Today, Queen Paola of Belgium, wife of King Albert II and mother of King Philippe, celebrates her 87th birthday. In her honor, we’re hopping in our tiara time machine and heading back six decades, to one of the sparkling gala appearances that Paola made during the days when she was Princess of Liège.
King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola of the Belgians were the royal hosts when Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom arrived in Brussels for a state visit in the spring of 1966. The two families have plenty of historical ties–Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were the niece and nephew of King Leopold I, the first monarch of independent Belgium–but this was only the third time that a British monarch had made a state visit Belgium, after Queen Victoria’s visit in 1843 and King George V’s visit in 1922. The 1966 visit came on the heels of a Belgian state visit to Britain in 1963.
During the 1966 state visit, King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola were joined by his younger brother, Prince Albert, and his wife, Princess Paola, as they hosted their British guests. Albert had married the Italian-born Paola in 1959 after a whirlwind courtship that began at the Vatican during the coronation of Pope John XXIII. By 1966, they had three small children: Philippe (now King of the Belgians), Astrid, and Laurent. At the time of this visit, Baudouin and Fabiola were also expecting a child, though they didn’t announce the pregnancy until the first week of July 1966. Sadly, that pregnancy soon ended in a miscarriage–as did all of Fabiola’s pregnancies during their marriage. In the end, it would be Albert and then Philippe who would follow Baudouin on the Belgian throne.
The banquet at the Royal Palace on the first evening of the state visit was a traditional white-tie affair, with the ladies in full gala ensembles and tiaras. Princess Paola wore a favorite white evening gown that made numerous appearances at formal events in the 1960s. The empire silhouette featured a textured bodice with small cap sleeves.
With the gown, Paola wore diamonds and pearls from her personal jewelry collection. The spotlight piece of the jewelry ensemble was Queen Elisabeth’s Art Deco Bandeau, a tiara that originally belonged to Baudouin and Albert’s grandmother, Elisabeth of Bavaria, the wife of King Albert I of Belgium. The jewel is a sleek, spectacular example of Art Deco design, featuring a zig-zag design crossed by a wreath of laurels, all set in diamonds.
The tiara had passed from Queen Elisabeth to her son, King Leopold III, and it was subsequently worn by both of his wives. He’s the one who gave the tiara to his daughter-in-law, Princess Paola, who wore it at gala events for decades. For the British state banquet in Brussels, Paola wore the tiara with coordinating diamond and pearl pieces, including her half-moon earrings and her Y-shaped diamond necklace, which she also wore occasionally as a tiara.
Delightfully, members of the press pack also snapped this photograph of Prince Albert and Princess Paola talking just before the Queen and the Duke arrived for the dinner. The image gives us a look at the scooped back of her gown, as well as a glimpse of her intricate hairstyle for the gala.
The Art Deco bandeau is an unusually long tiara, with its tapering sides nearly forming a circlet around the wearer’s head. This image also gives you a good look at how far the sides of the tiara extended into Paola’s hair. The extra length of the bandeau allows it to be taken off its tiara frame and worn as a choker-style necklace.
I don’t think we can leave 1966 and this state banquet without taking a closer look at the other gowns and tiaras on display. Here’s a look at the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the banquet. She wore a beaded evening gown with the wide purple sash of Belgium’s Order of Leopold, which she secured with Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Brooch. She added even more contrasting color with her choice of jewels: the emerald setting of the Vladimir Tiara and the diamond and emerald necklace, earrings, and bracelet from the Delhi Durbar Parure.
With her evening gown, Queen Fabiola opted to wear the grandest tiara in the Belgian royal collection: the Nine Provinces Tiara, the imposing diamond diadem made for her husband’s late mother, Queen Astrid, as a wedding gift in the 1920s. The tiara is generally reserved for the use of the woman who holds the title of Queen of the Belgians. Queen Paola would go on to wear the tiara during her husband’s reign, and today it’s worn by Queen Mathilde.
She also added several pieces from her extensive collection of aquamarine and diamond jewels to her ensemble, wearing aquamarine drop earrings, a necklace with five large aquamarine pendants, and aquamarine and diamond bracelets.
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