Royal Palace Gala: HM The Queen of Sweden and HRH The Crown Princess of Sweden
Heads up, hatters: it's a double Tiara Alert from the Swedish royal ladies!
Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria were on hand for a gala dinner at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, and both of them brought the bling. Victoria is wearing the Baden Fringe Tiara, which we saw recently in a set of official engagement portraits -- and on the new Crown Princess Victoria Barbie doll!
Silvia is wearing a tiara we haven't seen yet on the blog: the gorgeous and intricate Connaught Diamond Tiara. I really love this one -- it's beautiful, and it's got a great pedigree to boot! This tiara was given to Princess Margaret of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, when she married the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden in 1905. Princess Margaret pulled in quite the tiara haul on her wedding day: along with this diamond tiara, a gift from her parents, Margaret also received the King Edward VII Ruby Tiara from her uncle, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.
Alas, Princess Margaret's story doesn't end that well. She would never become Sweden's queen; she was the county's crown princess when she died, a full thirty years before her husband ascended to the throne. Crown Prince Gustaf remarried -- and, in one of those strange instances particular to royalty, his second wife, Lady Louise Mountbatten, was his first wife's cousin. But Margaret's legacy lives on in more than just her tiaras: two of her grandchildren, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and her namesake, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, are currently reigning monarchs in Europe.
Tags: tiara
I believe Princess Margaret and Louise Mountbatten were first cousins once removed. Louise's mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse/Princess Louis of Battenberg/Marchioness of Milford Haven, and Victoria and Margaret were first cousins.
Queen Victoria -> Duke of Connaught -> Princess Margaret
Queen Victoria -> Princess Alice -> Princess Victoria -> Princess Louise of Battenberg/Lady Louise Mountbatten
I think that's right, Ontarian. I'm always a little fuzzy about the specifics of cousinship, but that seems on the money to me!
Wow, nobody pulls off a tiara like the Swedish royal ladies. They always seem to have a look of effortless chic--not an easy trick when you're wearing a tiara AND other elaborate jewelry with a fancy evening dress that's often bedecked with symbolic sashes and other ornaments.
You are very right there Twisted Sister, they do have a knack of incorporating all the jewels, orders and sashes without it looking overkill. Queen Elizabeth for instance so often looks like there is just too much going on in the evenings... I wish she could get it as right as she does with her daywear.
Silvia's tiara is a real favourite - she has fantastic jewels and wears them so well - rather than them wearing her.
I think the Victoria should have probably worn her hair up in this picture. But wow, does Silvia ever have tiara hair.
I am in total agreement about the supremacy of the Swedish ladies and their tiara hair, but Victoria here I think is a miss - there's something off for me about the way the hair is coming out from behind the tiara. Silvia's looking a little off for me too, but that's probably because I'm so used to seeing her sport the more gigantic pieces, this one is looking a little sparse! Oh, to have such problems.
Fine tiaras, lovely dress for Victoria but her mother is a little bit "too much" as we say in French.
Would prefer Victoria's hair up I think, but my gosh Silvia does have good hair.
In addition to the tiaras mentioned here, Cpcss Margaret, nee Connaught, received a tiara from the Khedive of Egypt. And as many have indicated (I include one web posting here), many of Margaret's female descendants have worn this tiara as a wedding tiara in her memory.
Oops, here's the web posting:
http://royal-jewels.blogspot.com/2006/03/khedive-of-egypt-cartier-tiara.html
The Khedive really is a knockout, isn't it? I think it's mentioned in the link you shared, Matthew, that it's now owned by the sister of Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. The eventual legacy of that tiara will be very interesting to see -- now that the Greeks no longer have a throne to inherit, I wonder if it will eventually find its way permanently back to the Danish royals or will stay with the descendants of Anne-Marie.
Either way, I'd wager that we'll see Princess Benedikte's daughter, Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, wear it to her upcoming wedding.
I don't mind Sylvia's tiara, but that dress is something else. It looks like it's walked out of a bad episode of Dynasty. Do you reckon she runs these numbers up from her old curtains?
Victoria should have worn her hair up.
However, you are all right in that the Swedish Royals pull off the whole tiara/orders/jewels thing very well.
Sir Tom, I agree that Sylvia looks like she raided Joan Collins' closet. I think she can't seem to make both off-the-shoulder AND the poufy-sleeve cap work for her. I do think she has great tiara hair, though.
Poor Victoria, her hair coming through the diamond spike tiara reminds me of the zig-zag headbands that girls wore in the mid-to-late 90s. Perhaps we're all wrong and the royal ladies are really rockin' the retro chic?
I also prefer updos when the royal ladies wear tiaras. But, again, these are lovely photos. Thanks!
They both look great but one gripe I have is Victoria's hairstyle it looks silly coming out over the tiara she be under the tiara