Monday 29 June 2015

The Royal Wardrobe

The Royal Wardrobe is a bit lighter in many ways this week. Summer means that the heavy coats have gone, even for Queen Letizia, and it also means there are fewer royals on display as warmer weather usually means a dip in engagements. So get ready for lots of frocks, lots of bare arms and lots of yellow. Lots. Although we start with cream or dark white or ivory - whatever you want to call it, Crown Princess Mary's evening look of the week was sleek, stylish and an eye catcher with class.



Mary donned the dress for a visit to the Reumert Prizes in Copenhagen on June 21st and the combination of light and long dress, crisp and cool coat and fabulous filigree jewellery produced a stunner of a summer look.



It was a week of contrasts for Mary - her other big appearance was at the inauguration of a lifeguard post and the Australian born future queen went for a pair of black leggings and an oversize grey jumper for the beach event. It was appropriate and very yummy mummy and about as far away from the glamour of the awards ceremony as she could get.


Queen Letizia's most striking look of the week was also rather casual but hers caught the eye for a different reason. We've seen most of the components of the outfit chosen for a forum at the end of the week before. Just not together. And now everything is crossed we won't see them together again. Busy doesn't come close to describing this one.


 
 
Her smoking jacket and fitted black trousers for an event the night before - all part of the Princess of Girona awards - worked much better. Sleek, elegant and Letizia at her best.

 
 
 
The newest queen on the continent drew some criticism this week for describing her predecessor in the role, Sofia, as her mother in law repeatedly during a speech in which she was presenting her with an award for her four decades of work with UNICEF. Queen Sofia didn't seem to mind and once again the women had clearly been colour co-ordinating before stepping out. Letizia went for the pastel Hugo Boss dress worn several times since its debut in June 2014 while Sofia chose a very Sofia cream suit.

 
 
 
It was another Letizia staple for an appearance at the Princess of Asturias Foundation at the start of the week. The Spanish queen does love a white top with statement skirt - this time round it was snake print on display. Very chic if a bit crumpled.

 

Celebrations for National Day in Luxembourg this week meant a lot of royal appearances. The Hereditary Duchess, Stephanie, went for yellow for one event.


 
 Her sister in law, Princess Claire, perhaps played it too casual for a church service in a pretty red spot dress with straw hat which looked perfect for the weather but slightly too underdressed for the event itself. The Grand Duchess herself, Maria Teresa, meanwhile looked very grand in a dark beige suit with black trim.

 
 
 Claire didn't make the same mistake twice. For another event she was in a striking and very chic shade of blue with a fabulous ruche effect at the neckline which stole the show over Stephanie's navy blue and mum in law's dark beige (again). 
And there was only one star in town in a new official photo of the whole family. Princess Claire in red with rubies knocked just about everyone else off the page. Stephanie looked pretty in ivory and Maria Teresa looked elegant in green but with a dress like that at the side of the photo, this was only going to end with one winner. 
 
Yet again this week it was a case of 'only Maximxa' because only the Queen of the Netherlands could wear a monochrome dress with green scarf and green gladiator style heeled shoes and look good. 


Her other big appearance of the week involved a peach and pink stripe skirt with sleeveless top and a white hat with pink shoes. Perfect summer dressing.



The last few months have seen Queen Mathilde of the Belgians hit a run of form that has seen her sometimes overly safe sense of style take wings. She spent the week in China on a State Visit with her husband and the highlight of the week was a very yellow dress chosen for a visit to the Great Wall. 


There was some lovely floral work going on including a striking silver dress with flower print chosen for a visit to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.


 
There was a more modern take on flower power for a top paired with white trousers for an evening event.
A fruit salad print effect dress with flower petal hat was unusual and rather jolly for a trip to a school. 
It was certainly more successful than the grey ripple effect hat chosen to go with a familiar red and white print dress. The frock looked out of place and the hat looked like an oversize scrunchie. Not the best.
There was another hat problem when the Belgian queen chose an all red outfit for a day of engagements. In fact the outfit showed the issue of picking something from the Royal Wardrobe to get through a whole day of mixed engagements. It started off being perfect for the occasion but by the time she'd reached a hospital where she was perching on the edge of patients' beds it looked slightly over the top.

But generally, blocks of colour had worked well for Mathilde in China. Another red dress, this time with no headwear, was a winner. 


As was an all silver suit with perfectly matching hat. Yes, a silver suit that looks good. A hard call, a big fashion win for the Queen of the Belgians.


There was a rather smart, if slightly safe, sage green silk suit chosen for the start of the visit to Shanghai.


But there was a winner of a white outfit towards the end of the tour when Mathilde chose a white basket weave effect dress which would have been perfection if she hadn't opted for another giant scrunchie effect headpiece. At least this one was tucked round the back and not visible for most of the day.



The other big State Visit of the week saw the Queen head to Germany. On her arrival she chose a blue coat with blue and green hat. 
 
 

It was blue and green again on day two when the Queen visited Frankfurt.


 
 

The warm weather meant that the coat disappeared by the time the royal visitor appeared on the balcony to wave to the huge crowds that came out to meet her. The dress underneath the Queen's coat was a blue and green mix.


 

There was plenty more colour as the Queen left the Adlon Hotel in Berlin at the end of her tour. For this appearance and a walkabout in Parisier Platz she chose bright yellow with black trim.


But the main colour of the tour was white. For her first full day of engagements, the Queen chose the famous white coat with added sparkle worn for her Diamond Jubilee River Pageant. Maybe it's waterproof - day one included a boat trip down the River Spree before tea with Angela Merkel.



There was more tea on offer at a garden party held by the British Ambassador on the evening of day two. Again, the Queen was in white for the occasion - this time with an added dash of red print.


 
 


The State Banquet offered by President Joachim Gauck at Schloss Bellevue on the evening of the first full day also saw the Queen opt for white. The red this time round came from some stunning rubies.


 
 

But as the trip came to an end, the Queen chose a sombre outfit in dark grey for a visit to the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she paid her respects and met survivors on a moving day.


 
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