Category: Bhutan

The Royal Response, Part II
Belgium · Bhutan · Britain · Denmark · Netherlands · Norway · Spain · Sweden

The Royal Response, Part II

The HandbagLeave a comment

For the most part, the royals are not attending their usual activities. A new world is emerging and some of the world’s oldest and most traditional institutions are stepping up to the challenge.

Belgium

Mathilde encourages young people to read during quarantine, I approve that message and the bright yellow she is sporting.

The Duchess of Brabant has returned home and the family is reunited. The family continues their efforts to keep loneliness at bay for thos seniors confined to care centers by making breakfast and phone calls.

Bhutan

Jetsun Pema sends us a lovely message from her mountain country.

Britain

Both the Cambridge and Wessex families clapped for the NHS workers who have been toiling on the front lines of the pandemic.

Camilla, who continues to grow and grow in my estimation, has a message for those who are isolated and at risk of domestic violence.

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“This is a hard time for everyone, as we are all asked to stay at home to stay safe. But for some of you it is even harder, because home is not a safe place. I can only imagine that being asked to stay there could feel very isolating and frightening for you and your family. It may mean spending more time with the person who is harming you. If this is your situation, or you are worried about someone else, I want you to know that you are not alone. Even if you cannot leave your home, you can call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline or contact one of the domestic abuse charities. Please stay safe and get help.” – The Duchess of Cornwall . ☎️📞 If you are in immediate danger, please call 999 and ask for the police. If you are not in immediate danger, please call one of the following 24 hour helplines: England: 0808 2000 247 Northern Ireland: 0808 802 1414 Scotland: 0800 027 1234 Wales: 0808 8010 800 Charity @safelives_ have an online resource that provides information about staying safe during COVID-19 – you can read it by following the link in our bio. @RefugeCharity @womens_aid #EveryonesProblem 📸 PA

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Denmark

The Royal Run has been postponed, but it will happen in due time.

Norway

Haakon has been working while in isolation, and I chose this particular photo because I love that he does NOT lower his sartorial standards on Zoom.

The Netherlands

Maxima paid a visit to a plant nursery, lending the royal support to a company who has seen their business plummet during the crisis. I applaud the Namaste greeting, and the social distancing on display.

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Spain

Felipe and Letizia have lent support to charities supporting relief efforts through video conferencing. Letizia was fortunately not diagnosed with the virus, and has returned to work.

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Sweden

The Swedish royals have stepped up to provide support to organizations still open and servicing customers. While the King and Queen remain isolated, Sofia and Carl have visited grocery stores, and Victoria and Daniel completed a series of visits, including one to a military field hospital.

As we have been doing so sucessfully, normal commenting rules apply. As always, keep you and yours safe and healthy. Our community is our strength.

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Brothers
Belgium · Bhutan · Britain · Denmark · Spain · Sweden

Brothers

OrangeChiaLeave a comment

We’ve visited Brothers & Sisters and discussed Sisters. Today, let’s wrap up and take a look at photos of royal brothers.

Spain

Here we have Alfonso and Juan Carlos, as cute as can be.

Belgium

Albert and Baudoin, sons of Leopold III.

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Britain

The four sons of King George: Edward, Albert, George, and Henry.

Sweden

Here we have the three sons of of Gustaf V: Gustaf VI Adolf, Wilhelm and Erik.

Bhutan

The current King Jigme Khesar is shown on the bottom left of the photo. The other four brothers are Jigyel, Ugyen, Jigme Dorji, and Khamsum, all sons of Jigme Singye on the far right.

Denmark

Nikolai, Felix and Henri, sons of Joachim.

What other royal brother photos come to mind? Show us your favorites in the comments.

Random Royaling – Cancellations and the Way Forward
Belgium · Bhutan · Britain · Denmark · Luxembourg · Netherlands · Norway · Spain · Sweden

Random Royaling – Cancellations and the Way Forward

The HandbagLeave a comment

During this unprecedented time, the most important thing to the Hofdames is that all of our Handbaggers remain safe and healthy. We know many people will be busy and distracted, so we expect that our comments will be fewer as people sort out complicated aspects of their new daily lives. We’ll still be here!

Our intent is, as always, to provide an entertaining diversion. In that vein, we will continue to post royal content. Since there will be far fewer events, there will also be fewer posts. We will rely on our Rotogravurer, LiL, for some fun throwbacks. Also, if any Handbagger has an idea for a pop quiz or some past event that needs revisiting, drop a note in these comments.

We are going to corrall the next few weeks and months of cancellations for the royal houses in this post. Please feel free to add any cancellations or rescheduling you are aware of in the comments, but let’s not get involved in conversation in general about the crisis.

Belgium

  • Crown Princess Elisabeth will remain in Wales until travel between the countries is allowed.

Bhutan

  • Public gatherings have been cancelled and tourism curtailed. The royals have no scheduled events on their calendar.

Britain

  • The Queen’s visits to Camden and Cheshire will be rescheduled. The British government has recommended self-isolation for those over seventy, which could potentially affect the Queen and other senior members of the family.
  • The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall’s spring tour to Bosnia, Herzegovina, Jordan and Cyprus has been postponed. Date TBD.
  • The Countess of Wessex has been ill with a non-Corona virus related illness and all upcoming engagements have been cancelled.
  • The London Marathon, with a scheduled appearance by Prince Harry, has been postponed until October.

Denmark

  • Denmark has temporarily closed all borders and airports. Only Danish citizens are allowed to enter the country.
  • All official engagements up to April 20, 2020, have been cancelled or postponed. This includes Queen Margrethe’s 80th Birthday celebrations, which have been postponed. Dates TBD.
  • The Crown Prince and his family have returned to Denmark from Switzerland. The children will attend school at home. Danish schools are currently closed.

Luxembourg

  • The Grand Duke and Duchess have continued with a scaled back program of engagements.

Monaco

  • The Rose Ball, scheduled for the 21st, has been cancelled. Will be rescheduled to a later, unannounced date.

Netherlands

  • The King and Queen have cancelled or postponed all remaining engagements for the month of March.

Norway

  • All official engagements up to April 12, 2020, have been cancelled or postponed. Norway itself has closed all airports and borders for the time being.
  • The King and Queen are in quarantine after returning from abroad.

Spain

  • The King and Queen have been tested for the virus, and their health has been cleared.

Sweden

  • Crown Princess Victoria’s Name Day celebrations have been cancelled.

We’ll keep updating this post as more information becomes available.

Hofdame Bits and Bobs
Bhutan · Britain

Hofdame Bits and Bobs

The HandbagLeave a comment

Getty

The royal week of February 20 was a busy one, and everything we missed can be found at Getty here.

Other Voices, Other Blogs

We can’t cover everything royal here (and quite frankly, we don’t even try, we have to sleep and eat!) but there are other independent bloggers on the case. Weekly we’ll try to send you to the stuff that looked very interesting:

Style of Mary has an excellent post on the red coat worn by Mary to the Anthology about Violence last week. She’s had it in her wardrobe since 2008, and it’s undergone several reworkings, Mary-style.

Our English speakers might have to resort to Google translate, but Modekoningin Maxima had a lovely piece on the makeup of Maxima. Yes, you too can have Max’s expressive eyes.

Our own Iselen keeps us up-to-date on Letizia’s outings but if you want to dive really deep into her wardrobe, Queen Letizia Style has even more information. I was particularly intrigued by the  navy Magrit ‘Liza’ suede shoes she wore to a recent audience at Zarzeula.

I am dazzled by the dress worn by Rania to the Aqaba Governorate. I am also dazzled by her unending support for Jordanian women.

Two royals have been in Africa recently, albeit quite far apart on the huge continent. Crown Princess Marie has been in Uganda as Patron of DanChurchAid, and Princess Marie’s Closet has all the details. Royal Central has information on Princess Sofia’s trip to South Africa for her Project Playground charity.

Britain

We haven’t talked about Sophie for a while, so let’s take a look at her recent outings.

Sophie attended an opening of the new location at the Central School of Ballet, where she is a patron. This is a lovely, feminine dress, and it seems very appropriate for a ballet school. There is no intel on the designer yet, but she did wear her Max Mara coat with the ensemble.

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Sophie stepped out at the Sulpher and White premiere in a Galvin and White dress. I’m not going to pretend to love this one, but I was intrigued by her choice. These unstructured satin dresses are having a bit of a moment (one of Princess Stephanie’s daughters wore a mini version this week). The execution on this dress has some obvious flaws, but will say I like the color and shoes, and Sophie’s Kiki earrings.

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She sported a great pair of earrings during her visit to the Shooting Star Chase hospice last week, and I want to throw out another piece of ammo in our ongoing royal mythbuster endeavor – more color nail polish at work ; ).

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While we are here in Britain let’s look at some coats and suits on Camilla. Yes, I know the Handbag community wants to start a fund to get her some new boots, but winter will be over soon and hopefully she’ll pick up a few new pairs in the after season sales. Clothes now – first up, electric blue coat in Brent.

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Green suit at Buck House with Charles, to hand out the Queen’s Anniversary prizes.

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Black and white dress at the Royal School of Needlework, where she is a patron. Looks like she has some needle skills, too!

Bhutan

Let’s end with some beauty, shall we?

The Bhutanese King celebrated Losar with citizens, government officials, members of the military at the Simtokha Dzong. This is the Bhutanese New Year, and every description of it makes me more and more determined to visit. The royal family released a lovely photo for the event.

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Hofdame Bits and Bobs
Belgium · Bhutan · Britain · Japan · Lesotho · Netherlands

Hofdame Bits and Bobs

The HandbagLeave a comment

Getty

Did you miss a royal event last week? There were a lot! See Getty for a look back at the week of February 17th. Warning for those with snake phobias, Kate’s visit to the Ark Open Farm is included.

Milestones

So many royal milestones came and went last week. We celebrated some birthdays on the blog, but we missed a great deal too. Let’s rectify that.

Emperor Naruhito turned sixty! The original cheeks ; ).

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck turned forty. Although we don’t need an excuse to post a beautiful photo of Bhutan, let’s use this milestone as a chance to do so.

Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso and King Letsie celebrated their 20th anniverary, and their daughter Senate Seeiso posted an Instagram tribute. I know the Queen’s dress- her entire ensemble, indeed – intrigues many of you, so here is a chance to look at it close-up.

Daily Mail

Style Inspirations

Thanks to our intrepid community member Beth for the heads up on this bit here – Queen Elizabeth, Diana and Princess Anne – are style inspirations. Shrimps designer Hannah Weiland developed her Autumn 2020 line around the stylings of these three woman, and we are fully onboard.

Speaking of styling, in this announcement that WAX and MAX will be attending Daisy’s birthday celebrations was a photo of WAX’s christening . Daisy was one of his godparents, and, yes, there is that fabulous sixties dress we have discussed so many times. I can never see it enough.

Belgium

We need to check in with Mathilde, who has had a very busy February. The below is just a sampling of the Natan outings. For her full schedule, head over to Modekoningin Mathilde.

For a management symposium in Flanders, she broke out a new Natan, shown below with and without the jacket.

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She visited a horticultural school to talk about anti-bullying initiatives. I think she may have pulled this skirt from the end of the closet that holds her thigh-high boots ; )

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She wore various shades of gray for the yearly mass honoring deceased family members. It’s a good color choice, not as somber and unrelenting as black, but very respectful.

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What did I miss?

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