WEDDING FLOWERS: Birgit Hallstein
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Showing posts with label Birgit Hallstein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birgit Hallstein. Show all posts

Royal Fashion Awards: Queen Margrethe’s Christiansborg Birthday Dinner

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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

State Visit and Tiara Watch of the Day: March 18

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HELLOOOOOO! We're heeeere!
With a flurry of kisses and other assorted warm greetings, the Dutch state visit to Denmark is off and running, and it's giving me such warm fuzzies, I'm throwing Wednesday's post up for a late Tuesday treat. This is a long one, might take you to Wednesday to read it anyway.
Queen Margrethe, looking jaunty with a feather in her cap, brought the whole fam damily out to greet her godson at the airport: Prince Henrik, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, and Princess Benedikte and Prince Richard. The gentlemen wore suits...but wait, we even have some additional comments on that, looks like some of the Danish party opted for orange ties to greet their Orange visitors and King Willem-Alexander went for light blue, the color of Denmark's Order of the Elephant. Points for all that.
Máxima opted for a spacious coat in bedazzled gray with a split sleeve that I thought Empress Michiko had trademarked. It won't go down as a personal favorite for me, but it is clever in one respect: it's a design by Claes Iversen, a Danish-born designer operating out of the Netherlands. Points for that, I say again.
Obviously, the other stand out for me from the arrivals was the purple touches - a bit in Marie's hat, but primarily on Mary. A repeated pill box hat and purple gloves, a tribute to the queen of coordinated colored gloves. POINTS FOR PURPLE.
Meanwhile, back in Máx land, underneath her big coat she was wearing a sapphire and diamond brooch (plus sapphire and diamond earrings). Which was pretty much just one big preview for the day's main event, the state banquet. TIARA TIME! Ignore the bored looks in this screencap, this stuff is exciting, dang it.
Our two queens were a pleasant inverse of each other, a light blue gown for Margrethe with her darker blue Order of the Netherlands Lion sash, and a darker blue gown (a very familiar one) for Máxima with her newly-awarded light blue Order of the Elephant. Each queen brought something special to this special state visit in her own way. (Pro tip before I dig in here: If we've covered the tiara in depth in the past - and we have, with all of these - the name will be linked, always!)
Queen Margrethe repeats gowns so often, a new one (which this is) is a rare treat. And of course she wore her Pearl Poire Tiara, because it was King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia's wedding gift to his daughter Louise, who was marrying Prince Frederik of the Netherlands.
A Dutch connection on one of her most important jewel options was certainly a predictable choice, but no less significant. (Important note, after several questions about this: No, she is not missing any pearls in her tiara. The pearls are pendants within the arches and they move a fair amount as Queen Margrethe does. Some of them are just swinging slightly behind the framework in any given photo.)
Queen Máxima wore the Jan Taminiau gown that she wore underneath a cape for her husband's inauguration, which is really a treat as I thought that magnificent ensemble might be retired for good (you know, because of history and mic dropping and whatnot).
I love it just as much now as I did then, and her sapphire and diamond accessories are still the perfect touch.
Interestingly, while she had the Dutch Sapphire Tiara slightly altered for the inauguration to lower the center section for a more even top line, it's now reverted to the taller top. Flexibility! Glorious.
In the face of all that specialness, you'll have to forgive me for being a wee bit let down by Mary's choices. This is the gown we just saw at the New Year's Court gala, and she's used only her wedding tiara (and not even with its pearls) with her aquamarine girandole earrings.  
My unattainable standards aside, this is another gown I'm glad to see without its cape, and I'm glad to see both her and Frederik in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
In another New Year's Court repeated gown (this one from 2014), we have Princess Marie in her diamond floral tiara, because what else?
Both she and Joachim were given a lower Dutch order (a house order), the Order of the Crown, as were Princess Benedikte and Prince Richard.
This is only a fleeting glance of the couple (better look in this gallery), but you can see Ben's a girl after my own heart, coordinating her orange with a lavender gown and sporting her own big gun tiara, the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Fringe Tiara.

Well, that's me off to delight in my tiara coma with a sigh and oh so many jumpy claps. Stay tuned as the state visit rolls on...

Photos: Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images, Billed-Bladet video, TV2 video, Michael Stub - Her Og Nu via Getty

Royal Outfit of the Day: August 22

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If the opportunity ever presented itself to peek inside Crown Princess Mary's closet...I think I'd just set up shop and stay put. Get a cot. Little camp stove. Make me a little Prada nest in which to live out the rest of my days. Yup. Actually - believe it or not - there are things in there that don't interest me, but as far as what I'd grab, I can tell you for sure this one would be on the list:
At Princess Isabella's christening.
I've always had such a soft spot for this mauve-y purple dress. It's a Birgit Hallstein creation, and I'm pretty sure I've liked every one of those Mary's worn.
The dress takes its inspiration from a Prada dress that was already in Mary's closet, but I prefer to imagine it was dreamt up in a moment of pure Liesl love.
A little bit at least, right?
Now, I know some of you would be right there with me in the Prada nest, but I trust you have nothing better to do with your Friday than contemplate my question...

If you could have one item from Mary's closet (yeah, one), what would it be?

Photos: Steen Brogaard/Kongehuset, Niels Henrik Dam/Getty Images, and 20th Century Fox

Royal Outfit of the Day: May 9

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Mary Donaldson married Crown Prince Frederik on May 14, 2004.
You knew this was coming, didn't you. (You did, no question mark required.) Yes, if you pay attention to your royal dates, you were probably expecting that we would have something here to mark Mary and Frederik's 10th wedding anniversary, and so we will - a week of celebrations! Yippee. Next week, we're focusing on some of the outfits worn by the guests at this memorable event. (We won't be ignoring current events though, not to worry.)

To get us in the mood, here's Mary's divisive wedding gown. Is it a milk maid, or is it the best ever? These seem to be the two schools of thought. My opinions on royal wedding gowns often change over time, but when it comes to Mary, I'm consistent: Yes to the bodice, Meh to the skirt, NO to the hair. Oh, and fun fact: the dress was designed by Uffe Frank, but the one in charge of making it was Birgit Hallstein, who has made other bespoke dresses for Mary since (including some of my favorites, like the burgundy velvet gown, or my pick for Mary's best from last year).

Video: Part 1, Frederik's arrival. For more: Part 2, Part 3 (Mary walks down the aisle), Part 4, Part 5
Click here for my full post on the dress. And above, video of the ceremony in multiple parts, if you're in the mood. (I never miss a chance to see Mary's entrance to Zadok the Priest, myself. Chills, every time.)

Photos: Steen Evald/Kongehuset.dk

Royal Outfit of the Day: February 7

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Crown Princess Mary's four appearances in her burgundy velvet Birgit Hallstein gown. By planning ahead with extra fabric, they were able to drastically alter it from a maternity gown to its current state, according to the designer.
Mary had a birthday this week! She turned 42, and that requires a celebration. I prefer to celebrate with tiaras and gowns, how about you? (She's been out and about this past week, but nothing birthday worthy, I say.) I compiled a list of my favorite Mary outfits when she turned 40 and would certainly have more to add by now, but this is a classic favorite. There's a sort of medieval feel to the original maternity gown (worn twice while pregnant with Princess Isabella) that I just find delectable, and the gown's debut featuring the full necklace and earrings from the ruby parure with the tiara as Queen Ingrid wore it will always be one of my favorite royal gala appearances. I'm not as much a fan of the current version, but I love that it shows the evolution of her style - planning ahead since maternity wear has limited use, and reflecting the new flexibility of the ruby set that she's so clearly enjoying. Either way, regal as can be, and totally birthday worthy.

Photos: PPE/BT/Scanpix

Royal Fashion Awards: New Year, New Sparkle

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And so it is time, once again, to ring in a new year of royal splendor in the way we always do: with tiaras! The Danish royal family wastes no time busting out their finery, holding the first of a series of New Year's events with a banquet on January 1. It's time for tiaras, gowns, uniforms, and the extra fancy collars from the Order of the Elephant:

Video: The royal family arrives

Best Repeated Variety
Queen Margrethe
The Queen can be counted on to repeat a gown for the event, but she's the only one of the three ladies here that changes up her tiara choice from year to year, so there's that. This year she repeated a favorite apple green gown which is quite flattering and paired it with her traditional Yeti pelt fur wrap and the Danish Emerald Parure from the crown jewels. She also wore this combo in 2011 for the same event.

Most Stretched Repeat
Crown Princess Mary
The banquet has become Mary's yearly opportunity to display just how creative she can get with the many pieces of the Danish Ruby Parure - and normally, I love it. But...maybe sticking the brooch on a piece of velvet and calling it a choker is stretching it just a tad, hmm? The choker is a new incarnation of this burgundy velvet dress, which is making its third appearance at the event and has been revamped from its original maternity form.

Best in New
Princess Marie
Making sure we don't drown in repeated gowns, Marie's here to save the day in a new number with a printed peplum top and a solid skirt with a train. The way she's pinned on her collar is just lovely, but I'm missing the small portrait brooch of Queen Margrethe (as worn by Mary) - we've seen Marie wear the honor previously, but not tonight. A picky request, though, from a completely elegant appearance. She is wearing her regular diamond floral tiara.

And an Honorable Mention to...
Helle Thorning-Schmidt
I know basically two things about Denmark's prime minister: she likes a good selfie, and she knows exactly how to dress herself for gala events when she's thrown in with tiara-wearing ladies. All politics aside, she's my tiara-less best dressed for the evening. I mean, this is just gorgeous.

There are two additional receptions in Denmark to be held yet (neither with tiaras, but still fancy court dress).

UPDATE: And here's the sparkly event in Japan, in the video below!
For the second year in a row, Empress Michiko has chosen not to wear a tiara, I believe for medical reasons (extra weight on the head can be troublesome if you have a back issues and things like that). At the beginning, we see the Crown Princess arrive in the pearl-tipped diamond fringe tiara. She does not appear at the audience itself, so the arrival is all we get. The rest of the imperial ladies are sporting their individual tiaras.

Who wins your best dressed award?

Photos: DR1/BilledBladet/Scanpix

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