Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Readers' Ultimate Tiaras: Your Big Gun Winner!

And the winner of our poll for the second category, the big gun tiara, in your ultimate collection is...

The Braganza Tiara!
This one hits all the categories I talked about when you voted: it's dimensionally large, it's got plenty of carats to go around (and along with it, sparkle factor), and it's used as a special-occasion-only piece by Queen Silvia. Silvia helps this one out, as several of you noted, by showing it off so well with her superb tiara styling and by actually, you know, using it instead of allowing it to linger in the vault for decades on end.

The runners-up include some examples we've seen in past lists:
 2. The Fife Tiara, which featured on your list of favorite tiaras. Some didn't agree that this qualified as a big gun tiara, but it qualifies in my mind because of carat power and sheer wow factor (and it actually is quite large, if you look at the very few modern examples of it in use we have).
3. Queen Sophie's Diamond Tiara, which made my personal ultimate tiara collection list and was the talk of last year when it reappeared on Marie-Chantal.
4. The Luxembourg Empire Tiara, another member of your favorite tiara list.
5. The Delhi Durbar Tiara, for a touch of Queen Mary magic.

And here's how your collection is looking so far:

The next poll will be later this month!

Photos: Getty Images/Polfoto/Corbis