Her new hat—a wide-brimmed black and cream straw design with a wide, sculptural brim and floral adornments—is a vintage number by the Vienna-born British milliner Mitzi Lorenz. The hat designer was famed through the late ’30s and ’80s in Britain for jewel-toned chapeaux and floral and bow-topped headpieces.
Lorenz began building her millinery enterprise in 1938, living in a flat above her hat shop on London’s Great Portland Street to craft a millinery empire. Under her tutulege, she propeled some of Britain’s most renowned milliners on their way, such as Frederick Fox and Rose Cory, who went on to design hats for Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family. The hat-making legend kept up her millinery practice well into old age, and died in 1999 at 88. The business has since fallen away, but Lorenz’s archival pieces can be found online—Kate’s included.
Pearls have also become a bit of a signature for Kate, often reaching for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Bahrain Pearl drop earrings, crafted from a cache of seven rare pearls that the then-Princess Elizabeth was given by the Hakim of Bahrain as a gift on her wedding day in 1947.
Kate has been a regular at the annual garden parties, but skipped out on 2024 when she was undergoing cancer treatment. She also missed previous years that quickly followed the births of Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte. In garden parties gone by, she’s often opted for re-wears of tailored dresses by Emilia Wickstead, Christopher Kane, and Alexander McQueen, with matching fascinators in springtime hues.
She and William were joined by Prince Edward, Sophie Duchess of Edinburgh, and Zara Tindall for the day.