I’m feeling nostalgic for the decade of big birthday events – yes, the grand old 2010s! One of our most sartorially interesting Queens debuted a major re-do at King Harald and Queen Sonja’s joint 80th birthday bash, and it’s worth another look.
2016 Prinsjesdag
Prinsjesdag is one of the more difficult events – fashion-wise – for the participants. A long day gown? A hat? Maybe it was easy in 1912, but these days it’s a balancing act. Queen Máxima bounces back and forth between choosing dresses that are long but definitely “daywear” and just flat out pairing an evening gown with a hat. In 2016, she reached for daywear.
The Queen chose a Claes Iversen blue blouse and tucked it into a long, heavily embellished gold skirt. She tossed on a ginormous Fabienne Delvigne chapeau to finish things off. The blouse matched the sash (as noted by some commenters at the time), so that may have been the driver behind the whole ensemble. That, or the fact that she has access to a lot of fabulous sapphires.
2017 King Harald and Queen Sonja’s Birthday
I don’t know if she looked at the ensemble and thought, “this would be great if it were more cohesive!” but in 2017, for King Harald and Queen Sonia’s birthday celebrations, she replaced the blouse with a matching off-the-shoulder bodice. She added some significant sapphires because she’s Max and added my favorite delicate diamond trellis necklace. She wisely kept that bow brooch at the waist.
