Thanks to our guest author msb for this post about Denmark’s queen!-OC
Two things stand out about Queen Margrethe’s clothes for day and evening: the rich colours that she favours and her unselfconsciousness in wearing them.
Office clothes
Daisy has the advantage of a tall, slim figure, reminiscent of her grandfather Christian X, and her working daytime outfits can be described as elegant business attire: often a suit, or skirt and blouse plus jacket/cardigan/shawl combo. In a climate like Denmark’s, dressing in layers is just good sense – one can always add or subtract as needed. Her clothes for the 2019 New Year’s speech are a good example.
Margrethe owes many of her elegant outfits to the tailoring business of the Freifeldt family. Like her mother Queen Ingrid, Daisy was a longstanding client of Celli Freifeldt, whose firm opened in 1945 and was designated a royal court supplier in 1994.
An article in Billed Bladet (The Picture Magazine), shows four recent Annette Freifeldt outfits for Queen Margrethe. Here’s one of them, worn in 2012, at an exhibition of her own embroidery and decoupage works.
Similarly, for her recent appeal to the nation for social distancing against coronavirus, Queen Margrethe wore a rich burgundy sweater and blazer, over a checked burgundy and white skirt.
In her video speech, Margrethe wears the jeweled horseshoe bar pin – given to her by her ather when became the heir at age 13 – on her lapel. She also wore it when she was proclaimed queen in 1972. She paired it with her long mourning gown and veil.
State events – daytime
For daytime state occasions, Daisy tends to wear a dress and coat with matching hat, in a solid colour. She wears the full ensemble outdoors and the dress alone when indoors or standing on the balcony. She often accessorizes these ensembles with her large white enamel daisy brooch, and sometimes with the matching earrings. The diamond version, inherited from her mother, is for evenings and great occasions.
In addition to receiving greetings from the Royal Life Guard band and the assembled crowd (usually with groups of schoolchildren in front) on her birthday, Queen Margrethe leads everyone in the nine-fold hurrah. She shouts, “Long live Denmark!” and leads the crowd in shouting back, “Hurrah!” in three groups of three. As “Hurrah!” in Danish sounds like “Wah!”, the result sounds like “Wah, wah, wah! Wah, wah, wah! Wah, wah, waaaaah!”.
Like many others, I was very much looking forward to the events surrounding Queen Margrethe’s 80th birthday on 16 April, including the new clothes prepared and familiar jewels worn. All the festivities have been cancelled, of course, to protect everyone concerned against coronavirus. However, one part of the celebrations will still be going forward. Thousands of Danes have joined a Facebook group, “Danmark synger for dronningen” (Denmark sings for the queen). Close to 142,000 people have joined so far. At noon on 16 April, everybody will open a window or stand on their balcony and sing the Danish Happy Birthday song to celebrate the queen’s birthday and show solidarity with each other – at a proper social distance.
Traditional dress
Unlike the Swedish and Norwegian royal women, Queen Margrethe doesn’t often wear Danish traditional dress. Each region of Denmark has its own distinctive style, colors and accessories as one sees in clubs that do traditional dances. But the queen routinely wears traditional dress when visiting the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
What the Faeroese photo above doesn’t show is the traditional black bonnet that Danish women wore over their hair, if they could afford it. Those who couldn’t wore scarves. Better-off women had the back panel of their bonnets stitched in gold thread. These bonnets still turn up in antique stores, as head coverings or made into handbags.
Sports & Raingear
Daisy is practical. An enthusiastic skier for many years, she often enjoys the sport with King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway. She wore good Scandinavian sweaters over her ski suits. She usually wore her hair in pigtails.
Nobody writing about Queen Margrethe’s daywear can leave out her rain gear. Grey clouds and rain are common in Denmark, so the queen brightens the day and stays dry throughout outdoor events with this blinding sou’wester hat and raincoat combo.
A recent special exhibition at Christiansborg, the palace where the Danish Parliament meets and the Queen holds some state events, was called “Worthy of a queen: master, patron of the arts, monarch”. It featured some jewelry that Queen Margrethe wears, plus items she had designed or been given. The linked video (Særudstilling: En dronning værdig) is quite short, but has nice shots of the turquoise earrings and brooch given by her deceased husband and the Nuuk (Naasut) tiara.
It’s cheating, but I must conclude with my favourite piece of Daisy’s daywear: the stunning ensemble and jewels for Crown Prince Frederik’s wedding in 2004.
What Daisy daytime appearance is your favorite? Show us your photos in the comments!
