Princess Eugenie hats: What are her best and worst hats? Eugenie steps out at garden party

The 28-year-old princess was all smiles as she arrived at the royal engagement on Thursday, also attended by Prince William, 35, and the Queen.

Princess Eugenie won a boater-style hat costing £230 from Misharada, matched with a navy dress, flatteringly pulled in at the waist.

Navy blue in colour, the playful boat hat displayed the word “love” in what appears to be beads while matching mesh covered the princess’ eyes.

The hat could be a sartorial nod to her forthcoming nuptials with fiance Jack Brooksbank, who she is marrying after eight years together.

The pair are following the footsteps of Prince Harry and Meghan Meghan by marrying at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in October.

Eugenie’s latest quirky headgear has got tongues wagging about whether she might wear a veil and tiara for her wedding.

The young royal has had a notoriously complicated style relationship with hats over the years, being routinely criticised as well as praised for her choices.

Janie Tonks, who runs millinery workshops for brides-to-be, says Eugenie’s hat wearing is “prolific” – but not always for good reason.

The style expert, behind Glam Hatters hen parties, exclusively told Express.co.uk: “My main questions whenever I see Princess Eugenie and her sister stepping out to any occasion are ‘A: Why don’t they hire a stylist?’

“‘And B: If they do have a stylist, why don’t they sack her?”

Eugenie and her sister Princess Beatrice, 29, were slammed for their outlandish hats worn to Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011.

According to Ms Tonks, Eugenie’s feathered blue cobalt hat “looked like she had been rolling in rainbows” and was mismatched with her elaborate Vivienne Westwood outfit.

She said: “With so many components to Princess Eugenie’s outfit, the bows on the jacket, the shoulder pads, the taffeta fabric of her skirt, all competing for attention with her high hat of feathers and flowers none of the beauty stood out.”

Another supposed fashion flop was the lime green saucer hat by Philip Treacy, which Eugenie paired with a purple top to Royal Ascot in 2008.

Ms Tonks said her advice to Eugenie would be this: “Please avoid lime green especially when you team it with an amethyst purple outfit.

“Garish colours do not suit your colouring and you did look like you found the hat in a sale.”

However, she said Eugenie has equally stunned when choosing hats in rich bursts of red and burnt orange as well as cream, which make her look gorgeous.

She said the red felt cocktail hat by designer Sarah Cant, chosen for Christmas Day 2016, was an absolute winner.

The hat party organiser said: “The decoration sweeping onto your face for Christmas Day 2016 was perfect on you.

“Teamed with a simple salt and pepper jacket you looked super stylish and the matching red lipstick was superb – bravo!”

Another commended choice was the plum Stephen Jones beret Eugenie matched with a dark plum dress in 2012 for the final day of the Jubilee celebrations which “really showed off Eugenie’s features” and “more importantly suited you”.

Ms Tonks has advised Eugenie to adopt a similar stance for her wedding day by choosing a stylist who think about what will work well with her wedding dress.

She said: “I have the feeling it will be rather sparkly and quite a statement.

“In terms of tiaras you can’t really go far wrong. It will be interesting to see which stones you wear and how they are arranged but the head wear we will really be interested in is the veil.”