Kate Middleton don $675 hat for Zara Phillips’s wedding

Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine is excellent at recycling images from her own closet, but when it comes to her hats, it seems this royal is happy to splash.

At the royal wedding of Prince William’s cousin Zara Phillips with Mike Tindall, Kate sports her cream Collette Dinnigan French lace dress and Day Birger et Mikkelsen brocade coat (both worn in 2006) with a latest, brand new hat by British milliner Gina Foster.

Retailing for around $675, the natural straw coulis, called “Launceston Place,” was tailored by the duchess in a whirlwind visit to the hatmaker just over a week before the nuptials. “She rang and asked to come in, then she tried a few on and we went from there,” Foster tells PEOPLE from her small boutique in Kensington (a tiny minutes walk from Kate’s new apartment at Kensington Palace).

Arriving for the appointment without a companion, Kate was her usual low-key self, spending just 30 minutes in the boutique. “She wanted something in a color to match her outfit,” says Foster, who adds that “she had her outfit and her bag with her” as she browsed the boutique. “There were people in the shop but she just strolled in – she’s a normal person I guess, she’s very down-to-earth and polite.”

Choosing to customize the sculptural style with an additional flower fixed under the bow detailing, the end result was the epitome of understated chic with just a hint of glam. “It’s a slight departure from her normal hat style but it’s quite good to try different shapes. And for a wedding it’s easier to wear something a bit more extravagant than you would wear for work,” Foster says. “It was contemporary yet sophisticated.” Much like the duchess herself.