Spring State Visit Style: Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

A Spring State Visit is a thing of loveliness. The ceremonial sparkles in early sunshine, the days are longer meaning more chance for outdoors engagements and everyone's still feeling jolly when the big jolly that is the State Banquet arrives.  The recent Belgian State Visit to Denmark is a case in point. Picture perfect from start to finish, it flourished in the spring weather and left an album full of outstanding images. Among them is the Spring State Visit Style of three roytal All this week, we've been looking at Spring State Visit Style and today we arrive in Copenhagen to look back on Crown Princess Mary's contribution. Here's her spring take on that staple of the royal wardrobe. Enjoy.

#BELDK2017 #kingphilippe and #queenmathilde of #belgium🇧🇪 on State Visit to #denmark🇩🇰 received by HM #queenmargrethe and TTRRHH #princefrederik and #princessmary in #amalienborg #christianviipalace #Copenhagen

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The piece we'll probably remember most from Crown Princess Mary's State Visit wardrobe this time round is the palest blue coat that she chose for the official welcome ceremony. Let's get the Jackie O comparisons out of the way first off. This is very early Sixties in its inspiration and the chunky pillbox in baby blush pink is giving it a whole extra vintage vibe (the hat matches the dress underneath). But it's also a very modern look and up there with Mary's best. I love the way they all clearly talk beforehand - the colour matching here is so good that you could look at the photos for hours. 

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The State Dinner brought out another Mary hit from 2017 as she rewore the gold gown that got so many plaudits when it was debuted at the New Year galas. It also brought more colour co-ordination genius from the Crown Princess of Denmark as she wore ALL the rubies, safe in the knowledge that the sash she would get from her Belgian visitors was going to be in a rather fetching shade of claret. Mary clearly loves mixing burgundy and gold - when this dress was first worn in January, the queen in waiting added a deep plum cape to the whole ensemble. You've got to love the skirt with mini train and the whole luxury of the look, even if the top is, well, every so slightly ordinary. But then when you're adding all those heirloom gems, low key can help. Overall, another winner from Mary.

Day two saw Mary take a starring role as she hosted Queen Mathilde of the Belgians through most of her engagements and did they pack in a lot. We had visits to the Mary Foundation, a primary school, UN City, an academic lunch and a tourism event. They really were the stars of this State Visit but then when you bring such clout with your everyday agendas. it's all but inevitable. Back to the clothes. Shall I say colour co-ordination again? Mary was the perfect foil to her guest in a deep burgundy outfit that set off Mathilde's pale pink to perfection. The soft crepe top brings long sleeves (a must given the weather and the lack of coat) while the pleated skirt is so on trend it's meeting itself coming in through the door. Mary added a favourite grey hat and a huge scarf to keep out the chill and looked pretty darn lovely while she was at it. Day two State Visit dressing can be tricky with less formality in the diary but expectations still riding high. Mary has it nailed.

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Mary began on a high and ended on one - her new dress for the gala evening that brought the main part of the State Visit to a close was a wow and then some. The deep teal dress is fully fitted with just the smallest hint of a mini train (she does love a bit of sweep but then when you're a Crown Princess, it should really be compulsory) but it's the top that does the talking here. The cutaway shoulders and collar give a whole, fresh modern twist to royal evening dressing. Mary made her own Spring State Visit Style rulebook this time round and let's hope she brings it out to play again sometime soon.

Catch up with all the Spring State Visit style of the past months here.