So I’m madly clicking the remote trying to avoid the Charles & Camilla foofarah, when I am struck by the number of absurdly enormous hats the women are wearing, with all manner of ribbons, feathers and silk flowers . Most of them looked like miniature Rose Parade floats; another looked like a satellite dish capable of pulling in pirate television stations.
Is this preposterous milleneric fashion common at all British weddings, or is it peculiar to the madness about Charles & Camilla?
It started with the Posh, then all the women think that they have to have a posh hat to fit in at a wedding.
there’s two things to remember about the wedding today.
There is another hat wearing event on today, the Grand National horse race at Aintree, another event wqhere vaccuous women where rediculous hats to show how posh they are. although, given who’s getting married, some of them have mistakenly to the wrong event.
Camilla’s hat will feature Grouse feathers. I’m hoping the designer didn’t go overboard with them, otherwise Phil the Greek might “mistakenly” shoot her thinking hunting season has started.
Ladies in hats are very common at all English weddings, and other hoity-toity events, like horse races.
I find myself watching the wedding coverage just to see the fabulous hats.
The annual Races at Ascot are world famous for the extravagant hats! I’ve seen pictures of women wearing hats that were literally as large as their bodies. I actually thought the hat of The Royal Steed was quite nice looking, considering how she usually dresses. Or is that "Mrs’ Royal Steed? Oh I forgot, it’s Duchess Royal Steed!
Isn’t it part of the Anglican church creed, that women shall have their heads covered?
“The Posh”??? What is “the Posh”? I know what the word “posh” means, but not when it’s comdined with the definite article… Are we backhandedly learning the etymology of “posh”?
How anyone could confuse this wedding with something about horses is beyond me. 
In America ladies wear hats to horse races, too. Particularly the Kentucky Derby, of course, but if you go to the Carolina Cup here everybody’s in cute sundresses and hats. I don’t own the first hat, but I’d buy one to go to a horse race.
Not that that has anything to do with the current royal wedding. 
There was one “hat” I saw on a young woman that looked like nothing so much as a small dried bush gilded and planted directly atop her head, with leaves and twigs pointing heavenward. Even The Royal Steed’s gilded and crystal-tipped grouse feathers were tame by comparison.
I remember women wearing wild and weird hats when I was a child, and I have to confess that to this day I still don’t get it. i realize the right hat is supposed to add elegance or whatever, but mostly they just make the wearer look ridiculous.
I mentioned this in the “marquee” thread, but apparently it’s British custom to wear hats at weddings. My cousin married a British guy and one of the British guests wore a wonderful crazy hat with feathers sticking up. When I complimented her on it, she seemed very self-conscious about it and asked if it wasn’t the custom for American women to wear hats to weddings.
I don’t know if it makes a difference, but my new cousin-in-law’s family is quite…uh, upper crust, I guess. They have titles, and everything.
I really should add that, pheasant and all, I think Camilla looked very nice. It was kind of the Queen to be caught smiling, too. 
Camilla looked terrific! Her choices in clothing for both ceremonies were quite nice, I thought. Much better than anything I’ve seen her in before.
Some of the hats were okay and some were just godawful. One woman looked like she had a dinner plate on the side of her head and another looked like she was wearing a large mushroom cap with sticks coming out of it.
I wonder if this style will cross the pond. We Episcopalian women used to cover our heads in church, but that ended decades ago.
Wild hats at Ascot are supposed to be part of the fun, so I’ve heard.
Why was the Queen wearing white? I thought that it was impolite for anyone in the wedding family to wear white other than the bride.
In Camilla’s case, you wear a hat to draw attention from your face.
Meow!
For a woman her age(and I’m not far from it myself), I don’t think she looks half bad. She’s fit looking, well groomed, and I thought her clothes looked good.
I don’t understand why people snipe at her looks. Di was attractive but if you really looked at her, feature by feature, she was no classic beauty.
I hated Camilla’s gold feather thingy for the reception. It looked like a bizarre extension of her hair. I thought her daughter’s feather and wire concoction looked equally absurd.
Unless someone was having me on, POSH stood for what was stamped on the trunks of the hoity-toity folks going on cruises; those passengers got the best cabins, the ones where the sun was rising on the other side of the ship so they weren’t rudely awakened. So, POSH stood for Port Outbound Starboard Home.
And I thought the only thing scarier than what was on top of the bride’s head today was what was dangling from her neck.
Oh, my mistake, that WAS her neck dangling.
Somebody’s been having you on, but probably not purposely. It’s one of those common “folk etymologies”.
See here (bottom of page):
http://www.word-detective.com/back-e.html#posh
and here (about two-thirds of the way down):
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorp.htm#posh
I don’t think I really understood the hat thing until I moved to Kentucky and attended the Derby. It is all about The Hat. Wearing a hat for a special occasion is just plain fun. For Derby we pick out The Hat first, then buy an outfit to match.
And once you wear one for a special occasion, then they just get bigger and more outrageous. You get to the point where you think, well if I am going to the trouble of wearing a hat, might as well make it a fun one.
I wish I could show you all my “Wall of Derby Hats.” It starts with my first year here, a small off white hat, nothing on it. Next year a little bigger, with a pretty matching hat band. Next year a bit bigger, and bright pink. Next year, black, with bright pink band and a few flowers. Skip to last year, very big, feathers for a hat band, sequin flowers matching my dress, pink and blue ribbons, it was outrageous, so much fun. I think of it as a “girlie thing,” I look forward to each year.
I made the mistake of wearing my Derby Hat to the Belmont Stakes. I thought in New York, they would do the hat thing. Well, not at the track. But I was treated to many hard core New Yorkers who approached me and said, “You look just beautiful in that hat, I am glad you are here.” “That is the most beautiful hat I have ever seen, thank you for wearing it today.” I did not expect that to happen, but I could not buy a drink for myself all day, and some ahead of me in line even gave the clerk at the window $5.00 for me bet on whatever I wanted, in tribute to The Hat.
I imagine that as I get to a certain age, the hats may regress, and become a nice little addition to my outfit. But until that time, I am loving going shopping for The Hat. And the more outrageous, the better.
I wish every woman had a good excuse to wear a fun hat. It can really add to a memorable event.
Just you try and stop a British woman wearing a mad hat to a wedding!
Whenever we get invited to a wedding my wife runs out and buys a mad hat (she already owns about a million daft hats - but you can never have enough apparently). She will then discuss AT GREAT LENGTH said hat with her girlie pals (who will also have bought new mad hats).
It’s all part of the fun like the conga, the vol au vents, the birdie dance, the pissed granny, the pervy uncle and the crying girl.
Darling, it’s the dress code. Or rather, it’s what remains of the formal pre-war dress codes.
A formal daytime event requires morning suits for the gentlemen and hats for the ladies. It is generally regarded as proper for a lady to keep her head covered in a church, but never for a man, thus the men wearing top hats with their morning suits removed them on entering the church. Strictly speaking the ladies should also be wearing gloves, but nobody except the Queen seemed to do that.
A formal evening event requires evening dress (i.e. dinner jackets/tuxedos) for the gentlemen and the ladies wear ballgowns (or cocktail dresses, nowadays) and may be hatless.
It’s just one of those things-a hangover from the time when a lady wouldn’t dream of stepping outside during the day without a hat and gloves on.
Today, most people pick and choose their outfits based on practicality and style rather than outdated codes, but a wedding is one time where a woman can actually wear a big fancy hat in public and still be perfectly correct, most women enjoy the rare opportunity to do so.