State Visit from Turkey - State Banquet: HM The Queen
The Girls of GB&I is looking rather spectacular this evening, isn't it? Favorite tiara, always and forever.
PHOTO CREDITS: REUTERS/Dominic Lipinski/Pool
Tags: state visit, tiara
25 Responses to “State Visit from Turkey - State Banquet: HM The Queen”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Who do I have to bribe to have HM put the Oriental Circlet into regular rotation after the one-off in Malta? The Girls of GB&I needs a rest. And so does this evening gown.
I'm glad HM spiced things up, however, and wore Queen Victoria's Waterfall brooch for the first time ever tonight!
I am ready for a change in color palette for banquet gowns...
Yes - a first for the waterfall brooch... and worn dead centre, very unsuual for HM, normally worn on left side, although orderes are there today for a change. Hmm. Sure it's all highly regulated.
I would like to know her thinking (or Angela Kelly's) about always wearing white for state dinners. She certainly looks better in white than in black. But why not pale blue or pale gold or pale pink, all of which would be elegant and appropriate on her.
I agree-a little rosy color below her face would be so flattering in candlelight. I would even like to see a jewel-tone sapphire or amethyst, but HM seems to favor pastels. With her snowy hair, a jewel-tone would be stunning and very eye-catching.
I love the Girls of GB tiara, but would appreciate some others getting the occasional outing!
Love, love, love seeing the GoGB&I tiara! It's been awhile. Lovely to see the Waterfall brooch. I am not a fan of her official white moo-moo uniform she has adopted for state dinners either.
This is indeed a lovely tiara. I do think the brooch and the necklace, both beautiful in their own right, and are competing here. I think the brooch might better have been left in the vault.
I concur too, with the white palette comments. I think it is intended at times to not clash with the order, or honor HM might have been given from whichever country. In this case though the order is quite small, and would not be too difficult to put with a gown of some color.
I think these scrumptious gems would have looked better against a gown with color. But it's always a pleasure to see the Girls tiara and a jewel from the vaults we haven't seen since the Queen Mum's days.
It is a puzzle, the state banquet white - although I suspect there must be some reason for it. Maybe to avoid clashing with the flowers, or the guest of honour, or accidentally wearing the colours of the guest's political opponents? Never mind, the Girls looks magnificent - I would wear it every day if I was her!
I would like to add my agreement to many others' suggestion that HM QE2 wear something other than white at state banquets. It's become like the black walking shoes during the day. It's virtually 100% of the time now, although years ago neither white at state banquets nor black walking shoes used to be exclusive.
I think that white is the traditional color for gowns at a white tie banquet. But then again, HM used to wear much more colors in her younger years so who knows. The Girls of Great Britain is everything a tiara should be, but on a white gown with minimal orders, the oriental circlet and queen Victoria's rubies would have been much more spectacular. Glad to see the Queen Mums greville diamond earrings and the waterfall brooch getting an outing tho.
Oh, for some colour. I was going to give this a pass (I mean, as much as I love the Girls, paired with yet another white frock I'm about to tear my hair out), but what saves it is the faboulous collet diamond necklace and earrings of Queen Victoria's (reserved for Queen's only, dotcha know), and the reappearance of the waterfall brooch. I was worried this would go the way of so many a beautiful Windsor gem, and disappear for a century into the vaults, but I'm so glad HM is busting this beauty out. Just needs to put against a garter sash to truly shine. Here's a close-up.
Sir Tom,
Thank you for posting the close-up photo. It is indeed a stunning brooch.
that is a great close-up of the brooch, thanks sir tom.
I can only imagine how those diamonds strands must spark with fire as they move. Thanks for the up close and personal, Sir Tom.
The white is unfortunate, at least all the time. She used to wear a lot of color, jewel tones especially, and fewer pastels. In fact, the color was often worn in tribute to the country in question. The dresses also always seem to be almost exactly that same, except for some terribly appliques by Angela Kelly. A ar cry from the beading of the Hartness days! The shape of her evening gowns is also rather dowdy, but perhaps we are forgetting that she's 85 and her figure has, er... changed over the past decade or two.
There are so many tiaras that would be fun to see again. I wonder which ones future generations will choose to use?
I think we're talking comfort here. Lil is about to have dinner, and doesn't want to be tightly corseted, so she's wearing a loose fitting dress. Along the same line, I think she wears the above tiara because it's lighter than a lot of the others. Perhaps white, or ivory, is worn because it is formal looking, as of course is black, but all black is worn by the queen only on mournful occasions.
I think the discussion about HM adopting a white/ivory/ecru palette as her go-to for formal state events is interesting....I was doing some image searching, and going back at least 6-7 years now, I am not finding any images of HM in colorful evening attire, the exception being a lavender gown at a hotel state dinner in Bermuda in 2009: http://tinyurl.com/HM-colored-evening-gown
Anybody else a better detective??
Where HM has been rocking it lately is in her colorful cocktail party attire....not usually covered on this blog because she never (and perhaps wisely) never dons that rare bird the 'cocktail hat'-- but she has been looking very fetching, and at times even on fashion trend, in these little short ensembles....
http://preview.tinyurl.com/HM-in-cocktail-mode
Thank you, MrFitzroyOBE, for the research.
Actually, there is a matching hat for the outfit featured in your second link:
http://www.apimages.com/OneUp.aspx?st=k&kw=queen elizabeth II ascot&showact=results&sort=date&intv=None&cfas=__p,-1&sh=10&kwstyle=and&adte=1322792562&pagez=60&cfasstyle=AND&rids=6ad54e3a2e01db11af9f0014c2589dfb&dbm=PY2006&page=1&xslt=1&mediatype=Photo
I suspect that all of HM's outfits have matching hats, even if never worn. This outfit debuted at 2006 Ascot.
QE2 has worn at least 3 repeats in the past two weeks. Are they going to appear on this blog?
Hello Mr Fitzroy,
I had a spare few moments so decided to take up the challenge.
Here is a pale lilac Angela Kelly number worn to the premiere of Casino Royale:
http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Queen+Elizabeth+II/Casino+Royale+World+Premiere/nNAvMGV0swM
And a cobalt blue dress that looks rather exciting (couldn't find a pic that showed the whole thing, darn that rug) worn to another film premiere (scroll to the bottom to see Her Maj):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1334493/Narnia-Dawn-Treader-premiere-Georgie-Henley-Anna-Popplewell-brave-snow.html
But here's a stunning evening dress designed for an official night our at the opera in Paris in 1957 - ivory with gold embroidery (Norman Hartnell):
http://madameguillotine.org.uk/2011/05/30/elizabeth-iis-paris-dress/
So the pale colours have always been there for important occasions.
(sorry about the long links)
Oh and this was worn to the pre-wedding dinner in April this year:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/28/pre-royal-wedding-dinner-princess-letizia_n_855223.html#s270950&title=Queen_Elizabeth_II
@sandra --
Thanks for the wonderful links! I was actually thinking more from the standpoint or Major State Dinners...tiaras, important heads of state, etc... For those, it really does seem to be white is now the only option. Though it is good to see HM wearing color at less formal evening events.
The Hartnell "Fields of the Flowers of France" dress really is astounding, lord knows how HM managed to navigate in it, much less sit through a full opera! It must weigh nearly as much as her coronation gown, but this was more symbolic than merely a dress, it was british fashion saying "so there!" to the french couturiers.
HM has certainly quite a history of White at major state dinners over the all the years or her reign, no question there -- like the infamous "pineapple sleeve" gown (actually cream colored)at a Reagan State dinner -- http://tinyurl.com/LIZnRon )
But it sure would be lovely to see her wearing something akin to the Pink sheath with Peony embroidery from a Chinese State dinner in the 80s (couldnt locate an image), or even deeper jewel tones, which really do look wonderful on HM -- http://tinyurl.com/HM-midnight
.
Here is a pale yellow gown worn for a State occasion ... albeit in 1954!
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/dargies_wattle_painting_queen_elizabeth/
It's sometimes easy to forget that she was a gorgeous young woman with an exquisite figure.
This one, from 2008, looks like it might be a pale olive-green (quite close to white, in fact
)- not sure about the ensemble on a number of levels, the fur, the tiara:
http://royalandco.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/today-in-pictures-211008/
A spiffy green dress from a 1976 state visit to Finland:
http://socialitelife.com/26-photos-of-queen-elizabeths-tiaras-photos-10-2011/library-queen-100211-17
I was going to say that perhaps she wears colour when she's out of Britain, but she wore white in Ireland and Camada so that doesn't hold up.
Ah, just found this from a Vogue article, published at the time the Obamas visited Buck House:
White is the color of ceremonial court dress which, these days, is only worn by the Queen at state banquets. HRH wore white gowns and gloves to Presidential dinners at the White House to meet President Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush — neither Nancy, Barbara, or Laura wore white on any of those occasions.
And here is a selection of photos of QEII with various US presidents (I was looking for a colour shot of the gown with the Kennedys, it is blue):
http://trsmd.hubpages.com/hub/queen-us-president
@ sandra -- Thanks for the Vogue quote...that explains it officially! Obviously the white evening wardrobe has been more than just coincidence, but it's nice to know the basis behind it.
While HM wore that amazing golden yellow gown for the 1976 Bicentennial state visit with the Fords, it seems like she has worn white with US Presidents since then....here's one with the first President Bush....
http://tinyurl.com/HM-and-Bush1
Interesting that photo also documents when HM was letting her hair go gray -- always seemed like it was dark chestnut one day, and pure white the next, but there was a transition period!