Monthly Archives: February 2019

Dutch Royal Wedding 17 Years On: Royal Guests Part 3

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We wrap up our nostalgic look back at King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima’s wedding on February 2, 2002 with a look at the royal hats worn by guests from Spain, Greece, Jordan, Great Britain, Monaco with a few extras thrown in.

Queen Sofia of Spain wore a cascading headpiece of golden beige organza leaves and roses. While the design looked transported from the 1960s, it linked well with her lace suit.

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Princess Cristina wore a heather purple felt brimmed hat trimmed with feathers in purple and dark grey. I’m still at odds about the feather placement- on one hand, it’s terribly messy but on the other, I like its exuberance and admire how the two shades link with her dark blue velvet and purple silk coat… a rather bulky item (it looked like a blanket) that hasn’t aged well. When a hat makes a coat look better, that can only be a good thing.

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Queen Anne-Marie of Greece topped her textured red coat with a matching hat. In a modified top hat shape, the felt design features a tall, flared crown with domed top, upturned rolled brim with downsweep on one side, a layered red felt hatband and brown mink pompoms. The mink trim links well with the mink trim on Anne-Marie’s coat without being overly matchy and those pompoms are whimsical and fun. This hat’s unique shape is very much of its time but I always thought it was a bold and brave choice for her.

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Princess Marie-Chantal followed the same formula as Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, topping her richly patterned brocade coat with a tall brown fur Cossack style hat. Unfortunately, the hat’s large scale completely overwhelmed her and I’m still trying to see how it relates to the red, magenta and gold printed coat (which it’s own, is gorgeous!).

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Queen Noor of Jordan wore an embroidered headscarf in white, an interesting colour choice for a winter event with her baby blue silk tailored suit. She is photographed below by the Prince of Wales who wore his naval uniform and cap. Princess Sarvath, Princess Badiya and Princess Sumaya are also listed on the guest list but I’ve not been able to locate any photographs of them.
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The Countess of Wessex wore primarily Philip Treacy millinery hats at the time and chose one in camel felt for this event. The design made its style statement primarily by shape, pairing a deeply pinched, tall stovepipe crown with an offset brim. The hat was minimally embellished with a slim hatband tied in a front bow. It’s another design very much of the time and looking at it now, seemed a little heavy for Sophie’s cream coat and delicately embellished dress.

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Prince Albert of Monaco wore military uniform with cap while his elder sister, Princess Caroline of Hanover and Monaco, wore a grey felt cloche with extended brim and wide grey hatband. The hat’s classic shape suited Caroline well although I’m not sure about its pairing with her Chanel dress and coat, pieces that feel like they ought to be paired with something more luxurious and bespoke.
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Princess Míriam of Bulgaria topped her pink feathered skirt and fur collared jacket in a what looks like a headpiece of horizontally placed pheasant and pink feathers, placed on the back of her head.
Princess Inaara, wife of the Aga Khan at the time, wore a calot hat in large flowers with petals made of mocha and copper organza, velvet and crin (see closeup here). The mixed textures on the piece gave it some life and while it related well to Inaara’s fur trimmed camel cape, these combined less well with her mushroom grey tweed suit and earthy green blouse. Too many neutrals, I’d say.
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Other noteable guests included Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel, who wore a traditional African printed capulana headwrap and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his wife Nane, who wore a brimmed hat in pale pink straw. 
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This wraps up our look back at this wedding! What do you think of this final group of hats?
Photos from Getty as indicated

Dutch Royal Wedding 17 Years On: Royal Guests Part 2

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We continue our look back at King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima’s wedding 17 years ago this month with a look at the hats worn by royal families from Belgium and Luxembourg.

Queen Paola topped her lilac wool suit with a matching felt hat with upturned brim by Fabienne Delvigne. The brim features a waved, pleat on the upswept side with gentle point which gives lovely movement to the piece. The ensemble was a lot of lilac but Paola’s ruffled blouse broke up the look with some textural contrast.

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Crown Princess Mathilde wore a dark chocolate faux fur papakha style hat. It’s a very wintry look that contrasted well against her red suit and the matching cuffs on her jacket added a harmonious and wonderfully luxe touch.

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Princess Astrid wore one of the most bizarre royal hats I have ever seen. The natural straw hat with flat crown and short cartwheel brim was trimmed with vertically placed pheasant feathers around the back and…. another straw hat, in a slightly darker shade, placed on the side. This was a first- trimming a hat with another hat- that thankfully, has not been repeated. The milliner, Christophe Coppens, is now an avant garde artist/designer and while this hat gets marks for creativity, I can’t describe it as anything but utterly ridiculous.
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Prince Laurent, who was not yet married, attended in uniform complete with cap, and is photographed below with a very young looking Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg.
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Grand Duchess Josephine of Luxembourg (who passed away in 2005) wore wore a fur-brimmed bumper hat with domed crown covered in the same stylised silver animal print as her jacket. The brown fur and silver/slate blue combination always perplexed me a bit – don’t you think this design would have been improved with silvery grey sable brim instead?!
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Hereditary Grand Duchess Maria Teresa topped her gold brocade suit with a dramatic chocolate fur Cossack style hat and matching scarf. Yes, the hat is a bit too large for petite Maria Teresa but the look read very ‘Russian Imperial court’ (in a good way!) and I always loved how it coordinated so well with Grand Duke Henri’s uniform. Planning one’s look to match with one’s husband’s orange order- now that’s romantically dedicated dressing!

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Princess Sibilla also wore a gold suit and chocolate hat, although the effect was completely different! Sibilla’s hat follows a more demure shape with rounded crown, mushroom brim and chocolate velvet hatband, tied in a droopy side bow. It’s precisely what one might have expected from a royal hat two decades ago… but I’m afraid my current eyes are left wanting a bit more (and are drawn back to Maria Teresa’s more dramatic look).

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Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein is also included on this event’s guest list but I have been unable to find photos of her. This omission aside, there are some great looks here, aren’t there?! I’m also looking forward to your thoughts about Princess Astrid’s hat- do you find it as silly, 17 years on, as I still do?! 
Stay tuned tomorrow for the final look at royal guests from Spain, Greece, Great Britain and Monaco .
Photos from Getty as indicated

Dutch Royal Wedding 17 Years On: Royal Guests Part 1

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When Crown Prince Willem-Alexander married Máxima Zorreguieta seventeen years ago, his status as heir to the Dutch throne made the wedding a state occasion and as such, a large number of royal guests attended. We now look at some of these royal hats.

Queen Margrethe’s hat linked with her fur trimmed coat, the domed crown covered in the same textured blue wool fabric. The denim blue inverse brim made this design unique, hugging the bottom of the crown tightly before opening horizontally, the shape punctuated by a slim lighter blue hatband on the under side. the brim’s front brim vent was further highlighted with a pearl brooch. Despite its small footprint, this hat packs a lot of punch- perhaps too much in combination with the fur collar and cuffs on the coat?

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Princess Benedikte wore a silver tweed coat and hat with fur trim on the bumper brim (and collar and dress hem). The scale of fur trim is just right here and the dark colour contrasts AND coordinates beautifully with the fabric. The fur hem of the dress is a little odd but the hat works really well.

Benedikte’s eldest daughter,  Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, topped her lilac dress and coat with a magenta felt brimless hat trimmed with a tall spray of feathers. The pieces are all individually attractive but I’m just not sure they combine well together. Photos of Alexandra’s younger sister, Princess Nathalie, who also attended, elude me.

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Queen Silvia’s midnight blue hat combined straw and velvet- not a combination we often see. The hat’s wide, upturned kettle brim was edged in a wide stripe of velvet which was repeated on the crown. A ruched hatband of light straw added softness, volume and textural contrast between the crown and brim.

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Crown Princess Victoria topped her tailored chocolate suit with a matching straw hat. It’s a hat I’m happy to leave in the past for Victoria, its unrefined finishing and awkward looking hatband making a less than flattering look for her.

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Princess Madeleine’s hat packed a little more style punch and finesse with its angular crown and upswept brim around the back. The sequinned hatband reads a little ‘glitzy cowgirl’ and the roughly woven straw feels slightly unmatched against Madeleine’s beautifully tailored dress and jacket but somehow, the look works for what it was.

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Queen Sonja topped her cantaloupe orange lace suit with a matching silk cloche hat. The upturned brim updated the traditional shape with some angular edge (a touch somewhat nullified by the wide, rather dowdy lace hatband) and a small spray of orange feathers and a canteloupe silk twist on the side attempted to liven the design. A matching canteloupe lace purse and fur stole completed the look- and a lot of canteloupe it was. Melon overkill, I’d say.

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Crown Princess Mette-Marit was barely six months into royal life at this point and her ensemble reflects some of this inexperience. Her navy silk cloche hat was embellished by a wide, ruched hatband and the same matchstick cream stitching around the outside of the brim edge as on the neckline of her dress and, in reverse, on her cream coat. All in all, it was rather bland.
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From bland and boring we move to brilliantly bizarre with Princess Märtha Louise’s hat. A fantastical design that combines a tall, olive green felt square-edged hourglass crown, a wide purple felt brim, purple roses and cobalt, orange and red feathers, the hat is unexpected, whimsical and… well, it’s just bonkers. Pairing this embellished purple suit with this hat was a gutsy move I’ve always admired and makes me smile, still.
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Well- there’s much to discuss here! Which hats stand out to you, most? Which hats have weathered the passage of time, best?
Photos from Getty as indicated

Dutch Royal Wedding 17 Years On: The Families

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The wedding of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima seventeen years ago was a grand, major state occasion for certain, but a personal, family one as well.  After looking at the attire and headwear of the couple and their attendants yesterday, we now turn our attention to the hats worn by members of their families.

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We start with a hat that is on my list of all-time favourites. Queen Beatrix wore a violet purple straw hat with domed crown and double sideswept brim, the top of which was in a darker eggplant purple that linked with her deeply hued coat. The hat, designed by Suzanne Moulijn, was completed with a violet straw hatband and dark purple silk rose on the side. The sweeping lines of the design and the glorious colour combination made it a fantastic mother-of-the-groom look for Beatrix.

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Princess Laurentien, who had been a member of the Dutch royal family less than a year at the time and was expecting her first child, wore a dramatic, wide brimmed hat. The design’s flared, angular crown was covered in the same golden ochre velvet as her dress and trimmed in a wide hatband in the same bubble printed jacquard as her coat. The brim was finished in a wide binding of ochre silk and while the use of straw might have seemed a little odd for a winter event, IT was a brilliant choice, allowing light to filter around Laurentien’s face and lending some much needed lift to the rather heavy (and, dare I say, clunky) design.

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Princess Margriet’s hat was made of the same red and white woven fabric as her cape with a tall, rounded, red faux fur bumper brim.
 
Princess Marilene, wore an streamlined almond felt hat with asymmetrical angular crown, simply trimmed with a slim hatband. Try as I might, I’ve not been able to find any photos of Princess Annette (Princess Margriet’s other daughter-in-law at the time, wife of Prince Bernhard).
Princess Irene wore a vibrant blue felt design with sloped crown, lavishly trimmed with a hatband of black ostrich feathers that spilled over the brim. Princess Christina’s magenta felt hat was trimmed in brim binding and a hatband in the same crushed eggplant purple velvet as her coat and featured a saucy upturn on one side of the brim. Unfortunately, I can’t locate photographs of Princess Irene’s daughter Princess Maria Carolina (Princess Margarita did not attend) but we saw Princess Christina’s daughter, Juliana Guillermo, who was one of the adult attendants, in yesterday’s post.
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The bride’s maternal aunt and godmother, Marcela Cerruti Carricart, who acted as one of the witnesses, wore a dove grey velvet felt hat with cloche-shaped crown and upfolded Kettle brim, trimmed with silk ribbon. 

Máxima’s half sister Delores wore a chocolate pillbox; her half sister María wore a gray-green brimmed hat with silk hatband; and her half sister Ángeles wore a chocolate brimless hat trimmed with a burgundy silk bow.

  
Sister-in-law, Mariana Zorreguieta, wife of Máxima’s brother Martin, wore a grey felt hat with rolled brim, trimmed with a silk ribbon bow.

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I always feel empathy toward the non-royal family at these sorts of events, and the challenges they must face when making decisions about attire. Hats in shades of brown and grey are certainly safe bets, and I wish they had felt comfortable to make some bolder choices. Aside from this, and the the bittersweet notes added by the absence of Máxima’s parents, it’s a good lineup of hats, some of which could be fashionably worn today. Which designs here stand out to you most?
Photos from Getty as indicated; Sihon Touhig via Getty; Scanpix; NOS

Dutch Royal Wedding 17 Years On

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We’re going to celebrate this week’s holiday of romance with a look back at a royal love story celebrated at a grand wedding on February 2, 2002.

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In May 1999, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander attended a party at the Seville Fair where he met Argentinian-born Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, an investment banker based in New York. He did not introduce himself as a prince and when he later confessed, Máxima apparently thought it was a joke. They couple arranged to meet again a few weeks later in New York where, it is understood, their romance blossomed. Prince Willem-Alexander proposed to Máxima on January 19, 2001 while ice skating at Huis ten Bosch Palace and on March 30, 2002, Queen Beatrix and (the late) Prince Claus announced the couple’s engagement.
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Máxima turned to legendary designer Valentino for her dress. Knowing that the wedding would include much movement (travel by car and carriage to civil and church ceremonies), Valentino constructed the dress of ivory Mikado silk, a fabric known not only for its beautiful luster but also for being crease proof. The dress featured a high, open funnel neckline, unembellished bodice and three-quarter length sleeves.  A high-waisted, A-lineskirt inset with embroidered lace panels extended to a five-meter (16.4 foot) train.
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Máxima topped the very regal dress with a couture silk tulle veil hand-embroidered with floral motifs, Swiss dots and a wide scalloped border. The veil was anchored by a custom tiara made from the base of the Dutch Pearl Button tiara topped by five sparkling diamond stars from Queen Emma’s collection. While these diamond pieces combined to create a rather spiky tiara, it was beautifully softened by the voluminous veil and worked well with Máxima’s upswept hair and the sleek bodice of her gown.

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Prince Willem-Alexander wore the uniform of Captain of the Royal Netherlands Navy decorated with the Accession Medal 1980, ribbon and star of a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands, the Officer’s Cross and star of a Knight of the House Order of the Golden Lion of Nassau.
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Máxima was attended by four women (her younger sister, one of her childhood friends and two of Willem-Alexander’s cousins) who wore high necked burgundy velvet fitted jackets over full-length, flared burgundy duchesse satin skirts. Tucked beside their chignons, behind their left ears, were large burgundy silk rose headpieces. Four young pageboys and two young bridesmaids wore burgundy velvet ensembles with pleated cream lace collars.

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The wedding was filled with some wonderfully personal moments that I always welcome at such state events, the most poignant of which was an Argentine tango, played in honor of Máxima’s homeland and parents, who did not attend because of controversy related to her father’s involvement in the Videla regime (1979-1981). Much of the church ceremony, along with the carriage recession back to the Royal Palace in Amsterdam and balcony appearance are included in the video below– start at 22:30 for the tango.
Jump over to these posts to see the hats!

Hats Worn By The Dutch Royal & Zorreguieta Families 

Hats Worn By Danish, Swedish & Norwegian Royal Guests

Hats Worn By Belgian & Luxembourg Royal Guests

Hats Worn By Spanish, Greek, British, Monaco and Other Royal Guests

For now, what do you remember about King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima’s wedding?

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Photos from Getty as indicated