When I saw the jewelry surprise that Queen Mathilde pulled out at this evening’s state dinner in Athens, I had to dedicate a separate article just to discussing the gems from the event!
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians were the guests of honor at a state dinner at the presidential mansion in Athens on Monday evening. They’re on a three-day state visit to Greece, where they’ve been hosted by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and her partner, Pavlos Kotsonis. (See the jewels from the welcome ceremonies here!) If the staircase in this photo looks familiar, it’s probably because the building was the Royal Palace until the end of the monarchy in 1973.
Queen Mathilde wore a flowing sage green gown with an overlay embroidered with flowers. The dress had a vintage, ’60s or ’70s feel about its design.
The gown featured a capelet detail as well.
With the dress, Mathilde wore plenty of diamonds. Her accessories included a pair of diamond earrings with ribbon and fringe details.
These earrings have been in Mathilde’s jewelry box for several years. Here, she wears them in Oslo for the celebrations of King Harald and Queen Sonja’s 80th birthdays in May 2017. She’s actually got two pairs of diamond fringe earrings, and you can read more about both of them here.
She echoed the silver and gold tones of the dress’s floral embroidery with a modern gold and diamond cuff bracelet. She added some additional sparkle with her clutch bag. You also get a glimpse of her gold wedding band here on her right hand. (You can’t see it in this image, but she’s wearing her new blue stone ring on her left hand.)
I was all full of hope when we saw the exchange of decorations this morning that we’d have a full gala banquet. Sadly, no dice: the men wore business suits, and the women wore less formal dresses. No tiaras at all! But leave it to Mathilde to give us a little extra sparkle in her hair anyway. You’ll be able to spot an important royal brooch sparkling here in the back of her updo.
This is Queen Fabiola’s Diamond Fringe Brooch. The brooch, with its distinctive floral design, dates to the 19th century, and it’s been in the Belgian royal collection since the 1980s. Queen Fabiola was its first Belgian royal wearer, and Queen Mathilde began wearing it a few years before Fabiola’s death in 2014. Here, Mathilde wears the brooch for the princely wedding in Monaco in July 2011.
Here’s one more glimpse of the brooch in Mathilde’s hair during the visit. I still wish we’d had a tiara moment, but this was certainly a lovely alternate surprise!
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