Royal style & gossip: summer is coming, tiaras better be too!

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Previous thread

And as promised, here's a guide to the acronyms we use on these threads:

HM - the Queen
DoE - Prince Philip
PM - Princess Margaret
QM - the Queen Mum
W&K - William and Kate
H&M - Harry and Meghan
C&C - Charles and Camilla
B&E - Beatrice and Eugenie
Max & Wax - Maxima and Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
CPV - Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden
HCP - (Hot) Carl-Philip of Sweden
CPM - Crown Princess Mary of Denmark
Mar & Fre - CPM when she’s with her husband, Frederik of Denmark
SWFM - (Single White Female) Marie of Denmark, on account of resembling several other royal women!
HH&MM - (Hottie) Haakon and Mette-Marit of Norway
SFF - (Silver Fox) Felipe of Spain

I think that’s all of them??

Blimey @Spudlet! I'd heard that story before but didn't know it had come to that! Clearly being married to one of the great beauties of the time wasn't enough for Albert

Maybe it's just the power of suggestion, but I can see a resemblance there.

Gorgeous baby toes paradyning . Those Belgium fines are going to add up quickly!

Loving the tootsies @Paradyning

Cute pic Paradyning 🙂

From what I can gather the fines are to be paid to Delphine Boël rather than the court system, they will quickly mount up. it's all very tangled!

I googled the Belgian RF; they are pretty scandal prone.
British born a Princess Claire is sort of going on strike because her husband Prince Laurent has had his civil list allowance cut as a punishment for going to a reception honouring the red army at the Chinese embassy.

No more scandal prone than the British or Spanish monarchies, I suppose!

No more scandal prone than the British or Spanish monarchies I suppose, though the British scandals have usually featured sex rather than money!

The Belgians seem to be featuring sex and money.
King Albert gets about 900k euros per annum.
Prince Laurent gets about 300k and has complained that he gets the same as a top civil servant. But let’s face it; that is effectively what a RF is. Civil servants with fancy titles; free housing and an unlimited expense account.

Max brought out one of her favourite dresses in Ethiopia (middle photo). She's a fan of beige but the green accents and matching accessories lift it a bit. Though on anyone else it would look like they were getting mouldy!

Love her retro shoe styling with the dress.

Laurent of Belgium is quite a difficult and unhappy character, I believe.

Congratulations Paradyning!

Max looks great. It's her birthday today I think (Twitter says...).

Is today the Queen is out celebrating 100 years of Sainsburys? I'm quite looking forward to that. Although this event and a few glimpses of Princess Anne out and about makes me feel that William/Kate/Harry/Meghan really need to do a few more bridge openings/village fetes etc. That day to day churn is the best way to get the royal family out to the country in general.

[For record, I don't think W&K, H&M are lazy and couldn't care less how little or many visits Kate or Meghan do, particularly while they have small children, I just think a few smaller pop in and out ,shake some hands, cut a ribbon trips wouldn't be a bad idea].

Yes, Max is 48 today.

I think the Cambridges and Sussexes will make more appearances once Charles is king. Maybe they're taking their chance to spend lots of time with their families now as they know they'll be required to step up in the near future?

I'm watching the channel 5 doc on royal fashion and it starts with HM. She was very glam back in the day and has seen many fashions come and go. There's even footage from a few years ago of her sitting next to Anna Wintour at fashion week and she seems very interested in all the outfits that go past. Which really does make me think the stories about her style "rules" for Kate and Meghan etc are all bollocks!

name changed but agree Queen - I think HM was extremely stylish and, at times, very sexy when younger. I think the chances of style rules are bollocks.

At most, I can imagine that there's an old fashioned view of what's appropriate for super formal events - state dinners, major church services etc. But that's not unique to the royal family. I'm not religious for example, but if attending weddings/ christenings/ funerals etc I always tend towards more conservative clothes and certainly wouldn't wear something strappy or strapless, for example.

Watching the interview with David Emanuel, I can't quite believe he once had a wife!!

Martha Louise and Shamen Durek have come to the attention of Marina Hyde!

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2019/may/16/you-want-a-dark-mel-gibson-comedy-about-rich-jewish-people-you-got-it

Absolutely with Marina all the way on the burnt offerings front

Now now QueenoftheAndals

Queen weird isn’t it.

It's just been on BBC News that Archie's birth certificate confirms he was born at Portland Hospital.

The doc is definitely worth a watch for anyone on this thread. It goes right up to H&M's Australia tour and talks about how Meghan embraces ethical fashion, which is something I'd never given much thought to. Better to spend £30 on a pair of jeans made an underpaid worker in a sweatshop or £150 on a pair made by women who've been rescued from slavery and are paid a decent wage?

Archie's birth cert

I guess that depends on whether you have £150 to spend on jeans! If I did I'd look for the ethical choice, but my budget is definitely at the £30 end of the market. So it has to be M&S and hope for the best for me.

Is it available online, do you know?