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Showing posts with label Black. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black. Show all posts

Royal Outfit Grab Bag of the Day: June 10

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GREETINGS. Here are some random pockets of fabulousness that I would like to share with you, so that we may bask in the glow of their splendiferousness together:

Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel at the Polar Music Prize last night
Victoria occasionally tries to go a little bit edgy for the music stuff, which is fine but not really in her wheelhouse. This is much better. Straight from the music event to cocktails on a warm Ibiza night, this. I hope someone gave her a drink with a wee umbrella in it.
Dress from House of Dagmar, Earrings from Oscar de la Renta


King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia also attended the Polar Music Prize
Here's Sils at the same event. (With a fur, so there goes my Ibiza fantasy.) Fabulous designation goes to the color only; the Yuki-designed ensemble itself is suspiciously Zbornakian.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia commemorated Armed Forces Day on Saturday.
Letizia mixed and matched a previously worn jacket and a previously worn skirt, and the whole is greater than the sum of its two parts. Well done.

Queen Máxima during the official visit to the U.S. last week.
And finally: Máx looks chic, and this brooch (from Queen Sophie, worn by Beatrix on her wedding day) is to die for. This was last week - a MILLION YEARS AGO in internet times - but dedicated Máx fans understand the importance of saving up the chic moments to sustain you during the long droughts, like a camel heading for a Sartorial Sahara that could spring itself on you at any time.

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated, Nelly, Oscar de la Renta

Royal State Visit and Tiara Watch of the Week: June 2

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I like to imagine the Swedish royal family limbering up their bobby pins and stretching in their high heels with one last tiara event before the big wedding, courtesy of the incoming state visit from the President of India. It's important to warm up for your athletic events.

But first: The President arrived in Sweden on Sunday and was greeted by the King and Queen, Crown Princess and Prince Daniel, and Prince Carl Philip with Sofia Hellqvist (making her state visit debut).
Big hat alert! Victoria looks so great with a big brim, and I'm so glad to be free of forehead-bolters for the day, I'm gonna forget everything else.
Kungahuset.se
If you were in the mood for a smaller hat, Queen Silvia's got you covered with one of her standard monochromatic ensembles. And if you were in the mood for a Mette-Marit-style state visit ensemble (you know, a plain outfit plus a not-a-hat ornament), well, Sofia's your girl. Her little pouf of a head decoration can't even be seen from the front.

~*Hit Pause On Your State Visit Musings*~
Day 2 for Victoria started out not in state visit mode but in crown princely BFF mode, welcoming next door neighbors Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit for the EAT Stockholm Food Forum. Happy summery prints abound!
Mette-Marit's dress from Isolda (with a stylized chili print!), Victoria's from Oscar de la Renta
The only thing about this that bums me out is the sad little angular blazer Mette-Marit threw on top of this floaty feminine dress. Awkward dress to pick if you want to cover it up, and an awkward clash of styles.
~*And Now Let The State Visit Musings Continue*~

Kungahuset.se
Joining up with the state visit group, Victoria threw a structured white jacket into the mix, and I think I like it even more than the cardigan. This Oscar de la Renta dress on Victoria and that white outfit from Sunday's post are giving me a renewed verve for her day style, and I hope it starts a streak.

At the end of day 2 came the tiaras.
Sofia floated in to her first state banquet on a cloud of black embellishment and ruffles (talk about taking a cue from Mette-Marit) and though she showed she's ready for more with her big emerald and diamond earrings from Ebba Brahe Jewellery, there were to be no gems from the family vault for the soon-to-be princess. Not just yet.

The tiara squad featured Silvia in her predictable Pronger and Victoria repeating her green sequined Elie Saab from the Nobel ceremony in 2012, with the Cut Steel Tiara. The golden tones of the Cut Steel plus the glittering green Vegas Kermit gown is not a combination of which I am fond, friends.
Kungahuset.se
UNLESS...unless we're not warming up for the wedding but are rather getting a few things out of our system before the big day, making way for something more interesting come June 13th. If that's the case, then carry on, Swedes, carry on.
Royal Outfit of the Day: May 20

Royal Outfit of the Day: May 20

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Queen Letizia repeated in a big way last week:
Hello again, Felipe Varela worn to King Felipe's proclamation, dittoed right down to the small bow decoration of the Order of Charles III. I think it's improved this time by her updo, actually, which of course is the same thing I say regarding any old updo. At least I'm consistent.

I was surprised she wore this outfit again, just like I was surprised to see Queen Máxima repeat her own inauguration outfit this year. I guess I assumed the historic nature of these outfits would throw them under the one-and-done category, packed up and saved for an exhibit 25 years from now or something. Wrong then, wrong now. (CONSISTENCY.)

This was a ceremony for the delivery of the national flag to the 11th National Teach Zone of the Civil Guard, and it's a pretty formal event. She's wearing one of her most important outfits, but she's doing so because she's breaking with an even more formal dress code that existed for these types of events during the last reign. (Or so I am hypothesizing.)

To illustrate my point:
Letizia at a similar ceremony for the Civil Guard in 2005
All black with a mantilla and peineta (the large comb underneath) and a full length skirt used to be the dress code for this sort of thing. It is (it was) a nod to old formal dress, brought back by Queen Sofia over the years of King Juan Carlos' reign, something she settled into and passed to other female members of the family that took on these types of events.

Queen Sofia, similar ceremony in 2013
Queen Letizia's white suit last week was another sign that she will be doing things her own way. That's not surprising; there are certainly things that need modernizing and fixing in the monarchy, and she and Felipe have shown that they are ready to make changes. Not bad, just different.

Infanta Cristina, similar ceremony in 2006
That said, since this is a place for frivolous concerns and this is apparently my week to express my love for any sort of nationally specific sartorial thing - man, I hope the whole pieneta thing isn't gone from the royal scene for good now.

Letizia at another ceremony, 2006, also worn for a papal audience
It's just very regal, no? And special, something different from the norm to mark an occasion here or there. Oh well. Once again, my personal interests have been totally ignored in the decision making process of a monarchy in a country to which I don't belong. {DRAMATIC SIGH}

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated

Royal Outfit Grab Bag of the Day: May 7 (Plus a Programming Note!)

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I've got a big fat grab bag of outfits from our regulars for you today, and then we're off until Sunday. To the clothes!

Princess Elisabeth of Belgium christened a ship yesterday with her parents, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, in attendance. 
Is it, like, international week of ship christening for future sovereigns, or what? First Ingrid Alexandra, now Elisabeth. Anyway, I'm liking her little starter "hat" and her mother can't go wrong with that repeated Dior.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit opened the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale yesterday in a peony floral dress from the Pia Tjelta by Ti Mo collection.
I think this could just as easily have been worn by Princess Elisabeth above, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Queen Letizia held audiences at Zarzuela Palace last week wearing a Felipe Varela dress repeated from March's trip to France.
Is this one of those Magic Eye things? Is a dolphin going to leap out from the middle if I stare long enough?

Daniel wore a suit that wasn't black or blue! Write it on the calendar! It's so sad that that's worthy of note! But you take what you can get when it comes to the royal men! (Also, apropos of nothing: Victoria, Daniel, Haakon, and Mette-Marit went on a ski trip in Norway together recently. Which is super cute.)

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima attended a ceremony for Remembrance Day in Amsterdam this week.
I do not usually comment on things like this, but I can't help but note how lovely Máx looked here. I like it when events like this warrant a little extra effort.

They also attended the Liberation Day Concert.
And finally, if I focus hard enough on the emeralds - earrings and a butterfly brooch from the family collection - I can pretend that dress that stole feathers from a Big Bird gone goth didn't make a reappearance.

Photos: via Getty Images and Twitter as indicated; Kongehuset Facebook and By Ti Mo

Royal Visit of the Day: April 29

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Queen Silvia and Princess Madeleine, with her husband Chris O'Neill and daughter Princess Leonore, have been in Rome and Vatican City this week. They were there primarily to attend a conference focusing on child trafficking (below), organized in part by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Queen Silvia has been an advocate on this subject for some time and opened the conference; Princess Madeleine is joining in her mother's work in this area and with the World Childhood Foundation.
It also happens to be an area of focus for Pope Francis, and Queen Silvia dropped by for an audience on Monday, and she brought the whole family too. Chris O'Neill is Catholic, no doubt a reason why he and little Leonore tagged along.
I was surprised to see the family put on one of the most formal papal visits we've seen in a while, dress code-wise. Both wearing traditional black, Queen Silvia stuck with a long skirt and heavy pearl jewels, while expectant Princess Madeleine wore a black dress and short jacket with a long single strand of pearls. The royal ladies wore heavy black mantillas and their portrait brooches.
Vatican dress code protocol has gotten much less rigid in recent years. We've gone from the days of tiaras and veils to optional head coverings and daywear; even the color code of white for those with privilège du blanc and black for others has been relaxed under Pope Francis. (The current pope has much more pressing concerns than dress code, like hanging out with his tiny new BFF.)
I always love a good mantilla appearance, but I love it even more as it becomes more of an optional thing, honestly. It's up to them and they chose to go fancy, and that's always a decision I can get behind.
Video: The audience

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated

Royal Outfits of the Day: April 27

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Two outfits today, one I should like that I don't, and one I shouldn't that I do. It doesn't make any more sense than that sentence did.
Take this, for instance: Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary celebrated the anniversary of the Hotel d'Angleterre, and Mary wore a black dress from Ole Yde's YDE label with a tiered tulle skirt.
So this is basically the little sister to that black Carolina Herrera gown that Queen Letizia wore last year. And I looooved that gown. Therefore...I should like this gown...and yet, NOPE.
I blame the bodice. Maybe just borrow the dress from Leti next time?

And then there's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, still doing her version of wardrobe musical chairs, grabbing whatever's at hand when the music stops.
And much to my surprise, I think I like it this time! Sure, I'd change the skirt, because I can always find something to change. But the sweater manages to feel very much in the M-M style without being a) black or white, b) covered in flowers, or c) covered in ruffles. A change I can get behind.
The sweater is from Burberry Prorsum
The whole world's gone topsy turvy, I'm telling you.

Photos: as indicated and YDE, Style.com

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