As we discovered, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice were both royal hot messes at the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William (their first cousin). I suspect that fug fashion sense is in their blood – after all, Fergie is their mother, and she has never been known for her righteous styling. Eugenie and Beatrice’s fug seemed a little “extra” though, especially when you took into account their enormous hats/headpieces/fascinators. Beatrice’s headpiece was especially epic and Lady Gaga-esque. Anyway, their hat designer, Philip Treacy, has given an interview to Hollywood Life where he defends his creations and the two princesses, and basically boils it down to “haters gonna hate, royal style.”
Immediately following the Royal Wedding on April 29, Facebook and Twitter filled with ridicule for Princesses Beatrice, 22, & Eugenie, 21, “ridiculous” hats. But HollywoodLife.com spoke with Philip Treacy, the man behind the royal creations, at the premiere of L’Amour Fou in NYC on May 1 and revealed what he had in mind when designing the colorful and feathery toppers for the daughters of Prince Andrew Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York.
“My inspiration was beauty and elegance it’s a 21st century royal wedding,” Philip told us at the screening hosted by designer Vera Wang. “No, they didn’t tell me [what they wanted] because I’ve known them for a long time and I wanted them to look gorgeous and beautiful. They trusted me to make them. Gorgeous and beautiful can be open to interpretation … I thought they looked gorgeous and beautiful. But no one is crying if anyone didn’t.”
Beatrice’s intricate bow-like hat, matched her taupe Valentino Haute Couture dress. While her older sister’s royal blue fashion statement sat perched on her head complete with purple flowers and large white feathers.
“How a hat makes you feel is what a hat is all about,” Philip says. “It’s about making you feel a million dollars so when you’ve got something beautiful on your head and the head is the most important part of the body to embellish, because it’s what you meet. When you’re wearing something on your head you feel beautiful.”
[From Hollywood Life]
So friggin’ English. “I thought they looked gorgeous and beautiful. But no one is crying if anyone didn’t.” He can’t just say, “Some people didn’t like the hats, but I loved what I created.” Of course not. He has to talk down to all of us peasants who simply didn’t “get” the genius of the hats. “No one is crying” if we didn’t “get” it. Pish posh. Crumpets. Sniff.
Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.
Honestly I wouldnt wear that hat to a fancy dress party it looks totally ridiculous
What on earth was she thinking
They were dressed like grand dames. Even Helen Mirren wouldn’t wear what they wore.
The probelm is not with the hat.
It’s with her face.
This hat just emphasized her short upper lip and long teeth.
You should match the hat with the face. Not only with clothes!
“Pish posh. Crumpets. Sniff.”
Kaiser , thank you for the morning giggle!
@Tatyana
Exactly!
Those hats are supposed to look outrageous, but the trick is to find a design that does not accentuate the weak points of your face.
IMO, the biggest hat-fail of the royal wedding was socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson with the cocaine-destroyed nose and the electric blue hat pointing at it…
How the heck do they stay on…are they Krazy glued to their heads?
The problem is also that it served NO purpose.
It wasn’t a hat or a facinator. It was just some octupus looking thing that was attached to her forehead
I’m really not a fan of putting other women down, but JESUS, those are some unattractive women. The hats don’t make it better, either.
@ saintdevil (cute name!)
Very true – my figure and face aren’t perfect but I know to avoid things that point out the problems. The princesses are being bitch-slapped around by those outfits. Maybe their fashion sense will come in after a few more years.
I liked Beatrice’s beige outfit – the colour worked with her skintone & red hair, and I thought the muted nature of it was nicely complemented by the faintly ridiculous pretzel hat. Eugenie’s dress, however, made her look like a sofa, so the blot-clot-air-hostess monstrosity was the least of her worries!
My cousin used to work for Philip Treacy, and I can assure you most of the stuff he makes is MUCH prettier than that. I utterly failed to snaffle any pieces at the time, to my eternal shame and regret.
On the other hand, I think having stylised internal organs stuck to one’s forehead is awesome. I would say it takes guts but, ha…
Anastasia and Drizella
I’m in agreement that it’s not really the hat that people were turned off by. Look at Victoria Beckham; I thought her hat was equally as ridiculous, but because people don’t appear to dislike her as much, she got away with it – in fact, she was lauded as looking lovely – blechh!! Honestly, Fergie’s girls could have shown up sans hats and with different outfits and they still would have received flack, most likely because of their mother’s reputation.
Nearly a week later, I’m still laughing. These girls were the laughing stock of the wedding.
eh how is is just so english when he’s IRISH not English. He was born in Ahascragh co Galway. And embertine your right some of his stuff is amazing. look how many other people were wearing his hats at the wedding
The hats are actually nothing too outrageous, compared to some Ascot hats, crumpets, LOL, the blue dress though is…
It’s the double rimmed eye that is making everyone look so awful.
It does not photograph well in the daylight and it is certainly not a look meant for a royal wedding. It’s a week later and I’m still pissed about all the daytime raccoon eyes – raccoons are only supposed to come out at night!
It looks I’m one of the few who liked hats worn by Beatrice, Eugenie and Victoria Beckam. Both girls were dressed conservatively because that’s the dress code for Royal family. The only way to be extravagant is to wear extravagant hat. Besides Beatrice’s dress/coat was very nice and sophisticated. I don’t like the color but for her it was right choice. Eugenie’s dress was awful, especially from waist down. But her hat was really pretty.
They look like the “Ugly Step-sisters” of Cinderella! What a shame, Kate got a Prince & they didn’t!
well of course he would defend those horrible “hats” – I still think they are antenna to search outer space for some sort of intelligent beings to rescue these two fashion disasters from themselves and their “designer”!
I’m now in the minority here, but I like the bow hat. Whichever princess that is in the beige, I think she looks nice.
But, the blue outfit is a disaster. Actually, the hat is not that offensive when compared with the dress. That blue dress looks like wallpaper from the newly wed suite of a really tacky bed and breakfast. Ugh, horrible.
I agree with EF… hats/headpieces/fascinators are a way to have a bit of fun. They are both awful and do not complement / compliment these girls, but are definitely fun. I wish where I live we could use things like these instead of wool caps… :S
That bow hat looked like beef curtains. A straight up Paris Hilton style cavernous vadge.
I LOVED the hats
thanks to Philip Treacy the RW outfits were half interesting
what LJ said – he is IRISH and those hats were ok, just not on those girls.
Especially Beatrice, that’s an UGLY hat. Woof.
Phillip Treacy is brilliant, but just like going to a brilliant clothing designer, you have to have faith in yourself and know when something is crap or too out there or just plain not flattering. And you say no. Those hats were bad, especially the taupe one.
Let’s look on the bright side….at least they didn’t wear stripper shoes!
@Tatyana… I feel kinda guilty for saying this, but I think the Royal Orthodontist should be sacked.
They wore old-lady outfits and ugly hats. You can’t make excuses for either. Personally I think they dressed that way on purpose so someone would actually care enough to take their pictures.
I think we’re reaching vis-a-vis Treacy’s comment. At no point did he ever mention or even allude to tax brackets or class when he was defending his work. What I took away from that statement was that people liked or disliked the hats, c’est la vie, he’s not going to pull a Hemingway over it. If he’s in the fashion business he’s likely getting criticised and praised for it every day of his life and not taking that personally doesn’t mean he’s condescending. Conversely, should the working class feel compelled to hide the fact if they did like it for fear of losing its mouth breather credibility? Is it obligated to scoff out of principal? Sounds haughty to me. The way I see it, you didn’t like his work and you don’t like these clients so you’re going to posit that dislike onto anything he says. Why even bring up the idea of the plebian tastes of the, um, plebs apropos of nothing? Wouldn’t that suggest that you subscribe to this belief and are now cheesed because he didn’t subvert your own expectation? Look, no one had a less congenial response to all of this wedding nonsense than me, but you’re kind of damning a whole man’s life, as well as a country based on half of a pretty non-descript sentence. And not to seem rude, but the fact that you didn’t bother to even find out his nationality before sounding off like an authority on his life, work and personality really negates the integrity of the comment. Again, I hope that dosen’t seem rude.
Beatrice, without the hat, would have looked perfect in that great coat/dress: the length was just right and the shoes were fine. Without the hat, the only thing wrong would have been too much mascara and eyeliner. That being said, Eugenie looked chunky.
Beatrice’s hat resembles a horse’s bearing rein to match her horse face.
Those poor girls – they both look like the ugly stepsisters.
I think both girls are quite pretty. And, frankly, for a lot of the world, they’re stunners. Seriously, when did “Hollywood starlet with huge breasts” become the ONLY standard? Get out and look around you, folks–most of us look ordinary, and these girls are at least that good.
Meanwhile, I don’t know which princess is which. But I do think the hat on the brunette is bad, as is her dress. The colors are weird and discordant, and the shape of her dress does nothing for her. I’m not crazy about the color on the other one, but that’s a nice, well-fitted coat, and I think the hat (fascinator, whatever) is a lot of fun. I don’t wear hats, but if I went to an English wedding, I’d probably pick a hat that was a little nutty for the occasion.
those hats as mentioned up top–pointed to all of their flaws!! Since “he’s known them since they were born”..
I would have refused to wear it, bottom-line..
Beatrice looks downright scary w/the teeth and spooky eyes–it was all too much.
Girls!! speak up for yourselves!! its not THAT bad, but its damn bad, smdh.
What a clever fellow he is! This designer is mocking them by designing hats that accentuate their flaws, yet telling them he is creating an aura. He is flipping off the Royals and they are too bloody stupid to realize it.
F*&^KING. BRILLIANT. [wish i’d thought of it!]
http://gawker.com/#!5798816/insane-hatter-who-unleashed-evil-headpiece-upon-royal-wedding-speaks
really enjoy.
Come on now Kaiser, love the site but now you’re talking down to us as English people by putting his response on the fact he’s English, even though anyway, um, he’s Irish. And it is the ROYAL wedding we’re talking about… it’s not all pish posh and hoorah henry over here!
Does her hat pick up the football matches? That’s important in the UK, yanno…
Both girls looked like they had bit parts in a movie of Alice in Wonderland. Sometimes “fashion” is just plain silly. In this case it was downright ludicrous.
He’s an Irish Milliner, not English. And his hats are often amazing but pretty couture really. As with all accessories though they must be chosen to suit an outfit and person and, well, they were a bit train wreck-y weren’t they?
I am more transfixed at Bea’s teef. Boy those are some chompers!
Yes, the hats are bad, but the blue dress! It’s like she used upholstery on top and wrapped a matching curtain around her waist. Just jaw-dropingly ugly. And it gets uglier every time I see it!
Ugly girls, uglier hats.
The biggest fail isn’t the fugness of the hat itself, it’s that the fugly hat really highlighted her store-bought chicklets and spiderlashes.
She’s an orange spray tan and a box of black hairdye away from joining the cast of the Jersey Shore. Yik.
Nothing says beautiful like wearing your ovaries and fallopian tubes on your head, Treacy.
Did Eugenie borrow that outfit from Joan Collins, circa 1985?
It’s awful. With a less busy print, a more elegantly cut dress (ie a similar silhouette to Beatrice’s coat), and less-stripper-like shoes, the hat would’ve looked smashing.
Beatrice’s dress, coat and figure are lovely. She’s beautiful. She deserved better than that over-the-top hat. Phillip Treacy owes her an apology for making her into a joke.
I think, without even commenting on the hats, that both princesses could have dressed in more flattering colors and styles. The color of Beatrice’s dress and the dark, dark eye makeup don’t work together. Eugenie’s dress looks as if the hem is falling apart.
Those hats were the perfect “f**k you” to the royal family for her mother not being invited and treated badly over the years.
#50 – EXACTLY what I was going to say! Thank you!
The “backlash” has to do with what everybody senses the hats were intended to convey. “Let’s wear huge ugly funny hats to get back at the Royal Family and laugh at the Royal Wedding and make sure no one sitting behind us can see a thing!”
FAIL.
The princesses have perfect young skin. There´s no need for so much make up. Eugenie´s face is really lovely.
Nice legs. I love Beatrice´s shoes. But taupe is not right for her. Her hair is not dark enough for this color. I think if they switched dresses that would´ve been better. Somewhat. Blue bows on Eugenie´s dress are too much, though.
Hats… those hats are perfect on models. Not so much on real people. Hat should be right for the face, that´s it.
Both girls need a good stylist. ASAP
I just realized the strangest thing about this for me: The more I look at pics of them both in the hatscinators, the more I like Eugenie’s. Next to Beatrice’s, it looks sort of legit and fun. Once you get used to it. In this messed-up context specifically.
as if the royal spoiled sisters didnt tell the milliner to come up with f*cked up hats to try to piss on the beauty of the wedding & try to draw attention to themselves & away from W & K, – all cuz their mother was snubbed by no invite.
i seriously doubt they would have worn those hats to any of their grandmother’s public events where HRH is the supposed to be the ONLY center of attention.
also, it must be pissing them off that in the near future, they wont be able to brag that they’re only 5th & 6th in line to the throne, cuz will & kate will soon start to produce more heirs.
The blonde reminds me of the Mad Hatter.
I love Philip Treacy and his hats. I don’t think these are his best efforts; but I think the English understand the excess and the uniqueness that is the point.
Kaiser. Come visit me in Ireland and I will convert you to full-on Treacy fandom by bringing you to tea in the G Hotel in Galway. 😉
It’s my one big treat to myself if I’m in town and feel like doing battle with the traffic at Moneenagisha.
The bow headpiece (for that is the term he uses) would be ideal for the races and, frankly on someone else. Or even if she had her hair up in a more dramatic style it would have worked better. I still love the other one’s hat, and I like the Westwood dress other than the hem.
SIMPLE THE GIRLS WERE NOT THINKING May be there slapper for a mother advised them to wear that.
I think she must have liked it, otherwise she wouldn’t have worn it. Didn’t people see the back view of the dress she wore to the wedding reception? It looked like she went to the washroom and tucked it in the back of her pantyhose by mistake. And apparently it was supposed to look that way.
my sister and i would have had the courage to tell each other that we looked ridiculous. my mother would not have let us left the house. just saying.
obviously the intent was to upstage the wedding in protest for their mother’s non-invite. because the same designer got it so right for so many others. just saying.
Philip Treacy is Irish not English, and in my opinion the hats were not what was wrong with those outfits, especially not Eugenie’s
The problem is that they were trying too hard. As a result, they missed the mark big time.
Probably under a different thread but I didn’t like Pippa Middleton’s dress all that much either. I know people have been raving about it but it was blah to me.
I LOVED her fascinator! LOVED it! Go Beatrice Go!
So much hate towards the 2 of them. Surely they aren’t that ugly. Not the nicest of hats, but they aren’t trying to be Victoria Secret models, just attending their cousins wedding.
The hats are ridiculously ugly.
However, they did need to distract from her face.
A sad British manifestation of lack of beauty or sense of style.
These hats were absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know if I’m more convinced they really thought they were ‘beautiful’, or that they knew they weren’t, & wore them anyway. Positive or negative, it took balls to wear them.
@Alice/Jane – “Anastasia and Drizella”. – The ugly stepsisters from Cinderella, to those who don’t know.
OMG. Perfect comparison.
He’s Irish
I just don’t understand how they looked at each other and held a conversation with a straight face. I couldn’t have done it.
Just so ye know the designer of the hats is a famous irish designer…def not english!!! and he usually creates beautiful designs! just dont know what he was thinking with these!
Both hats / headpieces were a huge Royal mess! But of course this guy isn’t going to NOT defend his creations. What else could he say? “I know they’re ugly, but it’s what we collaborated to do – try to steal the spotlight from the bride, and also make my clients news-worthy again.” 😀
i love it. its crazy and open, its a huge breath. its unique. very fun and happy for a wonderful occasion.
they look like the ugly step sisters from cinderella!
An angel, Pirate, Undead bride, Witch, Renissance queen, Vampire, or Sailor girl (really hot). Hope that helps!