December’s tiara-palooza continued today with a spectacular state banquet in the Netherlands, featuring Princess Amalia’s debut in diamonds that belonged to generations of her royal ancestors.
President Alexander Stubb of Finland and his wife, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, are currently in the Netherlands for a state visit, and this evening they were the guests of honor at a state banquet hosted by the King and Queen at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. The King and Queen were joined by their daughter, the Princess of Orange, at the dinner.
The presidential couple and the royals did the usual exchange of decorations ahead of the banquet. President Stubb wore the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands and Ms. Innes-Stubb wore the Dutch Order of the Crown. In turn, King Willem-Alexander wore the collar and star of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, and Queen Máxima and Princess Amalia wore the sash and star of the same order.
Queen Máxima brought significant sartorial drama to the occasion with her choice of evening gown: a red dress with an off-the-shoulder neckline and voluminous sleeves, made by Claes Iversen and previously worn for the French state visit in 2023.
On this occasion, Máxima wore major pearl pieces from the royal vaults. She paired the Württemberg Ornate Pearl Tiara, which was made in 1897 for Queen Wilhelmina. She continued the theme with pearl and diamond cluster earrings, the family’s nineteenth-century pearl and diamond cluster brooch (with its pendant) pinned at her waist, and the real showstopper: the stupendous five-row pearl necklace from the family collection. I also spot a pearl ring on her right hand, but the balloon sleeves of the gown have hidden any bracelets.
But in jewelry terms, I think the star of the show was Princess Amalia, even if her jewels were technically slightly more muted than her mother’s. (As is usual, given their relative ranks in the family.) Amalia sparkled in a lovely beige gown with a tulle skirt and crystal embellishments. Josine Droogendijk tells us that it’s from Jenny Packham, who is quickly becoming a favorite with royals across Europe after dressing the Princess of Wales for years.
With the dress, Princess Amalia wore some truly special diamond heirloom jewels treasured by her ancestors for generations. Her bandeau-style tiara, set with more than a hundred carats’ worth of diamonds, was originally a necklace given to her great-great-great-grandmother, Queen Emma of the Netherlands, as a wedding present by the Dutch people in 1879. It was turned into a tiara by Emma’s daughter, Queen Wilhelmina, in the 1930s and has been worn by numerous Dutch royal women since then.
The enormous pendant suspended from Amalia’s diamond necklace was also one of Emma’s wedding presents. It forms centerpiece of a spectacular devant de corsage, which was also part of the Dutch national wedding gift, and it can also be removed and worn as a brooch or a pendant, as Amalia has done here.
There were more heirloom diamonds incorporated into Amalia’s ensemble as well. Her diamond earrings are the top portion of a grand pair of diamond earrings given to Queen Wilhelmina by her father, King Willem III as a ninth birthday present in 1889, and the bracelet she wore on her left wrist is one of the Dutch East Indies Bracelets, made by renovating an enormous diamond and platinum bracelet given to Queen Juliana as a wedding present in 1937.
Amalia also borrowed jewelry from her mother’s personal collection, including a diamond bracelet with a square design, worn on her right wrist, and a classic diamond ring, worn on her left hand. The ring was a present from King Willem-Alexander to Queen Máxima to celebrate the birth of Amalia’s youngest sister, Princess Ariane, in 2007.
Interestingly, we’ve seen many of Amalia’s jewels in the same combination very recently. On December 1, Queen Máxima wore the diamond bandeau tiara, Queen Wilhelmina’s diamond earrings, and the smaller Dutch East Indies Bracelet for a state banquet in Suriname.
See you back here tomorrow morning for even more tiaras from tonight’s King’s Dinner for the Nobel laureates in Sweden!
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