Monday, October 14, 2013

Luxarazzi 101: Royal Recycling and Clothes Sharing Revisited

Photos: MECE / Cour grand-ducale
When Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie stepped out in a gown previously worn by her mother-in-law Grand Duchess Maria Teresa for a New York event earlier this year, it revived an old topic when it comes to the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg, clothes sharing between various members of the family. We have talked about this before and as the post continues to be a popular one, I thought we'd do so again.
Photos: Cour grand-ducale, Seeger Press, Getty Images, Point de Vue
Let's start by having a look at Luxembourg's queen of recycling that is Princess Marie-Astrid, or Archduchess Marie-Astrid if you like. One of her most frequently worn dresses is actually a gown once owned by her late mother, Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte, who wore it for an official portrait during the early 1990's. Princess Marie-Astrid got her hands on the dress sometime during the later half of the decade as she wore it for at least two events at that time before reusing it for the 40th birthday celebrations of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in 2007 and for the joined birthday ball of Princess Maria Galitzine and Nina Peers de Nieuwbergh last year. I'm pretty sure those aren't the only times she sported this white and gold number.
Photos: Tom Wagner, Craig Spiering
While we will primarily focus on the clothes sharing part in today's post - cause let's face it, we all recycle clothes on a daily basis - this one is still worth sharing. While mere mortals would probably spent a few (more) bucks to get themselves new clothes for their children's wedding, Princess Marie-Astrid seem to prefer to recycle old ones for those occasions.

While we already talked about her attire for Archduchess Marie-Christine and Archduke Christoph's respective weddings the last time Luxarazzi went fashion, we recently discovered that the outfit from Archduke Imre's wedding is a repeat from the christening of Prince Léopold and Princess Charlotte, twin children of Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla.
Photos: Seeger Press, Tom Wagner
But Princess Marie-Astrid doesn't only like to recycle her own clothes or to wear out her mother's as she also seems to believe in sharing with her own daughter. In fact, Archduchess Marie-Christine wore one of her mother's dresses for the official 18th birthday celebrations of her cousin Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume in 2000.
Photos: Tom Wagner, Getty Images
Meanwhile the dress worn by Grand Duchess Maria Teresa on that night at the Château de Vianden reappeared a few years later on her only daughter Princess Alexandra, who wore it with a different scarf at her parents silver wedding anniversary celebrations in 2006.
Photo: Bildbyra, Cour grand-ducale, Point de Vue
Some of the outfits even make rounds on more than two ladies of the Grand Ducal Family. The blush pink dress worn by Princess Alexandra and Princess Tessy during recent years seems to be the same one as worn by Grand Duchess Maria Teresa at the wedding of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway in 2001.
Photos: Tom Wagner, Vaterland
But Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa does not only seem to share her clothes with her daughter and daughters-in-law but also her sister-in-law Princess Margaretha. While this (presumably) Natan number was first worn by the Grand Duchess during a state visit to Slovakia in 2005, it later appeared on Princess Margaretha when her son trooped the colour in London.

After watching Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa's dressing habits for a few years now, I can tell you that she wears most of her outfits for two or three publicised events before retiring them to private life, just as it is the case for many European royal ladies. I presume that a similar pattern could have been found for Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte back in the day.

Now, all of these clothes are expensive and well-made, so I don't think it is out of question that the Grand Duchess (or other royal ladies for that matter -- check out Order of Splendor to see who actually does so) calls her family and friends to ask whether they'd like a dress, a suit or something else out of her closet before emptying it out.

As for Liechtenstein? I don't know. Apart from Princess Maria-Anunciata rummaging in a certain aunt's wardrobe and Princess Isabelle's overrepeated 90's gowns (thumbs up for still fitting into them 20 or so years later though), I simply haven't been following them long enough to see such patterns.
Photos: Getty Images / Tom Wagner / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu / Cour grand-ducale / Pierre Matge
Another thing I noticed though: Do you get a discount if you buy two or more of the same dresses in different colours?

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