile, my friends!