If the ceremonial hat fits

Known as ‘Jane the Hat’, milliner Jane Smith has been dressing some of our most famous actors’ heads since the late 1960s and her creations are about to take centre stage at the coronation, finds Simon Fenwick

- Simon Fenwick

CEREMONY and pageantry are things at which Britain excels— as if they were a part of the constitution or a natural instinct that runs in the nation’s blood. A film of the late Queen’s 1953 coronation shows various members of the Royal Household wearing regalia that represent their status in the hierarchy of uniformed attendants. It is hoped that the coronation of Charles III, almost exactly 70 years after that of his mother, will be similar to its predecessor.

Bicorns—the ceremonial hats worn by army and naval officers from the late 18th century onwards—will be worn on the day by the Garter King of Arms and the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal of England. Most of them will have started life in a Victorian terraced house in Battersea, the base of Jane Smith —the nation’s bicorn-maker-in-chief.