Here's what Princess Máxima wore the week of 12-18 September:
Attending the start of the money week ‘Week van het geld’, 13 September. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Big Bird.
Opening of the royal complex in Utrecht, 14 September. Still love this one - whole lotta print here, but she can handle it.
Visiting a project aimed at reducing school dropouts, 15 September.
Best and Worst of the Week
Sure, the last outfit of the week could have used a pop of color - but look! She did her hair! Maxima's hair can look so dissheveled when worn down. Pulling it back like this is a sure way to win the week. A sure way to lose the week, on the other hand, is to overdose on the yellow (and mustard yellow at that!).
Like I said, at first glance Tatiana's wedding dress reminded me of Princess Marie's gown. So, I thought: let's flashback and see just how far off base I am. Turn the dials in your sartorial time machines back to May 24, 2008 (was it really only two years ago?!) and we'll re-attend the wedding of Miss Marie Cavallier and Prince Joachim of Denmark...
Designed by David Arasa and Claudio Morelli from the Arasa Morelli fashion house, Marie's gown was lace from head to toe, specifically Calais lace made with a floral pattern in raised satin stitch. The gown was off white and lined with ivory silk faille from the lace maker Buche in the Loire Valley (a nice nod to Marie's French heritage).
I'll be honest, this has never been one of my favorites. My main issue is the waist: why so low? It shortens her.
Her veil was tulle with a lace border, anchored in place by a floral tiara belonging to Queen Margrethe which has become Marie's one and only tiara in the two years since. I think Marie falls victim to the same problem Mary had on her wedding day here: the veil has to come up and over the hairdo, which means it backs the tiara and the diamonds disappear against the tulle.
What I love: the train. It's three meters long, which is a perfect length. Long enough for a cathedral yet not crazy long (like a Diana sort of situation). Marie's many layers were managed better than Tatiana's were, but she wasn't without her mishaps:
Whoops! Wind should be banned on wedding days, shouldn't it?
Alright, so the two gowns aren't really that alike after all. Oh, well. Gave us an excuse to maintain the wedding fervor, at least.
And hey - we're not the only ones flashing back to this very event:
Here's Victoria at the 2008 wedding, debuting the dress we just saw on Wednesday. Can't blame the girl, it's a good one.
This week is telling me that the Princess needs a shoe intervention. Seriously, not a good selection among the lot of these looks. Disregarding the orange overkill on the shoes, I'll pick her second look of National Day as the best of the week and the black and white disaster as the first. Slim pickings this week - the other 2 dresses are boring me.
Sometimes, it's all about context. Sure, the ladies of the Belgian royal family came up with some doozies at this year's National Day, but when you look at what they sported in years past, they were really just carrying on one hell of a tradition....
Queen Paola's planetary hat this year just echoed the tradition begun by Mathilde last year:
Three years earlier, she went the turban route:
Maybe I'll go as Mathilde for Halloween this year. All I need is a roll of craft paper to wrap around my head and a bright orange outfit.
Or a swamp thing to stick on my head with matching psychedelic coat.
Even Queen Fabiola gets in on the fun sometimes, playing the roll of family fortune teller in 2005.
The Queen of the Strange National Day Costumes, however, has to be Princess Claire.
It's only when she sits that you realize that this dress has a tail.
Let's start with the handbag: it's in the shape of Belgium. Call me geographically challenged, but all I see is a strange black blob with oddly positioned rhinestones (at least, I think that's what they are). The coat is a tribute to Mondrian, which I can get down with. But you'd have to try pretty hard to find anything less Mondrian in nature than the giant pouf of tulle and fluffy balloon skirt surrounding it. That's what I call a thematic fail.
But it's not as big of a thematic fail as this gem, the pièce de résistance of sartorial tomfoolery:
There are no words.
Photos: Mark Renders/Getty Images/Gerard Cerles/AFP
The Belgian ladies put on quite a show for National Day today, and it was an interesting sartorial display indeed. Let's give out some awards, shall we?
Best Get Out of Criticism Free Pass
Queen Fabiola
Queen Fabiola's just cute. She's earned the right to scarf it up, wear pants and no hat to a cathedral service, and to leave her house in the granny version of John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever wardrobe.
Most Mind Boggling
Queen Paola
This is a whole lot of look. There is a planetary ring of lace around her head, and it's just the ignition in this giant sartorial explosion: we've got a basket weave jacket, a froufrou jacket closure, and a skirt that's both wrapped and too long. I have no idea where to look first. My head hurts.
Biggest Costume
Princess Claire
I want to like this. I'd like more princesses to channel a little fifties glamour every now and then. She supported a young Belgian designer, Bernard Depoorter. But...no. I'm sure there is a woman that can pull this off at a day event without looking like she's on her way to a fancy dress party, but it's not Claire.
Best Close Call
Princess Mathilde at the Military Parade
This comes so close to being fabulous. I like the orange on her and as far as NATAN goes, it's a pretty good fit. And I love a giant hat. But she took it just a step too far - why the orange shoes? You can just dip into the citrus cocktail, you don't have to jump in feet first.
Biggest Contrast
Princess Mathilde visiting a Food Stand
Looks like Mathilde just ran out of steam for her third outfit of the day (outfit 2 above, outfit 1 below). This is...normal. I guess that's what you get when you attempt to pull a sartorial hat trick.
Best Dressed
Princess Astrid
Uniforms: appropriate for the time of day, appropriate amount of costume. It's a no fail solution.
Worst Dressed
Princess Mathilde at the Te Deum Service
Mathilde has attended this event many a time in the past, so I'm not sure how she got so mixed up about the time. It's not an evening event, yet this is what she wore. That's an evening dress (sleeveless at the Te Deum! Scandal!), and a bad one at that. This NATAN creation puts the waist of the dress right where no woman wants it and then has the audacity to add bulk with that strange black band. The hair's evening wear too - there's no need to be that intricate during the day - and that hair ornament (can you call it a fascinator? I'm not sure you can) feels like something Spain's Princess Elena might wear with one of her olé! ensembles. And then there's the shoes and the bag which is beige which makes no sense....I'm truly confused. Mathilde's the only one that changed between the Te Deum and the military parade. She just should have stuck with the orange number.
Here's what Princess Letizia wore the week of 4-10 July:
Dinner with the President and First Lady of Syria, 4 July.
Audience at Zarzuela Palace, 7 July. An awfully quick repeat, no? Still don't like it, not the button down shirt with the casual skirt with the too long necklaces. But I will say that she seems to be a little more relaxed at this engagement, so points for that.
Why can't it be like the orange dress all the time? Colorful, no dreaded scarves involved. And appropriate for the event, unlike the blue outfit that I have already said my piece on.
Here's what Princess Máxima wore the week of 4-10 July:
Christening the MS Nieuw Amsterdam ship, 4 July. Mathilde has the same dress in white, so I'll wager a guess it's NATAN (even though it looks to be more refined than his daywear usually is).
Annual photocall with Willem-Alexander and their daughters, 5 July. I have an inherent objection to drawstrings on any article of clothing other than sweatpants, but this dress makes Máx look really skinny.
Like I said, she looks really good in this one. She also looks good in the first dress of the week, but the clumsy snakeskin shoes and bag and the oddly positioned brooch at the waist are ruining it for me.
So, earlier in the course of this World Cup bonanza, I recommended a round of team scarves as a path for success. I was right, hmm?
First up, the road to the final:
Willem-Alexander once again sported his orange best, and this time he brought along Máxima for an extra boost of orange. Not only did Máxima douse herself in the country's favorite color, she also sported a brooch of the Netherlands flag.
Queen Sofia did the same, lending her support to Spain in the semi-final looking elegant in team red and she also did us the favor of providing us with this hilarious video, in which the delicious Spanish team tries in vain to tidy the locker room for their Queen. Adorable.
I think Sofia's set a new royal protocol standard here, with the photo-ops among dirty socks and empty beer cans, the greeting of shirtless toweled players and all the kisses and hugs from the winning team.
And then, the Big Finale:
For the final match, you have to bring out your big guns, and Máxima did it in the sparkliest way possible. Rare is the sporting event for which an evening suit is appropriate, but leave it to my favorite little magpie to find one. She looks fabulous, even if this is a terribly messy hair situation.
Big guns for Spain meant doubling up the royal support, as Letizia and Felipe joined forces with the Queen. And Letizia doubled up on her scarves. (Why? What temperature was it in South Africa?) And she looked underdressed, again. Sigh.
But it worked, I guess, because Spain won the prize and once again we got an adorable photo opportunity out of it:
Aww. I don't think those wee princesses know how lucky they are, hanging out with Iker Casillas. These two are darn near the best dressed of the royal World Cup in their little jerseys. Somebody should have lent one to their mom so she wouldn't have to repeat her outfits so quickly, though. And so she could have been red like everyone else, right?
While I scurry off to figure out when the next international sporting event worthy of my obsession will occur, tell me: who was your best dressed royal at the World Cup?
Here's what Princess Máxima wore the week of 20-26 June:
At the Dol-Fijn school in Deventer for a meeting about financial upbringing, 21 June. Unfortunate wrinkling situation with the trousers there.
Opening the new campus of the British School in Leidschenveen, 22 June. Normally I'd have to say the pink-raspberry-orange color combination is a bit retina-searing, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Máx. Same strappy orange sandals we just saw in Stockholm, by the way.
Received the scenariostudie NL2040 and attending the CPB Lecture in The Hague, 22 June. Interesting, this. A dress with vertical ruffles under a coat edged in the same fluff. It's bordering on too old for her, but I think she's working it.
Financial Action Task Force meeting, 23 June, a) on the NATAN runway, and b) in action. In the battle between Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg and Máxima, I have to declare a win for the Netherlands. At least Máxima's wearing the dress, and not letting it wear her (as was poor young Alexandra's problem). But a win in this dress for anyone is a win with heavy reservations: it's just not pretty. At all.
Best and Worst of the Week
This magenta number is bright and cheery and pretty. The mustard NATAN monster is none of those things. It doesn't even look good on the runway, for heaven's sake. The cardigan makes it worse. (Though, for the record, I came thisclose to giving worst of the week to outfit #1. Totally forgettable, a pretty egregious offense for a princess, if you ask me.)
