Royal Style - here's to 70 more years of frocks and rocks!

[Maireas]

Waving to the wonderful Royal Style clan!
Great Jubilee, let's hope there's more to come!.

I love that little clutch.

I LOVE that! What a great idea.

@gluenotsoup The problem with these folk costumes is to me that they are fundamentally stagnant versions of what was once a living traditional way of dress. Sweden has a handful of varieties that were genuinely worn well into the 1800s and remained the primary choice for festivities since then. Then there are loads of "reconstructed" versions were they sought to create a folk costume from an area based on random historical remnants of clothing - they can be more or less successfull but IMO the idea is fundamentally a bit flawed since it isn't really traditional dress. Probably I should pull the stick out of my arse though since it does make it easier for people who do traditional dance for example to be able to pick the dress from their area at least whether truly traditional or reconstructed. Princess Sofia normally wears the dress from her area of Sweden were there is a strong and genuine tradition btw and it's miles nicer.

The blue and yellow national dress is so garish I think and feels based in rather unpleasant nationalistic ideas. Who wants to be dressed as a flag.

That said, I enjoy the Malaysian princesses version - because I dislike the stagnancy of the whole thing, and because I myself have mixed heritage and a true costume for me would be a mash-up.

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Opinions, I haz them. 😚

banivani, I agree and I don't think it's a problem limited to Swedish national dress. Sounds like you've been reading Hobsbawn and Ranger's classic text, 'The Invention of Tradition.' (sorry, I'm an academic, can't help myself ). The idea that any culture is frozen in time is pretty problematic.

As you were.

Thank you both, really interesting and thought provoking responses. I might have to go off and read ‘The Invention of Tradition’ now 😂. I love history, it was a large part of my degree, but very different areas I suspect. I agree that cultures are not static, and rightly, but didn’t realise that some national dress is sort of contrived, if that’s what you mean? I saw it more as a nod to the best the country represented has to offer in its identity and togetherness past, present and future if that makes sense? Although I see it’s never representative of every element of society by nature of its limitations.
Well - royal style beauty lovelies- you’ve made me put my thinking cap on today. Nothing shallow here 😂💐

Ooh, nice.

I see that The Invention of Tradition is available on Kindle. That's my weekend sorted. Thanks @MotherofPearl

You're welcome @SenecaFallsRedux - though even by my pretty geeky standards it's not much of a weekend read!

Maxima meets Christine Lagarde. She looks really great I think; it's one of those Max outfits that works on her but probably not anyone else. Her hair looks good up and I love her pearls.

Three blue dresses from Sophie in Gibraltar today. Her hair looks great here though I am not crazy about any of the dresses. The sleeveless shirt dress is probably my least worst.

@banivani you could do a hybrid Swedish folk/Irish dance outfit. It’d be class 😁

Max in black?! It's certainly a different look for her. I like Christine's jacket.
The royal blue dress looks the nicest on Sophie, I think. She does wear a lot of blue.
Edward has a look of George VI about him, I always think. Strange that he's actually older than George/Bertie when he died.

Max looks good in black, but I'm not keen on the actual outfit.
I really like Sophie's mid blue dress with sleeves and white belt - looks pretty and contemporary.

Yes, that's my favourite

I love the pale blue and white dress with nude shoes on Sophie.

Our favourite shamen, Derek and Martha-Louise gave an engagement interview today. He designed her engagement ring himself (that explains a lot - unless you are Prince Albert that seldom goes well!) and they don’t currently have a wedding date. My favourite part: Durek shared that his mother had a vision when he was a teenager that he would marry the Princess of Norway. Which was later confirmed by a psychic in London & Turkey.

(I did actually mean to call him Durek there! Autocorrect had other ideas 😞 )

As I said earlier, Durek's Wikipedia page is a ride. He subscribes to David Icke's reptilian theory too!

...yet he's marrying into a lizard family?

That Durek her family must be pulling their hair out. Remember when the Russian royal family went in for quackery, that didn't end well either

I hardly think he's in the same league as Rasputin, let's keep some perspective here!

It's only just clicked that Shaman isn't his first name, but his self-appointed title 😅 Just had a read of his Wikipedia page... Oh dear. Hopefully there is family support around and an iron-clad prenup.

He wrote an awful book making very unsound claims about children with cancer which was banned in Norway.

It was the stuff about underground spirits making imprints on women's vaginas that really made me Having read his Wikipedia page I think he's frankly unhinged and absolutely a conman not a shaman. I hope ML's family will be keeping a watchful eye on her.

Sorry I am not up to date but have you all seen the pictures of Princess Anne in a bow tie at the houses of parliament?

Not many women can rock that look!

I like that she's slightly toned down the beehive hair too.