Category Archives: Bulgaria

Greek Royal Wedding 20 Years On: Other Royal Guests

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Today we wrap up our look back 20 years to the July 9, 1999 wedding of Princess Alexia and Carlos Quintana with a view of the remaining royal guest’s hats. We’ll start with Grand Duchess Josephine, who wore an ecru straw boater variation.  The hat’s tall, flat crown was wrapped in a folded straw hatband that tied in a bow at the back, centered with a straw rosette. A subtle curve in the brim (upward in front, downward in back) gave some movement to the design.

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Queen Noor of Jordan (the eighth queen in attendance, for those of you counting!) wore a beautifully embroidered while silk scarf with scalloped edge.

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Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia wore an ivory sinamay hat with tall crown and upturned kettle brim edged in pale peach silk. Overlapping figure eights in ivory sinamay and peach silk with a large trimmed cream feather completed the design.

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Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, as was her title then, topped her cream suit with a navy straw boater variation with tall crown and short brim, simply trimmed with a wide navy silk hatband.

Princess Miriam of Bulgaria wore an ecru straw brimmed hat with what looks like a crin overlay.

Princess Rosario of Bulgaria wore a fantastical gold lattice straw Philip Treacy hat with fluted crown that extended into a wide, gently sideswept brim. The hat, which linked to gold embroidery on the waist of her Valentino skirt, was lavishly trimmed with gold silk flowers and leaves and sinamay twists, all studded with a mass of gold arrow trimmed feathers.

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Princess Carla of Bulgaria wore a purple sinamay teardrop layered percher hat trimmed with painterly silk flowers in dark burgundy. It’s a hat with deep richness I think I’d really like if we could better view it’s detail (and see it with a less jarringly contrasting, more harmonious ensemble). I suspect Queen Margarita of Bulgaria also attended this event (bringing up the queen tally to nine!) but I’m afraid, photos elude me.

That concludes our look back at this wedding and the 26 royal hats worn to it. Some of you have commented on the prevalence of wide brims- what else do you notice about this particular group of hats?

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Photos from Getty as indicated; LANGEVIN JACQUES/CORBIS SYGMA; ORBAN THIERRY/CORBIS SYGMA; BEIRNE BRENDAN/CORBIS SYGMA

Greek Royal Wedding 20 Years On

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Last month marked the 20th anniversary of a major royal wedding in London attended by three Kings and eight Queens. On July 9,1999 Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark married Carlos Javier Morales Quintana, a Spanish architect and a champion yachtsman, at St. Sophia Cathedral. Over the next few days, we’re going to take a look back at this event.

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The bride went to one of her mother’s favourite designers, Austrian Inge Sprawson, for her sleek gown in ivory satin. With long, fitted sleeves and a wide v-neck, the focal point of the dress was a pair of diagonal crossed seams at the waist that created a fitted bodice silhouette and attached the gown’s skirt.

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The straight skirt flowed into a modest sweep train with a longer, detachable train fixed at the waist. The back of the dress was decorated in a row of beaded buttons which were repeated on the underside of each sleeve.

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Following the tradition set by her grandmother and followed by her mother, aunts and cousins, Alexia wore her great-grandmother Crown Princess Margaret’s Irish lace veil anchored with the Danish royal family’s Khedive of Egypt Tiara.

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A simple gown is usually the best way to show off such an amazing vintage lace veil but I’m just not sure that the cut and fabric of this dress entirely flattered it’s wearer. For me, it always paled in comparison to the amazing gold beaded Armani dress with portrait neckline she wore two days earlier to a pre-wedding party- a look I’ve long thought was her very best. It was breathtakingly stunning

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Princess Alexia was attended by her sister Princess Theodora, who wore a long sleeved gown in floral embroidered lilac silk organza with sheer sleeves and a draped neckline.

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Bridesmaides included Princess Alexia’s 3-year old niece, Princess Olympia, and Princess Mafalda, daughter of Prince Kyril and Princess Rosario of Bulgaria (the Prince and Princess of Preslav). Their dotted white silk organza full-skirted frocks with lilac silk sashes were topped with delicate white floral hair wreaths. Pageboys wore high waisted lilac silk trousers with white silk Peter Pan collared shirts.

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Fascinators were very popular in 1999 (Queen Elizabeth famously wore one two weeks earlier for the wedding of the Earl and Countess of Wessex) making Queen Anne-Marie’s headpiece of lilac feathers a fashionable choice at the time. From today’s viewpoint, it seems a fussy choice for her lace trimmed coat and dress.

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Crown Princess Marie-Chantal topped a textured suit with a wide brimmed hat in light ecru straw. The design featured a raised brim around the front behind which was a large grin unstructured bow.

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I’m curious, dearest readers- what do you think of this bridal look and hats, 20 years on?

Jump over to the following posts to review hats worn by the many royal guests:

Danish and Spanish Extended Royal Families
British Royal Guests
Norwegian and Swedish Royal Guests
Luxembourg, Jordanian, and Eastern European Royal Guests

Kent Wedding at Windsor: Royal and Notable Guests

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In addition to the Kent family, Gloucester family and British royal family, Saturday’s wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston was also attended by a number of foreign royal guests. King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece were spotted arriving, the Green queen in a repeated her ecru and gold woven straw pillbox with whimsical, looped side bow.

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Designer: Philip Treacy
Previously Worn: October 20, 2012; April 29, 2011

Our friends over at Luxarazzi spotted Prince Philipp and Princess Isabelle of Liechtenstein among the guests. Princess Isabelle wore a wide-brimmed black straw hat with ruched brim overlay studded in pink silk flowers.

The Bulgarian Princess of Turnovo wore a large percher headpiece in pale grey crin. We don’t see Miriam at many royal events (especially after Prince Kardam’s passing in 2015), it was lovely to see her again on Saturday.

The bride was photographed in familiar embrace with Brazillian Prince João Henrique of Orléans and Bragança. His wife, Claudia, paired a mustard dress with a natural straw vertical saucer hat trimmed in slim multi-looped bows both above and below the raised side of the brim.

Scrolling through the gallery below brings up photos of several more Brazilian princesses. Duchess of Segorbe, Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans-Bragança topped her green dress with a soaring, waved natural straw hat trimmed with what looks like a silk abacca hatband and flying bow tails (a Brazillian princess by birth, Gloria was the first wife of Prince Alexander of Serbia but is now married to the Spanish Duke of Segorbe).  Princess Yasmin of Orléans-Bragança paired her red dress with a matching circular layered headpiece in red crin.

While not royal, a number of noteable guests at this wedding also included:

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Jemima Jones and Jemima Goldsmith

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Carole Middleton in am ecru and grey Jane Corbett picture hat; Pippa Matthews in a blue velvet Jess Collett bandeau

That wraps up our look at the hats worn to Lady Gabriella’s wedding. Please share ones not covered here that caught your eye in the comments below.

Photos from Getty as indicated 

Funeral of Grand Duke Jean: Royal Guests

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The funeral of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg was attended by representatives from nearly every European royal house, many who wore hats. Out of respect for this event and the Grand Duke’s memory, this post contains photos only (no commentary) and is not open for comments.

Monarchs from Denmark, Sweden, Liechtenstein and Norway:

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Spanish, Romanian and Greek Queens:

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Dutch, British and Norwegian Royals:

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Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian and Portuguese Princesses

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Jordanian and Moroccan Royals:

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Marlene Koenig, author of Royal Musings, published a full guest list here. Representatives from numerous abolished, lesser known European monarchies (mostly French, German and Prussian) were in attendance but have not been included here- you can see them at this comprehensive post over at Luxarazzi.

Photos from Getty as indicated 

British Royal Wedding Four Years On: Non Reigning Royal Guests

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Royal Hats We have come to the last post in our review of the fantastic hats worn at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge four years ago this week. We conclude coverage with a look at the hats worn by royal guests from non-reigning royal families.

The Greek Royal family have close ties to the British Royals (Prince Philip is a Greek Prince by birth) so it was not surprising to see five members in attendance. Queen Anne-Marie of Greece wore a cream pillbox hat designed by Philip Treacy. The straw was woven with gold threads which gave a shimmering quality to the hat which was trimmed by another signature Treacy bows.

Queen Anne-Marie and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece in Philip Treacy, April 29, 2011 | Royal Hats

Princess Marie-Chantal topped her pale blue and grey embroidered Chanel dress with a statement hat, also by Philip Treacy. The moulded saucer hat was edged in a wide band of silk piping around the brim and was trimmed with large dove grey silk roses that balanced the underside of the vertical brim. This is not a hat for the faint of heart and together with the dress, made for an edgy and extremely haute couture ensemble.  While there is every reason for me to dislike the oddly shaped hat, I adore it as part of this ensemble.

Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece in Philip Treacy, April 29, 2011 | Royal Hats

Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece in Philip Treacy, April 29, 2011 | Royal HatsQueen Anne-Marie and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece in Philip Treacy, April 29, 2011 | Royal Hats

Queen Margarita of the Bulgarians, pictured behind Princess Victoria in the orange hat below, wore a simple black hat with flat crown and mushroom brim. The hat was trimmed with a wide ruched band around the crown and a large bow at the side.

Royal Wedding Guests, April 29, 2011 | Royal hats

Crown Princess Margareta of Romania wore a most perplexing open-crowned hat by Romanian milliner Kristina Dragomir. Built on a gold ring base, the headpiece consists of swirling loops of pleated crin in three shades of pink. While the photo above shows the headpiece as a soaring swan of sorts, the close-up view here looks like a giant pink slinky on steroids circling her head. Neither look is optimal.Crown Princess Margarita, April 29, 2011 | Royal Hats

Princess Katherine of Serbia wore a simple cream hat made in the same oyster lace as her dress. The fold-back halo brim of the hat was edged in the same ecru satin as her shawled coat and the hat was trimmed with a bow at the back. While it’s not the most modern of royal hats, the shape and scale suited Katherine beautifully and it added the right touch to her ensemble.

That draws our week-long royal hat tour at this wedding to a close! If you haven’t already watched the nuptials on video, I suggest you pour a tall glass of your favourite tipple and settle into your comfiest chair. The camera work inside Westminster Abbey is breathtaking and the hats are thrilling. You can watch the entire day’s events here.

Photos from Bauer Griffin, Pacific Coast News and Pacific Coast News via Zimbio;  The Royal Forums; and Getty as indicated