Hats off to Diana the diplomat
Diplomacy via headgear was royal protocol. coded compliments to foreign hosts and witty references for special appearances were part of the Queen’s tradition, and Diana ran with it.
For a visit to Japan in may 1986, for example, she accessorised a now-famous red-spotted dress with a wide- brimmed scarlet hat, replicating the Japanese Rising Sun flag almost too obviously — though her hosts fell in love with it, and the outfit made headlines around the world the next day.
meanwhile, a philip Somerville blue-and-white turban hat was commissioned for a trip to Dubai in 1989; a stylish means of keeping her hair from view, in line with the country’s more conservative attitude to female dress.
Somerville also made her a sleek pagoda-shaped hat in purple silk — with a wide brim and a pointed crown — to match a catherine Walker outfit worn on a visit to Hong Kong in 1989.
milliner Graham Smith provided the suitably military- style white hat for Walker’s outfit for Diana when she attended a passing out parade at Sandhurst in 1987.
But most daring, and either horribly mistaken or gloriously witty, depending on your taste, was the hat she wore to ascot in 1986. its black silk brim and crown of green and black polka dots matched her spotty dress. With an outfit so clearly referencing lurid jockey silks, onlookers might have been forgiven for expecting Diana to saddle up for the races herself.
‘She loved dressing up, because in a way, the clothes and hats could speak for her when she couldn’t,’ says Stephen Jones.