Nobel Jewels Are Back in Sweden and Norway!

We’ll begin with the ceremony in Stockholm, where most of the Nobel Prizes are distributed. This year’s ceremony took place at Stockholm’s City Hall, in the large room where the banquet is usually held. (No banquet this year.) Some prizes were awarded in person, while others were presented in the home countries of the laureates.

The royals arrived for the ceremony wearing a more casual version of their usual bejeweled splendor. No white tie, and no tiaras, for this year’s presentations, but we got to see a few interesting pieces of jewelry nonetheless.

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden led the royal group. Silvia wore an evening gown of blue velvet with colorful accents, paired with a familiar pair of blue Manolo Blahnik heels. Could this have been a sneaky tribute to Carrie Bradshaw’s shoes in the premiere episode of And Just Like That, which debuted yesterday? (The linked article includes spoilers, so don’t click if you haven’t watched.) Probably not, but it’s funny to think so.

With the colorful gown, Queen Silvia wore an equally colorful pair of statement earrings. These are fun: the earring worn in her right ear features stones in shades of pink and orange, while the earring in her left ear is in shades of blue and green.

Queen Silvia finished off the look with gold bracelets on both wrists, including a Cartier Love Bracelet on her right.

Crown Princess Victoria was elegant in a tea-length black gown for the occasion, paired with black accessories. Both she and her mother wore her father’s Royal Family Order, which is the portrait pin with the light blue ribbon.

Crown Princess Victoria also made her statement earrings, a modern pair featuring a large clear stone and a pavé-set pendant, the star of her jewelry ensemble.

But if you look closely, she brought along a rather fabulous piece of heirloom jewelry as well. The brooch pinned at the waist of her dress is one of the family’s antique diamond floral brooches.

There was also one more member of the extended Bernadotte family in attendance. Countess Bettina Bernadotte of Wisborg attended the ceremony with her husband, Philipp Haug. Bettina can often be spotted at the ceremony, as she is president of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. She’s a daughter of the late Count Lennart Bernadotte, who was the son of Prince Wilhelm of Sweden and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia.

Bettina wore diamond stud earrings and a necklace with a dark pendant for this year’s ceremony. She also wore a small gold and diamond pin on the lapel of her jacket, a piece she’s often photographed wearing. The pin features the logo of Mainau, the garden island owned by the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation.

The Nobel Peace Prize is always handed out separately from the others, with the ceremony taking place annually on the same day (December 10) in Norway. The Peace Prize ceremony, which takes place at Oslo’s City Hall, is a daytime event that is always less formal than the Swedish ceremony, so there were fewer changes to this year’s presentation.

Three Peace Prize laureates were recognized: the 2020 Peace Prize winner, David Beasley of the World Food Program (on the right), and two 2021 Peace Prize winners, investigative journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov.

As usual, the senior members of the Norwegian royal family were in attendance. King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway arrived with their son, Crown Prince Haakon, for the ceremony. Crown Princess Mette-Marit had been due to attend, but she had to cancel at the last minute. She’s suffering from cold symptoms and is being tested further.

The daytime dress code was business as usual for the Norwegian royals. Like Queen Silvia in Sweden, Queen Sonja wore velvet for the occasion: a lovely red velvet suit with a headpiece dotted with pearls.

Indeed, pearls were the theme of her jewelry as well. She wore pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, and a pearl bracelet. She also added a small bejeweled brooch and her signature stack of gold bangle bracelets.