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| Alexandrine Drop Tiara |
If maximum sparkle is your ultimate tiara goal, then you need diamonds that dangle and tremble. If that's what you want, then this might be the tiara for you: the Alexandrine Drop Tiara. It features gold hoops with numerous small dangling drops - not so large the movement is distracting, but enough to really play with the light. This one was made in Paris around the turn of the last century for Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, wife of King Christian X.
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| Queen Margrethe |
After Alexandrine's death, the tiara passed to her son, King Frederik IX. He gave it to his daughter, Margrethe - now Queen Margrethe - as an 18th birthday present. It was her first tiara, but as with many first tiaras, it was worn less and less over the years as her collection grew.
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| Princess Alexandra, on her wedding day |
In 1995, Queen Margrethe gave this tiara to her new daughter-in-law, Princess Alexandra, as a wedding gift. Alexandra
wore it on her wedding day and for all her tiara events; the Danish royal family isn't in the habit of sharing tiaras often, and this was the only one Alexandra ever wore.
Alexandra's divorce in 2005 left many wondering what would become of this tiara. Would she keep it, or would it go back to the Queen? Would she wear it again? But it was indeed a gift and not a loan, and as such was Alexandra's property to keep (both Alexandra's private secretary and the Danish Chief of Court have been quoted verifying this status). And though our opportunities to see it have been greatly reduced, they are not non-existent:
she wore it publicly in 2012, when she was invited to the concert marking Queen Margrethe's Jubilee. Many have related this "loss" of a tiara to the Queen's future tiara-giving behavior:
Crown Princess Mary received a purchased tiara (at a time when perhaps there were signs that a divorce for Joachim and Alexandra was imminent), while Princess Marie's tiara is a loan.
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| Now Countess of Frederiksborg, at Margrethe's Jubilee |
I miss not seeing this tiara at all the Danish royal events, to tell you the truth. I find it so enchanting, the way the metal hoops disappear from afar so that the diamonds appear to be suspended by magic in the hair. I also loved the way Alexandra wore it, on top of grand hairdos and grand ballgowns the likes of which we don't see that much now. She certainly squeezed as much variety as possible out of her one tiara, wearing it in all manner of different positions. And if you're only going to have one tiara, that's the way to go.
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P.S.: The blog will be on vacation tomorrow for the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving, even if you don't celebrate it!
Photos: Getty Images/Life/Polfoto/Scanpix
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