WEDDING FLOWERS: Jacques Zehnder
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Showing posts with label Jacques Zehnder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacques Zehnder. Show all posts

Royal Fashion Awards: Queen Margrethe’s Christiansborg Birthday Dinner

Queen Margrethe and the Danish royal family were joined for an official dinner for her 75th birthday by fellow European sovereigns, and: YAY. That's all I have to say. Well, I have quite a lot more to say, as you will see from this lengthy and picture-laden entry, but that's the gist of it.

A couple notes: If we’ve covered these jewels in the past (and we usually have!), there will be a link. Most of these people are wearing the light blue Order of the Elephant from Denmark, which is usually given to sovereigns and their spouses, plus those in the Danish family. If foreign royals are wearing a different sash, it’s because they haven’t had a chance to receive the Order of the Elephant yet (they’re usually given at state visits, and occasionally at other times; here's my explainer post on that).

Now, to the awards:

Best in Coincidences
Queen Margrethe
Tuesday’s post featured a flashback to an epic Margrethe outfit using the Floral Aigrette Tiara and pieces of the ruby, diamond, and pearl set from the crown jewels – and that’s precisely what she gave us again! And in a flowing red dress, because why not? She is the birthday girl, after all. (And she flew solo, because Henrik is out with the flu.)


Best in Repeats
Crown Princess Mary
You saw me die over this Birgit Hallstein gown when Mary wore it previously. And then you saw me die over it in another format when Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt wore something similar to the New Year’s Court in 2014. And here we go again! Mary paired it this time with the tiara, small earrings, bracelet, and hair clips from the Danish Ruby Parure. This is both stunning and understated – in other words, the perfect choice. And in an inadvertent twin episode, PM Helle wore her version again, too!
Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the right

Best in Old Favorites, Part 1
Princess Marie
Marie loves a good peplum gown and she loves her Diamond Floral Tiara (which is her only solid option for an event like this, having just one other tiara at her disposal which is much more informal), so this navy lace peplum and tiara combo was entirely expected. But it’s also entirely lovely! She's also wearing a brooch from Queen Alexandrine as a pendant, so she's fully loaded with her family heirlooms.

Best in Old Favorites, Part 2
Queen Anne-Marie
I almost did another flashback to the birthday celebrations in 2010 today, which would have featured this exact same gown and Greek Emerald Parure pairing on Anne-Marie. She wears the heck out of her gowns and she wears the heck out of those emeralds, and I can’t say I blame her on either count.

Best in Beach Cover-Up Gravitas
Princess Benedikte
On anyone else, this floaty top layer would be a swimsuit cover-up, tossed on as they flew in from a day at the beach. But Princess B. can carry anything off, and now it's magically part of a gala gown (mind you, the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Fringe Tiara and a solid smattering of diamonds doesn't hurt, either!).

Best in Extended Tiaras
Countess Sussie and Princess Elisabeth
Married to Count Ingolf of Rosenborg, cousin to the Queen, Countess Sussie (on the left) usually brings us a sighting of Queen Alexandrine’s Fringe Tiara, and so it is here. Also a cousin of Queen Margrethe, Princess Elisabeth (on the right) usually brings us a sighting of Princess Thyra’s Sapphire Tiara, and so it was yet again. File both these tiaras under "not a fave, but lovely to see."

Best in Solo Gentlemen
King Harald and Grand Duke Henri
I make no excuses for paying more attention to the ladies around here, but a little love for the gents in attendance without their better halves: Harald and Henri! Dashing in their uniforms all on their own (and I love Harald completing the Scandinavian Sovereign Trio there, which should be the name of their a cappella group). An engagement in New York is occupying Queen Sonja, and I'm not sure what happened to Grand Duchess Maria Teresa.

Best in Splendor Dedication
Queen Silvia
Silvia injured her shoulder a while back, and it appeared she had some sort of support fashioned out of her dress material for her bad arm, not for one second risking her sartorial splendor for some random injury. THIS IS TRUE DEDICATION, PEOPLE. All the applause to you, Queen Sil. (And to your fabulous Leuchtenberg Sapphires too!)

Best in Big Guns
Queen Mathilde
Together with her almost unbearably shiny repeated Armani Privé gown, Mathilde gave us a tiara debut: the full version of the Nine Provinces Tiara! She's worn the bandeau, but this was the first time she's added the top arches in. I think this might be the first time I've actually liked this pointy wall of diamonds, so credit to Mathilde for making that happen.

Most Meh in Understated
Queen Máxima
Well, she can’t bear full responsibility for bringing the jumpy claps every single time, I suppose. And leave it to Máxima to wear a tiki hut skirt and still make my understated list, eh? She went standard with the Diamond Bandeau Tiara, her favorite, but she did pin the brooch from the Stuart Tiara parure to her waist. She's just teasing us, at this point, keeping us waiting for an appearance of the elusive beast itself.

Best in NEW TIARAS!
Queen Letizia
Never mind that Máx went standard, Letizia picked up the slack with an elusive tiara of her own! Made by Ansorena and reportedly a gift from Felipe, we've been waiting years to see this one in action. The center brooch has been seen, but not the tiara. It was nearing apocryphal status, for heaven’s sake, but a foreign tiara engagement proved the perfect place to finally bring it out of hiding.
We will have to give this one the full Tiara Thursday treatment later on (a couple Spanish articles about the tiara: one, two).
I'm reserving judgement until then. But for now, for simply showing us something I had completely given up on, she wins all the jumpy claps!

Stay tuned...the festivities continue with a full day of events tomorrow and another dinner tomorrow. For now:

Who was your best dressed at this dinner?

Photos: Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images, DR1 video, Ansorena

Royal Closet Raid of the Day: December 8

It's shaping up to be a busy royal week, and I thought we'd kick it off with a little excitement for the sparkliest event coming our way: the Nobel Prize Ceremony, on the 10th. And to do that, another in our series of closet raids is in order. This time we're stealing borrowing admiring respectfully items from the wonder of Queen Silvia's wardrobe.

Silvia has all the age-appropriate daywear you could ask for, but she also has years and years of some of the most spectacular royal gowns around. There's a selection there no matter what your age - just ask her daughter Princess Madeleine, who borrowed one of the gowns worn to the Nobel Prize Ceremony for her wedding reception!
The Nobel ceremony dress archives are the real treasure trove here, and I think I might have to go with 1999's grand number from Jacques Zehnder (one of Silvia's favorite designers), a light pink silk brocade woven with gold roses and featuring a serious train at the back. Gotta have that train, that's one of the things Silvia's best at.
And I might also be swayed here by her use of the majestic pink topaz and diamond demi-parure from the family collection - drool. The set dates from the early 1800s in Russia, where it belonged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. Made of pink topaz stones surrounded by diamonds and set in gold and silver, the demi-parure includes a necklace with pendants, earrings, and two brooches (one smaller and one larger with a pendant). It's featured in the book Jewels from Imperial St. Petersburg by Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm, where its roots are described as such:
"The set was a gift by Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna to her daughter Maria on the occasion of the birth of her second daughter, Augusta. It was inherited by Augusta (1811-1900), later Queen of Prussia and Empress of Germany. She passed it on to her daughter Luise (1838-1923), Grand Duchess of Baden, who in her turn bequeathed it to her daughter Viktoria (1866-1929), Queen of Sweden."
And it has remained in Sweden ever since, where it is currently worn exclusively by Queen Silvia. She uses it as a grand accompaniment to her diamond tiaras, as illustrated in some striking new portraits recently released by the royal court:
Gorgeous. Just wrap those up and we'll be good, actually. But - back on track now - if you need gown inspiration, the Nobel organization has the details on the Queen's gowns, and here's a fun video with many of the Nobel years in a quick flash:
And now, my question to you...

If you could have one thing from Silvia's wardrobe, what would it be? 

Photos: Nobel Prize video, De Kongelige Julever video, Anna-Lena Ahlström / kungahuset.se

Royal Outfit of the Day: February 13

Queen Silvia attended the Semper Opera Ball in Dresden, wearing a repeated Jacques Zehnder apricot and gold brocade gown.
Silvia's worn this dress before, to both Crown Princess Victoria's pre-wedding dinner and the Nobel Prize ceremony in 2011, and it's always classic Silvia elegance. But check the necklace and earrings this time. A jewelry collection large enough to allow her to perfectly match an apricot gown? Respect, Sil. Respect.


Photos: Getty Images

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