Tiaras were out on Monday (Belgian state visit to Portugal); tiaras were out on Tuesday (Dutch state visit to Britain); tiaras were out on Wednesday (we're going to talk about them in two seconds); tiaras will even be out on Thursday (Norway has a banquet tonight, which of course we'll do our best to cover). That might be some kind of record?! We're just trying to keep up:
The Danish royal family hosted a gala banquet for members of the government, parliament, and the European parliament on Wednesday night.
Keld Navntoft/Kongehuset
Yes, Queen Margrethe definitely had to get in on this week o' sparkle. She wore her Floral Aigrette Tiara and her trusty Yeti pelt. This is the dress she wore for Crown Prince Frederik's 50th birthday gala. You can always tell when she's loving a new look, because she'll wear it a whole bunch. (I kinda love that about her.)
Keld Navntoft/Kongehuset
All of the princesses went dark and sparkly, starting with Princess Benedikte in her Floral Tiara. The extra band of bling around the waist on this dress helps make it something special, I think.
Princess Marie repeated a dress and used her Diamond Floral Tiara too. A solo Crown Princess Mary - Crown Prince Frederik is in Australia for the Invictus Games - wore her Wedding Tiara. We haven't seen that one in a while, since she's been using her Diamond, Ruby, and Spinel Necklace Tiara. But it's not the return that delights me most: the Bambi dress is back!
A coral headliner and her navy back up singers, fabulous. (You can see here how Margrethe has wrapped the Floral Aigrette pieces around her 'do and how interesting her necklace is - it's a bracelet that she likes to use as a choker. Lest you think Máxima is the only one getting creative in the jewel department...)
A trio of updates from royal ladies and the suits that love them. Or suit separates. Or not really suits but just go with it because.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia presented the Gold Medals of Merit in Fine Arts yesterday.
House of HM the King
I'm sorry, royal men, did you think you had a monopoly in the blue suit department? Step aside. Letizia's contribution accomplishes the same thing as all the blue suits on the gents, really: gets the job done and not much more. Thank goodness for a polka dot blouse.
Queen Rania attended a meeting with King Abdullah in mid-January.
Instagram/queenrania
You want a sharp take on a trouser, Rania's your queen. In this case, it's maybe...90% sharp.
Crown Princess Mary presented the Designers' Nest awards at Copenhagen Fashion Week last week.
The least suit-like thing here (she had a matching coat on arrival, sort of, still not suit-ish, hey) is also the most interesting. An interesting color combination accessorized by leopard print shoes, which I love. Leopard as a neutral is nearly as excellent as a purple neutral in my book.
Mary is usually one of the first to rack up a contender for her best list each year, thanks to one of the most formal occasions on the Danish calendar falling on January 1, the New Year's Banquet. Except in 2017, she baffled me by tossing a seemingly unrelated plum cape over her sublime gold gown. Fast forward a couple days, and the pieces all fell into place: the cape belongs tothis, a splendid new Lasse Spangenberg outfit perfectly suited to these court dress occasions, requiring a long dress and no tiara (because it's in the daytime). Love.
Crown Princess Victoria at Prince Gabriel's Christening
Erika Gerdemark, Kungahuset.se
Victoria's best is often drawn from December - usually from the Nobel Prize ceremony, but for this year, I have to give it to the sharp red skirt and jacket she wore to Prince Gabriel's christening. Excellent color, excellent proportions, excellent all around.
What a delightful state visit-y week it's been. Let's keep it going one more day and catch up with the Day 2 outfits from this week's visits. Spoiler alert, at least two of these ladies saved their category bests for last.
Netherlands/Argentina up first! A day of engagements followed by a ballet hosted by the President and First Lady of Argentina.
See this? By far the better of the day outfits Queen Máxima wore for the state visit. It's a Claes Iversen magenta coat with bedazzled starbursts, which is basically as Máx-tastic as a coat can get. (Banner week for this designer: Crown Princess Mary also wore his designs on this same day.)
Pardon me while I cut straight to the jewels in the evening. The Dutch collection is lucky enough to include more than one huge sapphire bow brooch; this version, which dates back to Queen Emma, has recently been used with an alternate citrine brooch in the center. The earrings are equally luscious and equally flexible, able to be worn in different settings. They were created using stones from Queen Wilhelmina's broken up Wedding Gift Parure.
Now over to you, Belgium/Denmark. A day of engagements - and a quick jog - followed by a concert hosted by the Belgian couple at the Black Diamond library in Copenhagen. (Sidebar: Black Diamond! All libraries should be named like James Bond movies.)
Belgian Monarchy
Hmm. As much as I love a cape sleeve and a little mixing and matching, Queen Mathilde's Esmeralda Ammoun jacket has me thinking some things are best left to Empress Michiko, and Crown Princess Mary's burgundy skirt leaves me craving the original pencil skirt that went with this top.
On the other hand, I have no hmms to share about this. LOVE IT ALL. Just as she did in the Netherlands last year, Mathilde waited to bring her best evening gown game until night 2 with this sparkly red Natan number. I'm feeling Mary's Jesper Høvring gown too. That color! Give me more, please.
Belgian Monarchy
Others were there too! It's the last day of state visit week, I cut to my faves. {shrug}
This is straight from the textbook for Royal Dressing 101: The Basic Coat + Hat Combo. (Also from the textbook for Royal Dressing 000: The Men Wore Suits.) Sometimes there really is nothing better than a simple coat or suit with strong lines, paired with an out-of-the-way hat. Princess Marie's repeated ensemble looks downright fussy next to the sleek run of mint-turquoise-aqua-blue-whateva on the other three ladies. Queen Mathilde's Natan outfit feels like 100 others she has in her closet, but when it works so well for her, can I argue? Nah.
Belgian Monarchy
Here's a shocker: my top marks for the day's class go to Crown Princess Mary. (Try and contain your surprise.) First, she used a new-to-her designer, the Dutch Danish designer Claes Iversen who we know mostly around here for his work for Queen Máxima; second, this is just a great coat. Throwing off the curve for everyone else as usual.
The evening's state banquet provided a glimpse into the textbook for Royal Dressing 102: Sash Coordination Strategies.
Obviously we need another Sash Check first: Philippe and Mathilde wore Denmark's highest order, the Order of the Elephant. Belgium's highest, the Order of Leopold, was worn in turn by Margrethe and Frederik. A lower Belgian order went to Mary and Joachim, the Order of the Crown, and another notch down went to Marie, the Order of Leopold II. (Now's a good time to drop a couple links to posts I wrote ages ago on the "rules" of wearing orders, useful for those with questions: the basics on the whats and whys, and what happens when countries get together.)
DR1 screencap
Queen Margrethe set off her purple sash by keeping the day's aqua theme going, and accented things with her Pearl Poire Tiara and the assembled parure that goes with it. I thought she looked spectacular - one of her best evening dresses of late.
Queen Mathilde took advantage of the fact that Denmark's Order of the Elephant blue sash goes with just about anything and sported a light orange Armani Privé gown. A complementary color strategy in the school of sash coordination is an advanced tactic. It's also, in this case, a real hard sell.
TV2 screencaps
She's almost got me sold on the full version of the diamond Nine Provinces Tiara, which I never would have believed possible in the days before she became queen consort, so the impossible is clearly within her reach.
Golden gowns will go with about anything too, a strategy taken by Mary and Marie (who wore her Diamond Floral Tiara). Crown Princess Mary took it a step further by opting to get a little sash coordination in there by matching her jewels to her burgundy sash - and it was the best surprise of the night.
DR1
This is the first time Mary has used the Danish Ruby Parure for a state visit, so she really made it count. Wearing the Ruby Parure Tiara, the studs from the Ruby Parure Earrings, and the full Ruby Parure Necklace added a necessary bit of color to her golden Jesper Høvring gown (which we just saw at this year's New Year Court). March 28th being Queen Ingrid's birthday was an added bonus. Valedictorian of the class, this one.
TV2
One more tiara for the road! Princess Elisabeth of Denmark was a lovely surprise to see at the state banquet, wearing her usual pick, Princess Thyra's Sapphire Tiara.
And finally, do yourself a favor and enjoy just a bit of the sparkle in action.
Happy New Year! We're here to start things off as we always do: with tiaras, courtesy of glittering New Year events in Denmark and Japan. A gala banquet in Denmark is one of the most formal events of the year for the Danish royal family, where they wear the golden collars of the Order of the Elephant. In Japan, the imperial family gathers for a formal reception, and it's tiaras all around for everyone. We'll start our awards in Denmark:
Queen Margrethe always arrives to the New Year banquet in a flurry of fabric and jewels, with her trademark Yeti pelt fur wrap swinging. This year was all of that times ten, because her gown - a repeat from her 70th birthday celebrations - ended up looking like she was wearing two gowns at once under that wrap.
DR screencaps
She's also wearing the stomacher from the Danish crown pearl, ruby, and diamond set as a necklace. That's a lotta look by itself, let alone with the gold chain and the Pearl Poire Tiara and all the rest. Luckily, she's a woman with enough gravitas to pull it all off.
Crown Princess Mary opted to start the new year by testing my love of capes. This is the first time we've seen her Jesper Høvring gown in action (she wore it in a portrait last year), and it is a golden dream, very swoopy and grand in motion. (Check out video of the royal family's arrival here or here.) I'm just afraid it's being let down by the cape, which doesn't feel magnificent enough to go with this gown.
DR
I'm with her on the rest of it, though: the Danish Ruby Parure with the full version of the earrings, the hair pins in back, and the brooch used at her neckline. Fabulous.
I couldn't believe it when Princess Marie got out of the car: could she really be wearing a simple, slinky metallic sheath? She usually adds some froof to the equation. And so she had and I just didn't see it right away, in the form of a ruffle at the side of this new Ole Yde gown.
DR
The ruffle is subtle, and the bronze color makes an excellent showcase for her golden collar. Her Diamond Floral Tiara is never a bad idea. I think this might be her best New Year outing in quite some time.
Most Impressive in Group Sparkle
The Japanese Imperial Family
An impressive amount of sparkle here even with fewer tiaras than usual, because some family members are still observing mourning for Prince Mikasa. Empress Michiko no longer wears tiaras, but was elegant in pearls; the ladies of the Akishino family came with the full force of their diamond parures (Princess Kiko in the Akishino Tiara, plus Princess Mako in her tiara and Princess Kako in her tiara.) Crown Princess Masako arrived in the Japanese Pearl Sunburst Tiara.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark attended the annual New Year's gala banquet in January.
Mary's year always starts on a high note, and then it's up to the rest of the twelve months to try and beat her most formal appearance of the year. This one wasn't beatable. It's a classic Mary outfit, taking a previously worn ensemble (and a previous yearly best) and reinventing it by pairing her Jesper Høvring skirt with a blue velvet top and her Danish Ruby Parure. So dramatic, so good.
The Crown Princess and the Swedish royal family attended the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in December.
Similarly, it's always up to the Nobel Prize appearance to best whatever Victoria wore the rest of the year, and it so often does. This is a classic Victoria outfit, a custom gown by H&M done in sustainable materials, and making the best of pieces of the Cameo Parure and the Cut Steel Tiara. So dramatic, so good.
SVT
Which outfits make your best of 2016 list for Mary and Victoria?
Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary celebrated their copper wedding anniversary - twelve and a half years - yesterday. This calls for a celebration in Denmark, and so the couple's friends and family followed Danish tradition and "surprised" the couple with a morning wake up call in song. The royal court shared a photo:
So, happy anniversary to them, and happy occasion-for-a-Mary-Day-not-that-we-needed-a-reason-anyway to us! We'll have our Mary Day in a trademark Mary Way, with a flashback to the various ways she manages to reuse and give new life to things we've seen before. One dress, three ways...
Cour grand-ducale
One of Mary's outfits in Luxembourg in 2012, while attending wedding festivities for the Hereditary Grand Duke, was notable at the time as a continued display of the growing flexibility of the Danish Ruby Parure. Here, she wore a pared down version of both the necklace and earrings, along with her revised version of the tiara. It was also notable as the debut of a new red dress from one of her favorite designers, Jesper Høvring.
Jesper Høvring
We've seen the dress twice since, each time with a slightly different spin.
Earlier this year, she used it for a classic gala appearance. The jewels aren't as heavy as they were in 2012 - she wore her Diamond, Ruby, and Spinel Necklace Tiara - and I missed them. She was probably balancing out the added fuss of the sash, but I missed a little extra ruby power anyway. This was appearance #3 for the dress.
My favorite appearance of the dress to date was appearance #2. In the Netherlands in 2013, she wore the full version of the ruby parure earrings and went just a touch retro with the hair - the perfect solution for such a flippy and fun dress. I never say no to a tiara, but this might be a better black tie gown. Which is your favorite appearance?
It's a week for trips, and Denmark's got the home court advantage. The Danish royal family received the President and First Lady of Mexico for the first state visit of a Mexican president to Denmark.
The Queen and the Prince Consort, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, and Princess Benedikte met the President and First Lady
We've been doing a series of flashbacks to guests from William and Kate's wedding, so Queen Margrethe kindly took note (definitely) and made a point (absolutely) to repeat what she wore to those 2011 nuptials, just for us (totally what happened). Consider her flashbacked.
The crown princely couple accompanied the guests to Kronborg Castle
We saw this Missoni coat on Crown Princess Mary while on a trip to the Middle East in March, styled with black trousers for modesty purposes. As expected, it's even better with her usual princess styling. I remain smitten.
In the evening, the state banquet - and, more importantly, the tiaras.
Observing our comments last week on Mette-Marit's ketchup and mustard hat (mmhmm), both Crown Princess Mary and Princess Marie decided to use their newly awarded yellow sashes from Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle to recreate that condiment splendor in gala format for our entertainment (this is undoubtedly how it went down).
Marie's red dress is pretty much generic, I'm afraid. Still, she looks pretty, you can't go wrong with her Diamond Floral Tiara, and that's quite a dinner roll on the back of her head. The Danish royal hairstylists were earning their fees on this night.
(with Crown Prince Frederik in a different grade of the same order)
Mary's dress - a Jesper Høvring repeat, first seen at the pre-wedding dinner for the Luxembourg royal wedding in 2012 - has some personality. Personality in a good way, I think; against all ruffly odds, I'm basically digging it. Mary got me again. Crafty, this one.
And she wore her new tiara again! Her Diamond, Ruby, and Spinel Necklace Tiara (as I have just christened it, in my usual original fashion) looks spectacular with this mega updo. More in today's Tiara Thursday post.
Princess Benedikte in her Floral Tiara, Queen Margrethe in the Baden Palmette Tiara and the Collar of the Mexican order. Prince Henrik, not pictured, was also present.
Queen Margrethe went casual. Relatively casual, that is. This oft-repeated dress has a top that reminds me of macramé, and when I think macramé, I don't think tiaras and fancy collars from orders. She was also suffering from a little bit of necklace overload, with the sapphires from Queen Alexandrine worn over a thin chain (a personal necklace of some sort, she doesn't always take it off) plus the collar from the order. She definitely observes a hierarchy of events in terms of how gussied up she gets for the evening, and this event just didn't call for the big show. But we got tiaras, and that's all I need at the end of the day.
Photos: Jesper Høvring, DR screencaps, via Getty Images
Happy New Year! I love starting a fresh year, and love it even more so because we get to kick it off here with some serious sparkle. In Japan, they bring together all available family members for a state reception filled with tiaras; in Denmark, they attend the New Year’s banquet, one of the most formal events of the year and an occasion to wear the golden chains of the Order of the Elephant and some of their best jewels.
In Japan...
Most Sparkle Power
The Imperial Ladies
Left to Right: Kiko, Princess Akishino; Princess Mako of Akishino; Princess Kako of Akishino; Hanako, Princess Hitachi; Nobuko, Princess Tomohito of Mikasa; Princess Akiko of Mikasa; Princess Yōko of Mikasa; Hisako, Princess Takamado; Princess Tsuguko of Takamado; Princess Ayako of Takamado
Like I always say, for sheer tiara quantity, you can’t beat a mass gathering of the women of the Japanese imperial family. Each woman has her own parure to wear, and though the use of strictly white jewels can start to appear monotonous (what a thing to say about diamonds, right?!), there’s a style here for every taste. We've only featured two of the tiaras on display: the Akishino Tiara and Princess Kako's Tiara.
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko
2012 was the last time we saw Empress Michiko wear a tiara to this event. She’s stopped wearing them altogether, probably because of problems with the added weight. I do miss the Imperial Chrysanthemum Tiara, but I also can’t argue with that wonderful large brooch pinned in stomacher fashion. The Empress doesn't lack in sparkle simply because she goes tiara-free, that's for sure.
In Denmark...
Best in Repeats, Standard Division
Queen Margrethe
Queen Margrethe is a champion dress repeater, and I'm all for that when it means my favorite of her new gowns - the one worn to 2015’s Dutch state visit and to one of her birthday dinners - comes back. She paired the dress again with the Pearl Poire Tiara; her necklace, brooch, and earrings come from the pearl, diamond, and ruby set belonging to the Danish crown jewels.
Prince Henrik made his first appearance since the surprising announcement that he would be retiring from most public duties in 2016. I wasn’t surprised that the Prince Consort made the decision – he’s 81, and seemed to have more trouble getting around lately – but I was surprised that Queen Margrethe decided to make a big official announcement as part of her traditional New Year’s Eve speech. (Since I know someone will ask, Queen Margrethe has said in the past that she will not consider abdication.) He'll still make the occasional public appearance, so he's not disappearing.
Princess Marie’s white skirt and top are new, but the shape and the combo of a detailed top and plain skirt give me flashbacks to her blue/gray peplum outfit from 2014. It’s a good look anyway, and I love her hair with her usual Diamond Floral Tiara.
Best in Repeats, Creative Division, and Best in Show
Mary is also a champion dress repeater, and you just knew she had something up her sleeve when she wore a separate top and skirt for her amazing BAMBI Award appearance in 2014. When she first emerged from the car this evening, I thought she had a blue version made of her beloved reconfigured red velvet gown, but no!
There’s a creative reuse twist: the skirt from her sparkling navy blue Jesper Høvring ensemble has been recycled here with a new navy velvet top with a built-in train (the train on the original blue skirt was still there, underneath the velvet). The matching embellishment on the sleeves tied the pieces together, and the skirt was quite swoopy and spectacular in movement. ADORE.
She paired it with the Danish Ruby Parure (tiara, earrings, and hairpins), which is what she wears every year for this event.
A most auspicious start to 2016, I'd say. So tell me:
Who are you declaring the best dressed of the night?
The countdown to the next Swedish royal wedding has begun, kids. (That will be Sweden's Carl Philip and Sofia, in case you haven't been paying attention in class.) So don't be surprised if you see some random flashbacks to random outfits worn to random Scandinavian royal weddings in the past in the month to come. Starting...now!
Crown Princess Mary turned up at Crown Princess Victoria's wedding in a flowing Jesper Høvring gown with a lace top, plus her ruby tiara and ruby earrings with pearls attached. This was the first time Mary wore the Danish Ruby Parure Tiara outside of Denmark, and it was a fitting choice: Queen Ingrid made the rubies one of her signature jewels, and Ingrid was a Swedish princess who married the future King of Denmark in the very same church where Victoria was set to marry Daniel. And of course, the ruby set has a Swedish history of its own.
The jewels I was on board with, but the rest of this look didn't make much sense to me. The muted blue/green shade of the gown seemed such a strange choice as a background for ruby jewels and the bright yellow and blue sash of Sweden's Order of the Polar Star. The beige lace and the asymmetrical top didn't tie in with anything either. It didn't start to make sense until we saw the gown again the following year, after it underwent one of those trademark Danish royal makeovers...
And now I get it! Well, I get it as long as this was the end goal all along, making the look for Victoria's wedding just a temporary stop along the way. The now-banished lace made sense as a cover for the shoulders for a church wedding and a place to stick the sash and portrait brooch, intended to be replace with a sweeping over the shoulder addition at a later date.
Høvring does this flowy thing very well indeed, and in this format, I'd put this among my Mary favorites. The only downside is that it took a previous version to get here.
As noted yesterday, this month should bring us some treats to discuss (we'll be checking in with the Spanish state visit tomorrow). Typical me, though, I'm already looking forward to some of this year's big royal events, primarily Queen Margrethe's 75th birthday celebrations in April and the Swedish royal wedding in June. I predict that my excitement will lead to random outfit flashbacks involving previous similar events in the weeks to come, so you've been warned. Starting...now!
For Queen Margrethe's 70th birthday celebrations, a gala concert was held on the first night of the big royal gathering. Today's flashback features two of the gowns from that night on two of our lovely crown princesses:
Unfortunately, a volcano in Iceland decided to erupt just as the celebrations were getting underway, wreaking havoc on the travel plans of many of the scheduled royal guests. Crown Prince Haakon was among those delayed (he was coming off a solo visit to the Middle East), but Mette-Marit made it in time and Crown Prince Frederik pulled double date duty to escort M-M and Mary.
Mette-Marit's dress hits everything she typically goes for, no? A little bit of ruffle, a little bit of floral. A thoroughly standard appearance with one exception: we got to see the Amethyst Necklace Tiara instead of her standard Diamond Daisy Tiara! Only because the Diamond Daisy would make a later appearance and not because she actually chose this one first, but still.
Mary brought out her big gun, the Danish Ruby Parure, and this was its first public appearance after she had the shape modified to her tastes. She wore the ruby earrings with pearl pendants, the brooch, and the ruby bracelet as well. All of which served as a perfect complement to her sleek white Jesper Høvring gown, with the shoulder strategically placed to accommodate her Order of the Elephant riband. This was a winner for me, and I think it's time we see this gown again. Please?
It was wonderful to begin our visit to Belgium by having dinner with TRH King Philippe and Queen Mathilde. #GGBelpic.twitter.com/646KzGNQcq
— David Johnston (@GGDavidJohnston) October 28, 2014
Mathilde's luscious velvet number, worn to a dinner for the visiting Governor-General of Canada, is easily one of the most agreed upon dresses we've featured here and an easy pick for my favorite Mathilde outfit all year long. So much a favorite, actually, I'm having trouble even remembering anything else.
Her sublime white proclamation ensemble was instantly memorable and historical and all that jazz, but in the end, this Carolina Herrera gown with a perfect tiara pairing worn to the first state banquet of Felipe's reign easily surpassed it in my book (and maybe only in my book; opinions were pretty well split on this initial outing). If my patience ran low with the multitude of other lace ensembles we've seen in the past weeks, it's because my heart already belonged to this one. This was the year that Letizia got to know Carolina Herrera's designs, and I'm hoping for more of that (and less drawstring casual pants - easily my vote for her worst of the year) in 2015.
Armistice Centenary Service
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*The Queen ** and members of the Royal Family attended the National Service
to mark the centenary of the Armistice at Westminster Abbey, London.*
*BBC*
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