WEDDING FLOWERS: Necklaces
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Showing posts with label Necklaces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Necklaces. Show all posts
Royal Bling of the Day: February 18

Royal Bling of the Day: February 18

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Cams, you saucy minx.
The Duchess of Cornwall, along with the Prince of Wales, attended the Royal Film Performance of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel last night.
Here I thought she might be done with mega ruby breastplates necklaces, seeing as the last one she wore caused a bit of a fuss. But nooooope, she's got another up her sleeve. Here's the necklace worn previously:
Worn in Philadelphia, 2007.
The 2007 appearance featured a necklace that was among three sets of jewels picked up by Camilla during a tour of Saudi Arabia in 2005 (from various members of the vast and super rich ruling family; necklaces previously covered here or here). From afar, you might wonder if the necklace from last night was a remodel of the earlier version, but since the stones are different shapes and sizes, they are two different pieces. Talk about building a jewelry vault for yourself, my oh my.
Now we're back to last night.
Last night's was a suite of pear-shaped rubies in tiers with garlands of diamonds, a necklace accompanied by matching long earrings and also a ruby and diamond bracelet, which you can just see peeking out from the sleeve of her rich velvet gown. The whole set looks like another Middle Eastern gift to me; Camilla's official gift list for 2013 included a parure (no further details, alas) from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and I wondered if this might be the one, worn as a tribute to the recently deceased king. But that's just speculation on my part. Whatever its origins, I'm so glad they gave it to Cams. I mean, who else could pull this off?
Shout out to Chaz's getup last night, too. Takes a dapper man to make a simple tux worthy of notice in the face of such gem power, but there he is with his fancy cuffs and his checked pocket square, and I can't help but take notice. Nicely done as always.

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated
Royal Necklaces of the Day: February 5

Royal Necklaces of the Day: February 5

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Queen Máxima loves her jewelry, this we know, and she's not picky about the difference between heirloom pieces worn to impress and modern pieces worn for a fashion statement. I like big stones (and I cannot lie), but Máxima tests my love with some of the hardware she hangs around her neck, and some of her recent selections deserve a closer look.

Attending a symposium yesterday
Take yesterday's outfit, for example. Love the idea of a patterned jacket with a statement necklace; do not love the use of leftover Christmas tree decorations as said necklace.


At an event in Utrecht, January 15
This one looks like something made of rocks found by the kids down by the river. But in a world where the rivers are lined with gold, like Willy Wonka's factory for magpies.


At a financial inclusion conference in London, January 19
This one is also a riverbank finder's paradise. This is the same outfit worn when Felipe and Letizia visited the Netherlands, and at that time, Máx paired it with another mega necklace/possible display of medieval weaponry. So either the plain neckline is proving irresistible to the larger side of Máx's jewelry box, or maybe she got a makeup stain on the neck and ugh those things are hard to get out. (Maybe that's always the case. If so, Máx, I retract my entry and I'm with you 100%.)

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated
Royal Visit of the Day: October 16

Royal Visit of the Day: October 16

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Sometimes people dream up some pretty intricate scenarios of coordination between royal ladies before a joint event, all for the purposes of coordinating their outfits. And sometimes it's nice to have confirmation that that isn't necessarily the case. Because when the Spanish visited the Dutch yesterday for an introductory visit, we ended up with two royal ladies doing exactly what they would normally do, without special accommodations for each other. Letizia doesn't usually do hats and gloves (foreign royal weddings being one exception) - it's not the royal norm in Spain, and she has not made special exception for any of her other introductory visits - and Máxima does. And that's what we have here.
King Felipe, King Willem-Alexander, Queen Letizia, and Queen Máxima
The thing is, sticking to what they each do best doesn't leave me with much to root for here. Letizia is in her best color, but the added casual detail of the collar and trim brings this Felipe Varela dress down several notches. Máxima, in a Natan ensemble and necklace, is at it once again with the too matchy-matchy stuff (if she doesn't already have an entire closet devoted to all her different colors of gloves, she's going to need one soon). Also, I think her necklace is trying to murder us.
That leaves me not on Team Máx or Team Leti, but on Team Earring. Nice big diamonds from the Dutch, diamonds and rubies from the Spanish - Letizia's one concession to visiting Máxima's home territory. On that front, they were in perfect harmony.

Photos: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Royal Parliament Opening of (Last) Week: October 7

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'Tis the season for royal parliament business, and Norway took their turn last week. The King opened parliament with the Queen and the Crown Prince in attendance. This is the standard group for this event, by the way; this is one that Mette-Marit does not attend.
Queen Sonja often favors colors that go with the surroundings, and this year's red peplum jacket, black skirt, and black hat with cut outs on the brim were no exception. She did wave her Norwegian fashion flag in an outfit from Peter Dundas, who is the current designer for Emilio Pucci, and jewelry from Gine Sommerfelt (per Kjell Arne Totland). I'm not particularly fond of that close-fitting hat style, but Sonja sure seems to like it.

As for the gentlemen, they both wore the collar of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav together with the blue riband of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. 
Norway falls somewhere in the middle on the spectrum of fanciness in these royal parliament openings: not as sparkly as Britain's crowned affair and without the carriages and court dress of the Dutch Prinsjesdag, but still with a throne and uniforms. (The Danish version happens today, and we'll hopefully be covering that on its own later.) I think it's a happy medium. I don't always cover the Norwegian event here, but sometimes a little bit of pomp just hits the spot.

If you'd like to see this event on video, click here.

Photos: Sverre Chr. Jarild/Stortinget and Terje Heiestad/Stortinget, Bilder fra Stortinget via Flickr/Creative Commons

Sunday Tidbits for October 5: New Feature! Princely Twins, Auctions Galore, and an Imperial Wedding

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Lovely readers, I've decided to try out a new feature for the blog! It's a little something I'm calling Sunday Tidbits, a quick round of links to selected extras: more royal events, plus other articles and whatnots that might be of interest to you. Some news-ish, some not. Stroll through them on your lazy Sunday! Use them to cure a case of the Mondays! Do none of the above! (Hey, I don't know your life.)

Ready? Here we go:

--This has been rumored since they announced the pregnancy, but it appears that Prince Albert and Princess Charlene have confirmed to Hello! magazine that they are expecting twins. Charlene gave an interview to the publication during her recent visit to New York. Congrats to the couple! [@HelloCanada Twitter]

    --Princess Noriko of Takamado, the daughter of Princess Takamado and the late Prince Takamado, who was the Emperor of Japan's cousin, is getting married. She participated in a few ceremonies leading up to the wedding, including one in traditional garb to say farewell to the ancestor gods of the family, and one in the more modern traditional court dress with jewels to bid farewell to the Emperor and Empress. Like all females born to the imperial family, she received a parure when she came of age, this one including pearls and diamonds in a scrolling wave pattern. She won't formally be a part of the imperial family after her marriage, so her tiara days are coming to a close. Here's a video, and here's a blog covering the event. [Imperial Family of Japan Blog]
        And here is video from the wedding, held today:

        The fabrics are just gorgeous and her hair, the architecture of her hair, really, is fascinating. They look happy - as happy as they are allowed to look given the tremendous amounts of protocol every public appearance is subjected to, that is.

        --I thought Romania's Crown Princess Margarita looked very elegant in her purple recently. [Royal Hats Blog]

        --Crown Princess Victoria wore purrrrple too, for a cabinet meeting, so I'll sit on my typing fingers about the plain black accessory business. [Svensk Damtidning]

        --Returning to the Grimaldis for a moment, they have a collection of relics from Napoleon and his era, and they're selling off about a thousand pieces. Well sure, because now they have to buy two cribs, you see. (Okay, technically the article says the items, which have been on exhibit, are being sold to "to make room for a museum celebrating its own ruling dynasty".) Anyway, the French state might get involved, and it could be a whole thing. [The Independent]

        --The Swedish version of the Antiques Roadshow unearthed a tiara with a connection to Queen Sophia of Sweden and Norway (1836-1913). According to reader Anna, who sent this in, the floral diadem was one Queen Sophia gave as a gift. I do like to see garnets used in tiaras. [SVT video]
          --In other Swedish jewel news, Sotheby's is auctioning Queen Josephine's pearl necklace, a double strand of large natural pearls with pearl and diamond pendants. The necklace was probably given by Empress Joséphine to her daughter-in-law Augusta, Duchess of Leuchtenberg, and then to Augusta's daughter, Queen Josephine. It eventually passed out of the main royal line and was sold. It will now be sold again. Get that wallet out, King CG. [Sotheby's]
          On the left, Josephine wears the necklace in question

          And there you have it! Just a few extra tidbits for the week. Stay tuned Monday as we catch up on happenings in Spain and beyond.

          By the way, this series of posts has another purpose too: as open posts for commenters. For those of you that like to hang out and chat, please use these posts as a place for your off topic musings throughout the week, in the interests of keeping daily posts just a bit more manageable. Enjoy!

          Photos: FNN video, SVT video, Wikimedia Commons, Sotheby's

          Royal Outfit of the Day: May 13

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          Alexandra (then Princess Alexandra and the wife of Prince Joachim of Denmark, the Crown Prince's younger brother; now the Countess of Frederiksborg) attended Frederik and Mary's 2004 wedding.
          I adore Alexandra's style - during her marriage, she was the epitome of princess style, never afraid to go big. But this...is an exception to my love. The pink silk duchess satin gown from Henrik Hviid is maybe just a touch too Barbie for my taste, between the particular color of pink and the embellishments (what are those supposed to be, anyway? Close up above) on the bodice. She used a matching bolero-style capelet to cover her shoulders for the ceremony, but as you can see in the video below, it seemed to be a bit of a hassle on the way in.

          Video: Arrivals at the church, including Alexandra at 2:10.
          On the other hand, her jewelry game is basically flawless: the amazing Alexandrine Drop Tiara is on full display, and she wore a massive necklace with matching earrings. (If I recall correctly, the necklace and earrings may have been a loan for the day, since it wasn't a set seen again and wasn't a known royal heirloom.) And you know I'll award all sorts of bonus points for that.

          What say you: too Barbie? Just right?

          Photos: Getty/DR1

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