We wish Princess Märtha Louise of Norway a very happy 50th birthday today and celebrate this milestone with a look back at some of her hats and headpieces:
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New portraits of the princess were released by the Norwegian monarchy to mark this occasion but, not surprisingly, without hats.
We conclude our look back at Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s wedding today with the remaining royal guests and what a glittering group it was!
Queen Paola wore the elegant Queen Elisabeth’s Art Deco Bandeau. She and King Albert attended with Prince Phillippe, the men both in uniform with caps (Princess Mathilde was in the last trimester of her pregnancy with Princess Elisabeth and remained at home).
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Princess Kristine Bernadotte (3rd wife of Prince Carl Bernadotte who was born a Swedish prince/Duke of Östergötland but ended up a Belgian prince thanks to his mother’s lineage after relinquishing Swedish succession) wore a tiara of unknown origin which, following her death in 2014, remains a mystery.
Grand Duchess Josephine wore the Belgian Scroll Tiara.
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa wore the Luxembourg Chaumet Choker Tiara with diamond lattice base and pearls
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Princess Sibylla of Luxembourg wore her diamond Art Deco Tiara.
Queen Sofia wore the exquisite Spanish Floral Tiara.
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The Countess of Wessex wore her wedding tiara, a piece rumored to be made from four alternative sections from Queen Victoria’s Regal Circlet.
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Princess Laurentien wore the Dutch Ears Of Wheat Tiara.
Prince Willem-Alexander attended with fiancé Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti (they married a few months later on February 2, 2002) who wore the base of the Dutch royal collection’s Antique Pearl Tiara. While we’re used to seeing this tiara with the pearls, this was Máxima’s first tiara outing and the smaller scaled version made a great inaugural piece for her.
And finally- a pair of bachelor prince heirs, both in military uniform with caps.
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One poignant comment yesterday wondered if we’d ever see such a glittering array of jewels at a single event. After all of the social distance and pared-down scale of events we’ve all experienced over the past year and a half, it seems impossible, doesn’t it? I have, however, hopeful that as the next generation of crown princesses enters adulthood, the weddings of these future queens will enthrall and delight just as those of their parents did.
Images from Getty as indicated; Scanpix and Corbis
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit;s late afternoon wedding on August 25, 2001 carried a formal dress code. We don’t often cover tiaras here but any daytime diamonds are fair game here at Royal Hats so we’re going to sparkle up the rest of this week and look at the jewels and gowns worn by royal guests to this event (I’ll leave discussion about the jewels to expert Lauren Kiehna and link to her comprehensive history of each diadem).
Queen Sonja topped her jade gown with the very grand diamond and emerald tiara from the Norwegian Emerald Parure
Princess Märtha Louise wore the modern tiara her grandfather King Olav gifted her in 1989 with diamond ears of wheat and pearls.
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Princess Astrid wore Queen Maud’s Turquoise Circlet tiara, beautifully paired with her pale blue gown.
Princess Ragnhild wore what is known as Princess Ingebog’s Boucheron Circle Tiara
Queen Margrethe topped her purple ensemble with the romantic heart-shaped Baden Palmette Tiara
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Princess Benedikte wore her Star and Pearl Tiara. Her eldest daughter, Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, wore her mother’s wonderful floral tiara; her younger daughter, Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, is shown below in coral, in an open design tiara I’ve not been able to identify.
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Queen Anne-Marie of Greece wore the beautiful scrolled diamond Khedive of Egypt Tiara
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Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark wore her diamond tiara with lovely halo shape.
Queen Silvia wore one of her larger tiaras, Queen Sofia’s Tiara with central starburst and diamond swags.
Crown Princess Victoria wore her graphic diamond Baden Fringe Tiara
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Princess Madeleine wore the Modern Fringe Tiara, a gift from her parents which she would later wear at her own wedding.
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We don’t chat tiaras much here but like hats, a tiara’s shape or scale can suit (or not suit!) their wearers and the ensembles with which they are paired. Which ones here stand out to you most?
Images from Getty as indicated
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit celebrate their 20th anniversary today and as such, we are taking time this week to look back over their 2001 wedding.
Prince Haakon was the second in a line of European crown princes to marry in the early 2000s which, understandably, attracted much attention, as did his choice of fiancé. Thankfully, the intervening twenty years have brought acceptance for Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, whose past involvement in Oslo’s house-party drug culture and four-year old son made her marriage to the crown prince somewhat controversial. In the end, love prevailed and the couple married on August 25, 2001 at Oslo Cathedral.
Norwegian Designer Ove Harder Finseth collaborated with Mette-Marit on her bridal gown, its silhouette inspired by the coronation gown Queen Maud wore in 1906.
The result was a thoroughly modern gown made from custom-dyed ecru silk crepe and 125 meters of silk tulle. The gown’s gently curved open neckline and horizontally draped bodice beautifully softened the minimalist design.
Full length sleeves and an exquisitely draped skirt that extended to a two meter long train emphasized the gown’s elegant and sweeping line.
King Harald and Queen Sonja gifted an antique bandeau diamond tiara to their their new daughter-in-law. The Edwardian piece, which dates to about 1910 and features a delicate scrolled daisy motif, has since become her signature tiara.
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Mette-Marit’s bridal look was completed with a 6-meter long silk veil tucked into the chignon on the back of her head which, unusually, extended well beyond the train of her gown. The exquisite combination of train and veil, as one commentator wrote, “creates the effect of a bride floating down the aisle on her own personal cloud.” The overall bridal look was one of lightness and restraint that suited her, perfectly.
Crown Prince Haakon, and his best man Crown Prince Frederik, both wore military uniform.
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Adult bridesmaid Linda Tånevik wore a silver-lilac silk halter necked gown and wrap with silver hair ornaments studded throughout her updo. The young flower girls, Mette-Marit’s nieces and children of Haakon’s maternal cousin, wore delicate woven floral wreaths in the same purple blooms as in the bride’s trailing bouquet.
What do you think of this bridal look, 20 years on? For tiaras (and uniform caps!) worn by Norwegian royal family members and other royal guests, jump over to these posts:
Norwegian Royal Wedding 20 Years On: Scandinavian Royals
Norwegian Royal Wedding 20 Years On: European Royals
Images from Getty and social media as indicated
King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway attended a memorial service at Oslo’s Cathedral yesterday to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the bomb attack in central Oslo and mass shooting on the island of Utoya that took the lives of 77 people.
For this event, Queen Sonja repeated a hat of ivory crin with rounded crown and upturned brim. This outing shows a better look at the piece, revealing an overlapping brim that curves up onto the hat’s crown with a curved end flourish. What looked like a central seam down the crown at this hat’s first outing is actually a stripe of pearl embellishment.
Yesterday’s better view of the piece helped it make a little more sense. It’s a light, summery design with dimension, thanks to the stripes of sewn crin that form its body. However, I’m still a bit perplexed by the placement of the overlapped brim and pearl stripe, which runs from the top of the crown down one side to where the crown and brim meet. It just feels a bit unbalanced and awkward.
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: May 23, 2018
What do you think of this cream crin hat, now that we’ve had a better look?
Images from Getty as indicated
