BOOK - Elizabeth II The Hats of the Crown

In nearly seventy years of reign and ninety-five years in public life, Queen Elizabeth II has spanned a century and made history to the point of becoming a figure of legend. She is also one of the most familiar figures of our time, especially thanks to her hats. Having become the sovereign's iconic accessories, her headgear, beyond their aesthetic qualities, is a real element of British soft-power. In 1933, little Elizabeth, seated in a horse-drawn carriage alongside her grandfather King George V, wears a round, pink hat hemmed with flowers. In 2020, after a long confinement, the sovereign finds her people wearing an old pink hat that is also flowered. Almost a hundred years have passed between these two images, a century of politics, diplomacy and fashions which is told, in these pages, through the little-known history of the Queen's hats.