Year in Review: Kate and Mette-Marit's 2014 Bests

Year in Review: Kate and Mette-Marit's 2014 Bests

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Each year, I like to pick a single Best of the Year outfit for each of the royal ladies we check in with most frequently. I chose these two royal ladies to kick things off because of one big similarity: I had a really hard time picking a best for both of them.

The Duchess of Cambridge

The thing about Kate is that she's a very consistent dresser. This works in her favor most of the time - nothing came to mind when I started pondering what her worst of the year would be, for example - but it sure did make it hard for me to pick any one thing that stood out as the year's best. I was tempted to name the recently reused Packham, but honestly that would have been because it gave us her two biggest jewel moments for the year and not because of the dress. So I flipped back through the year and emerged with this one in mind:

It almost feels too ordinary to be the year's best, if you know what I mean - and you will, once you see how many gowns make my list as we roll on - but I love the clean silhouette and the poppy print. It's also among the fruits of the Cambridge's New Zealand/Australia tour, certainly one of 2014's most memorable royal trips. So there you go: L.K. Bennett and blue poppies it is!

Crown Princess Mette-Marit

Mette-Marit stumped me for a different reason. You see, she usually turns up the volume and does her best sartorial work at international royal events, so I automatically start there when it comes to looking for her best of the year. But this year...we didn't really have any such events! So we're left with her events at home, which was a lot of similar day outfits, most of the Pia Tjelta by Ti Mo collection, and a handful of repeated gowns, sometimes revamped but leaving me longing for the original. Le sigh.

So I settled on a Valentino coat worn during the celebrations for the anniversary of Norway's constitution, a piece I like so much I picked it when it came time for her closet raid. I'm having a bit of a love affair with white this year, and nobody does it better than M-M, so it feels right after all. 

Your turn: What were your 2014 Kate and Mette-Marit favorites?

Photos: L.K. Bennett and CPL Shannon McCarthy / © Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence,  NRK.no/Style.com/Stortinget

Year in Review: 2014's Royal Happenings

Year in Review: 2014's Royal Happenings

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Now is the time when I look around and wonder when I forgot how to use a calendar, because once again the end of the year has snuck up on me. But here we are, with many of the royal families beginning to wind things down for Christmas holidays, and it is indeed time for our annual year in review posts. Today, a look at some of the year's main events.

I always look first for those events that bring together big groups of international royals, and as I tried to remember what happened this year (always a struggle), I had one thought: We have been so spoiled by the past few years. Seriously, 2013 capped a run of years packed with the kind of events - weddings! jubilees! inaugurations! - that bring us big fat royal gatherings. In comparison, 2014 has felt much quieter on the international royal front.

View image | gettyimages.com

From the centenary of World War I to the 70th anniversary of D-Day (pictured above), this has been a year of remembrance. And when I thought back to occasions where royals from different countries came together, it was often for these memorials. So often a somber duty, but one they do particularly well.
 

Also tops on the list of Important Royal Events of 2014: King Juan Carlos abdicating in favor of his son Felipe, continuing the trend of throne swaps from 2013 and keeping us well stocked with introductory visits to chat about.

The past few years have been full of weddings, so I suppose it only follows that we are now in the years of BABIES. Prince George's first tour, Princess Leonore's birth and christening, twins for Monaco, a second baby on the way for the Cambridges, and more. Tiny humans, everywhere, running the show.

View image | gettyimages.com

We did have a few weddings on our radar this year, though: in Monaco (well, actually in Switzerland, but you know what I mean), in Germany, in Japan, in Morocco. But the one that tops my list for Royal Wedding of the Year was that of Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este and Elisabetta (Lili) Maria Rosboch von Wolkenstein. Even in a sparse wedding year, we still get our share of Valentino couture gowns. And 2014 leaves us with the promise of at least one big royal event for 2015 in the nuptials of Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist.

Stay tuned in the coming days, as we revisit the year's tiara moments and some of our favorite looks from our regulars. Until then:

What was your favorite 2014 royal moment?

Photos: Samir Hussein/Wire Image via Getty Images, RTVE video, Anna-Lena Ahlström/Kungahuset.se, Elisabetta Villa via Getty Images