Royal Trend Watch: Paris Fashion Week

The fashionistas have been out in full force for quite some time now at fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and finally this past week in Paris. It was Paris and the Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear collections that brought a few select royals and their front row styles out to play. Princess style at a fashion show is a curious phenomenon: to stick to your regular royal uniform, or go fully fashion-forward decked out in your designer of choice?

Left to Right: Princess Charlene at Akris, Princess Beatrice at Elie Saab, the Princess of Venice and Piedmont (Clotilde Courau) at Balmain

Charlene and Beatrice both stuck to outfits that they would wear any day of the week; though Clotilde looks like she dressed special for the show, she's really doing the same. Beatrice wins this group for sure. Her simple Elie Saab sheath (quite similar to what we've just seen Kate in, by the way) is a master class in the power of color.

But Bea doesn't win the week. No, for that we have to go with a princess that really did put a royal spin on the fashion week trends: Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana of Thailand (she's the daughter of the Crown Prince of Thailand).

L to R: At Balmain, Christian Dior, Lanvin, and Hèrmes

Princess S. (one time typing the full name is enough for me) is quite the fashion girl, you see. She's a designer and a student of fashion, and has even showed in Paris herself. Also, she's an international badminton player. Everybody loves a princess of all trades! (Well...maybe not everybody. There was a bit of a kerfluffle when she tried to introduce herself to Princess Beatrice at the Elie Saab show and was rebuffed by Bea's bodyguard. Awkward.)

L to R: At Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Elie Saab

I'll admit it was a bit jarring at first to see her go full-on Morticia when we last saw her in demure national dress in Monaco, but I'm ending the week a big fan. There are loads of princesses working the sensible trends; we have plenty of room for one that loves fashion and isn't afraid to let you know it. I say: work it!

Which one's your favorite royal outfit from Paris Fashion Week?

Photos: lehtikuva/Getty Images/Daily Mail/Daylife

Royal Trend Watch: Flying the Flag

My Twitter friend @nina_lux drew some attention to a rather interesting accessory sported by the Countess of Wessex yesterday, and she wasn't even talking about the return of the peacock hat.

It's the return of the Union Jack bag! Sophie has carried this eyebrow-raising clutch before:

Emblazoned with the words "Paparazzi", "Britannia Rules", and "Flying the Flag for Fashion", it's a rather cheeky display of one's patriotism, isn't it? Naturally, this got me thinking about other such overt displays of flag-flying furor we've seen from our royals.

Camilla has similar tastes, having made headlines for carrying her mother-in-law's likeness on a purse. Naturally, William's Union Jack vest (which has the Austin Powers saying "Yeah, Baby!" written on it) at Eton came to mind, as did Eugenie's flag confusion when she flew the stars and stripes on holiday. Zara and Harry, meanwhile, gamely sported St. George's flag while supporting England rugby.

(Zara, by the way, will be happy to assist you should you want to fly the Union Jack for yourself:

This hoodie comes from her line of casual equestrian wear.)

Apart from sporting events, we've seen some of these national displays from a handful of other royals over the years.

Belgium's Princess Claire carried a handbag in the shape of Belgium as a part of one of her notoriously themed ensembles for the country's National Day festivities. (You can see the rest of them here. They're something to behold, I'll say that.)

The Dutch have adopted orange as their national color, and their royals are not shy about wearing it in abundance. The actual flag, though, is not so common for patriotic wear, which is why Máxima's jacket stands out.

Not only is this the red, white, and blue flag stripe, the jacket from Jan Taminiau is made from repurposed Dutch postal bags. Kind of clever, no?

Máxima also starts us into the trend of flag jewelry, as she owns a brooch in the shape of the Netherlands flag (see it on display at the World Cup here). The current generation of Danish princes seem to have a fetish for this as well, but instead of brooches, they go for engagement rings.

Crown Prince Frederik presented Mary with a ruby and diamond ring (above left) echoing the red and white of the Danish flag, while Prince Joachim chose to imitate the French flag when he selected a ring for his French love, Marie (above right). Mary's is all right...but perhaps Joachim should have stopped with the flag theme after the ruby and diamond ring he presented to his first wife, Alexandra. (You can see Alexandra's ring, and many more, right here.)

What do you make of this patriotic trend? Delightful, kitschy, or delightfully kitschy?

Photos: Getty Images

Royal Trend Watch: Scandinavian Ski Fan Edition

I must say, few things have been more delightful in the Land of Royal Pictures this week than the Nordic Ski World Championships in Oslo. Naturally, the whole Norwegian royal fam's been out and about, and they've even been joined by some Swedes and a Dane. Not only have they given us a delicious display of Scandinavian sporting fashion, they've given us quite the show of Cute. Oh, I love it when royals go a-sporting.

First, you have to love the matching outfits.

Shouldn't you be required to have a choreographed group dance or vocal number at the ready when you go out like this?

The wave doesn't count.

A little Supremes action might, though.

It's cold outside, and we all know the best way to handle that: get all loved up.

An alternative option? Crack each other up.

Laughter: it warms the innards.

The kids come out to play.

And who doesn't love that?

 Everyone loves that.

There's the glee of a royal cheering section (jumpy fist pumps included!).

And even a royal attempt to spread the team spirit in unwelcome places:

Cheesy posed family pictures? Check.

See: royals? Maybe they're just like us after all.

Well, except I doubt any of us get a personal hug from the champion at the end of the day.

Soak it in, Mette-Marit. Soak it in.

Photos: Purepeople/Abaca/Daylife/Reuters/Svenskdam

Royal Trend Watch: SHOOTIES

There's a trend that's been brewing among royal ladies. I've been loathe to declare it as such, but after today...I think I have to. And I will do so while banging my head on my desk, because this trend is the new bane of my existence.

The SHOOTIE. I'm sorry to go all caps-locky on you, but I think it's warranted. A ridiculous word, a ridiculous look. Why, please tell me why, would you voluntarily cut your legs off? Can't we all unite in the pursuit of a nice long leg line?

Crown Princess Victoria's one and only appearance that came close to making my Top 10 Worst of 2010 list, and it's all because of the SHOOTIE.

Letizia's a fan. I have to say, if this was going to look good on anyone, it would probably be Letizia based on the wee size of her legs, but no. You will notice how she wears them with matching tights, thus negating the whole SHOOTIE effect in the first place, though that little trick still doesn't erase the mistake of that cherry red number.

I saw this today on Laurentien, and my concern increased. That's a distracting dress (I mean, what's going on around the shoulders?), but you still can't hide the SHOOTIES. You know how these Dutch princesses are. This is bound to be only the tip of the SHOOTIE iceberg.

But nothing, NOTHING, can possibly top this in terms of sheer SHOOTIE horror:

The Estonian state visit to Sweden has brought a whole host of interesting sartorial appearances, courtesy of the Estonian First Lady there. Wrestle your attention away from the headgear for a moment. I know, it's impossible (oh LORD is it ever impossible), but move your eyes in a downward direction. Before you have a heart attack, know that Queen Silvia's not pulling a Letizia here, that's just static cling wreaking havoc on her skirt. She saved her Letizia move for the feet.

A double SHOOTIE appearance. I'm still trying to recover from the horror. If this phenomenon has made it's way from wannabe fashionable princesses to the realm of queens, I'm afraid we have a real problem on our hands. I'm thinking of starting a petition. (I'm also thinking of starting a Worst of 2011 list for those accompanying royals based solely on the sartorial wonder that is the Estonian First Lady, but that's another story.) Who's with me?

Photos: Huffington Post/Daylife/PPE/vdWerf

Royal Trend Watch: Safety Woes

Here's a lil' tidbit about yours truly: I'm an interior designer. My particular job involves developing the aesthetics of large buildings, offices and such. What I'm saying is this: I spend a significant amount of my time mucking about construction sites and the like.

Why am I bothering you with this information? Because I want you to know, when I say this, that it comes from deep personal experience:

There is no way to make construction hard hats and safety gear look good. Mette-Marit, I sympathize.

Let me tell you, there's nothing worse than having your style smashed by safety requirements. (Well, alright, there's a whole lot out there that's worse than that. But my world is small and shallow.) High heels are not encouraged in these environments, which is blasphemous. And I'm not even going to get into what these things do to your hair.

Poor royals. Factories, construction sites, you name it: many have tried to rock their safety gear....

...all have failed. A most unfortunate royal trend.

But, hey, I think Mette-Marit's come up with the first step to combating the woes of safety wear:

If your scarf is big enough, it'll cover everything else. Someone needs to tell Letizia.

Photos: Corbis/ANP

Royal Trend Watch: Máxima's Other Twin

NATAN's fashions, as we know, run unfortunately amok among the ladies of the Benelux royal houses.  We've seen Princess Máxima play the twin game with Luxembourg's Princess Alexandra - on the same day, even - and now we're moving on to her other twin, Princess Mathilde.

Mathilde, today:

Máxima, two days ago (she's carrying a tan cardigan, even):

At least Mathilde wasn't wearing black tights with brown shoes.  (Seriously, Máx?)

You'd think their stylists or dressers would pay attention to this.  I mean, it's happened before:

And surely it will happen again.  Until next time, ladies...

Photos: Belga/Albert Nieboer/Eric Vidal

Royal Trend Watch: Clothes Swap Edition

Eagle-eyed royal watchers (and Svenskdam, too) caught a few dresses that looked a little familiar at Crown Princess Victoria's wedding and associated celebrations....

Friend Anna Ek donned a couple of the Crown Princess's old gowns, while Daniel's sister borrowed another.  The added embellishment on the pink neckline and green waist is the same.

Can I just tell you how much I love Victoria giving out her old dresses to her friends?  Seriously.  I'm not surprised: this is the woman that once wrote her love 30 letters for 30 days they'd be separated.  (If you need to watch Daniel's wedding speech again - and, really, you do - here ya go.)  I like her so much.  I don't really understand the need to add the cheesy looking glitter to the pink and green dresses, but whatever.  So sweet.

We may not get many opportunities to witness royal ladies lending out clothes to friends, but we have seen our fair share of inter-family loans:

Sweden's Princess Birgitta loaned an old outfit to her daughter-in-law Nicole for Victoria's wedding. 

I think I might have at least sprung for a different jacket, so the loan would be a little less obvious.  I wouldn't want to foster too many comparisons with Birgitta, but that's just me (and just mean.  I'm sure she's a lovely person!).

Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleberg (left) borrowed one of her sister Princess Alexandra's old maternity gowns for Queen Margrethe's 70th birthday celebrations.

Sisters always share.  (Especially when they look exactly alike - Nathalie was the pregnant one, and that was the only way I can tell them apart.  What will I do now she's had the baby?)  Plus, this just makes sense - nobody wants to buy a whole new wardrobe they won't be able to wear next month, let alone 9 from now.  Hell, the same box of borrowed maternity clothes has been making the rounds in my circle of friends for a couple years now.

Princess Martha Louise wears a dress belonging to her mother, Queen Sonja.

I can't imagine wearing any of my mother's clothes.  That would never, ever happen.  Maybe I'd change my mind if my mother had a closet full of designer duds.

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa has loaned clothes to her daughter-in-law Princess Tessy more than once; the teal outfit she wore to Felipe and Letizia's wedding was seen on Tessy at the National Day 2008 celebrations, as was a black and white evening gown.  National Day 2009 saw Tessy wearing a fascinator first worn by Maria Teresa at Tessy's wedding.

Once again, I am loving the sentiment here: Maria Teresa seems to have gone out of her way to welcome Tessy to the family, even if she did enter in a most unconventional way (as an unmarried 20 year old, she gave birth to the then-19 year old Prince Louis's baby, if you're not up on your Luxembourg scandals).  It's especially lovely given that tales of tension between MT and her own mother-in-law still circulate even now that Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte has passed away.  But once again I question the execution: these are two very different sized ladies, and the same clothes do not suit them both.  The added fabric on the bottom of the evening gown is particularly clumsy.

For the wedding of Prince Pieter-Christiaan in 2005, Princess Mabel wore the same dress that her mother-in-law Queen Beatrix wore when announcing her engagement to Prince Claus in 1965.

Pay attention, now, because this might be the only time I ever compliment Mabel's sense of style on this blog: I love this, absolutely and without reservation.  I love the gesture of wearing a dress with such a significant history, I love what it says about the relationship between these two women, and I love the dress itself.  There are few periods in fashion history that can be repeated without looking completely dated, and this dress falls into one of them.

I would love to see more of this, done just like Mabel (once again, probably the only time I will ever say that).  There should be more reasons to preserve royal clothes than just for future museum display.  Couldn't you picture Crown Princess Mary in some of the 1960s sheath dresses sported by then-Crown Princess Margrethe, or one of Queen Silvia's daughters digging out some of the amazing gowns she's donned for Nobel ceremonies past?  Or am I nuts, and we should always wish for fortunes large enough to bring us new couture, all the time?  (I wish for both, just to be clear.)

Photos: Getty Images/PPE/Corbis

Royal Trend Watch: World Cup Finale Edition

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?


Photos: Daylife/Terra/Getty Images Europe/Zimbio