Category Archives: Sweden

Swedish Monarchs Support Artists

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On Monday King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia attended an annual celebration of Swedish art at Waldemarsudde, home of the late Prince Eugene. Prince Eugene,  an accomplished landscape painter in his own right, created a Swedish Artists’ Support Fund Foundation in 1937 and Monday’s festivities were in support of this fund. For this event, which also saw the royal couple place flowers at Prince Eugene’s grave, Queen Silvia repeated the turquoise straw pillbox she wore for the King’s Ruby Jubilee.  It’s a great hat for her and together with her printed turquoise silk suit and bouclé coat, makes for a multi textured and vibrant ensemble.

Queen Silvia, May 11, 2015 | Royal Hats

Queen Silvia, May 11, 2015 | Royal Hats

Queen Silvia, May 11, 2015 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: September 15, 2013

Photos from IBL via Svenskdam

British Royal Wedding Four Years On: European Royal Guests

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A wedding  Our look back at the marvellous royal hats worn at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge four years ago now moves from family members to royal guests. First up is hats worn by guests from the reigning royal houses of Europe.

The Norwegian Royals (who are cousins to the British Royal family) were represented by the King and Queen. Queen Sonja thoughtfully turned to British hat makers Lock and Co. for her hat. In white straw and trimmed with a simple curled white feather, the ceterpiece of this hat was its lattice brim which was folded up over the crown. The resulting shape was a modern departure for Sonja but it looked wonderful on her.

Queen Margrethe of Denmark topped her Twitter blue wool coat with a brimless calot hat covered in the same fabric. The calot was trimmed in a  band of the same patterned blue silk fabric as her dress over which several spiky, spiralled feathers were placed. The hat is a characteristically quirky piece for Margrethe and I thought she wore it well. The overall ensemble, however, was an overkill of the same blue fabric and needed breaks in both colour and texture.

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa topped her slate blue dress and jacket with a large dove grey picture hat trimmed with a single, oversize blue ombre rose. The hat is a beautiful one and while I covet it for my own millinery closet, I don’t think it was the right choice for Maria Teresa. Both her suit and the hat seemed to dwarf the Grand Duchess, which was most unfortunate.

The Spanish Royals seldom wear hats and this wedding provided us an opportunity to see their millinery style. Queen Sofia chose a light fascinator to in the same shade as her Margarita Nuez lavender silk suit. Made of layered organza and net tulle, the headpiece was studded with the same periwinkle blossoms that formed the floral pompom buttons on her jacket. The Princess of Asturias (as was her title then) topped her Felipe Varela embroidered pink 1930s inspired dress with a coordinating cloche hat. Designed by Pablo Y Mayaya, the cloche hat was a great scale and colour for Letizia. I’m afraid, however, it suffered from over-trimming. With four kinds of feathers (including large pheasant ones). a wide ruched sash around the crowd, a net tulle veil, rosettes and even bits of appliqué lace, this small hat held everything but the kitchen sink and suffered for it.

Princess Máxima (who was not yet Queen) was the picture of refined elegance in a pale pink lace Valentino suit and a silk calot hat designed by Fabienne Delvigne. Head-to-toe ensembles in pale pink risk looking rather boring and flat but the different textures of lace and draped silk created a look that was as interesting as it was harmonious. The artfully ruched silk on the hat gave it a wonderful sense of movement despite its small footprint. The addition of diamond star brooches to the side of the calot gave it a touch of glamour and we now all associate with Máxima and I adore her for adding this bling.

Princess Mathilde (who also was not yet Queen) chose teal blue for her ensemble. Her Armani dress and jacket was crowned with a large picture hat by Philip Treacy. A similar shape to the navy hat worn by Lady Frederick Windsor, this piece featured a wide round brim, moulded crown and vertical looped Treacy signature bow. While I loved the colour on Mathilde, the impact of the wonderful hat was lost against her overly shiny suit.

Crown Princess Victoria followed the pattern of head-to-toe in a single colour, choosing cantaloupe orange for her ensemble. Her large straw picture hat, designed by Swedish milliner  Britta von Koenigsegg, was a welcome departure from the smaller fascinators Victoria usually favours and it looked great on her. This shade of orange is one of the more difficult colours to wear and while Victoria she managed it well, I think the overall ensemble is just too peachy for me.

Rounding out this group of European royals was Charlene Wittstock (just two months later, she would become Princess of Monaco). Her palest-of-pale bluey grey straw picture hat featured a low, rounded crown and gently waved wide brim. With her Akris coat and pearl earrings, the hat made for an extremely elegant and refined ensemble.  High collared coats and picture hats can be a tricky combination but the rounded, slightly open neck on this coat and the easy movement of the hat made for such a perfect compliment.

As we might have expected, the European royals wore wonderful hats to this wedding. Whose hat did you admire?
Photos from Getty as indicated

Swedish Royals Visit Vatican

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Queen Silvia, Princess Madeleine, Princess Leonore and Christopher O’Neill attended an audience with Pope Francis today at the Vatican. As per tradition, the royal women wore black lace veils for the visit.

Swedish Royal Family, April 27, 2015 | Royal Hats

Birthday Celebrations for Queen Margrethe

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Royal Hats

We have already looked at the hats worn by members of the Danish Royal Family today for Queen Margrethe’s 75th birthday lunch at Copenhagen’s Town Hall– now it’s time to turn our attention to the hats worn by royal guests. Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (Queen Margrethe’s youngest sister) topped her beige pleated silk dress and bouclé coat with a chocolate felt hat. The hat, with a rounded crown and simple curled brim, was trimmed with a beige band around the crown that wrapped into a side bow surrounded in beige feathers. It’s not a particularly memorable hat but I appreciated the contrast it provided to Anne-Marie’s very beige ensemble.

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images

 

In contrast, Queen Silvia was a vision in vibrant purple. Rounding out her her silk suit (the same one previously worn to the Luxembourg royal wedding in 2012) and wool cape was a silk rose and straw twisted curl fascinator designed by Philip Treacy. Silvia looks fabulous in jewel tones and this bright piece was a nice change from the demure pillboxes and calots she has favoured of late… even though it does look like it is levitating on the side of her head. I adored how the magenta headpiece played against her purple ensemble and gave some much needed lively colour among the rather bland ensembles worn by other royal guests.

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images

 

Crown Princess Victoria topped her Chanel dress with a twin to the Philip Treacy fascinator she wore last year for Princess Leonore’s christening. While the two white pieces worked very well together, I can’t help being curious about another version of this very distinctive piece.

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Crown Princess Mette-Marit continued her trend of not wearing hats by (you guessed it), not wearing a hat. Instead, she topped her white dress and coat with her gold Prada headband tied with a red ribbon (clearly, in a reference to the red and white Danish flag). Mette-Marit wore this same headband to Queen Margrethe’s 70th birthday five years ago and I suspect its appearance today might reference the last big birthday party. Such personal touches aside, I can’t wait for her aversion to hats to be over because no amount of ribbons woven through this headband will make it a hat.

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images

The hats worn by the Swedish royal women stood out to me in this group, they didn’t top those worn by the Danish Queen and princesses. Which one of these royal hats was your favourite today?

Photos from Getty as indicated

Swedish Visit to South Korea Day 2

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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince Daniel arrived in South Korea yesterday and began their four day visit. Today, the royal couple laid a memorial wreath at the National Cemetery and met with President Park Geun-Hye. For these events, Crown Princess Victoria tucked her large fascinator of blush pink feathers and crystal beads behind her right ear, nestled into her chignon. As far as fascinators go, this one is fairly attractive with lovely movement and textural variation. I do not like, however, its inclusion with this outfit. While each piece of Princess Victoria’s ensemble is lovely (drop earrings, lace skirt, silk blouse, star necklace, white gloves, pleated coat), they do not relate to each other at all. The fascinator thus becomes, in this case, the crowning explanation point on an outfit that is all wrong.