QEII

"Well, all right, this IS actually all still quite fun."

QEII

I LOVE the Queen's colorful lid and outfit. And Camilla's hat is a marvel -- like it was made to appear that it froze during a gale-force wind.

Sophie and Edward

Sophie looks MUCH less frumpy. Nice rebound.

Guest

I've decided these photos are all like those "street style" pictures from Fashion Week, where people pretend to look blase but are secretly THRILLED that they're being documented.

Guest

OH. YES. That black and pink one is a festival of crazy. It looks like a costume witch's hat decorated with that pink hair color spray.

Guest

It must be SO COOL to walk into the racecourse on the arm of your sweetheart with him looking SO DAPPER in full top hat and tails. My dad had to wear that once to a Buckingham Palace garden party and the photo is one of my favorites ever -- he looked so GREAT. Such an English gentleman. I should have made him wear it every time he flew here.

Guests

I just picked this because it felt like a painting. Eau de "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

More Fab Hats: Royal Ascot, Day 2

Today I need to celebrate the Britons' penchant for polysyllabic eloquence. From the Royal Ascot brochure: "Mrs. Gertrude Shilling was undeniably the premier indefatigable sartorial dame of Ascot." I don't know who she is, but I hope that is on her tombstone. Or, if she's alive, her welcome mat. You should read the whole anecdote though: Mrs. Gertrude Shilling was undeniably the premier indefatigable sartorial dame of Ascot (nicknamed The Ascot Mascot), but she has met with competition from all over the world, including in 1976 when Australia’s Dame Edna Everage, alias Barry Humphries, attended with a four foot Sydney Opera House perched on “her” head. [...] Royal Ascot is as much an institution in Australia as at home these days, but back then Dame Edna said to the assembled press that she: “wasn’t aware it was a racing event until the other day. I always thought it was an exhibition of gas water heaters!” In other news, I love Dame Edna. In other other news: hats. [Photos: Getty]