Tiara Time Machine: Crown Princess Victoria at the 2006 Nobels

Crown Princess Victoria arrived for the event wearing a duochrome gown in shades of red and purple. The bodice of the dress was embellished with lace appliques. The pale blue sash of the Order of the Seraphim contrasted with the gown’s color. Victoria also wore the star of the order, plus her father’s Royal Family Order, pinned to the dress.

With the bright gown, Victoria wore jewels set with diamonds and amethysts. She wore the Baden Fringe Tiara, which had quickly become one of her signature diadems. At this point, however, the base of the tiara was still wrapped in gray velvet, to coordinate with the silver hair of Victoria’s great-aunt, Princess Lilian. Eventually, as Victoria wore the tiara more and more frequently, the velvet was changed to dark brown.

Here’s another angle that shows just how long the sides of the fringe tiara really are—it wraps nearly all the way around the wearer’s head.

Victoria also wore a diamond necklace with a pear-shaped pendant, and she secured her order sash with a small diamond floral brooch.

To highlight the purple iridescence of her gown, Victoria also wore the diamond and amethyst earrings from the Napoleonic Amethyst Parure, a set that (as the name suggest) dates back to the French imperial court of Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s said that the earrings and the coordinating tiara and jewels originally belonged to Napoleon’s first wife (and Victoria’s great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother), Josephine de Beauharnais.

Victoria also wore bracelets and rings, including a ring that appears to be set with rubies on her left arm. This entire look ended up being one of Victoria’s most iconic tiara appearances—so much so that Mattel produced a Barbie doll of the crown princess wearing this gown and these jewels!