A Blossoming Dogwood Brooch for Queen Maxima’s Ship Christening

On Thursday, the Queen of the Netherlands headed to Texel for a favorite royal activity—a ship christening—wearing gorgeous emeralds and a new favorite floral brooch.

Queen Máxima did the honors during the christening of the Anna Weber-van Bosse, a state-of-the-art research vessel of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, on Thursday in Texel. The new ship is named in honor of Dr. Anna Weber-van Bosse (1852-1942), a Dutch phycologist who did pioneering research on marine algae.

For the christening of the vessel, Máxima dressed warmly in a black coat with black gloves and a fuzzy black hat. Under the coat, she wore a lovely black and white houndstooth-print dress. (UFO No More tells us that—surprise—it’s from Natan.)

Máxima brought some color to the black-and-white ensemble with her jewelry accessories. She wore a pair of pear-shaped emerald and diamond cluster earrings from her personal collection. These can also be worn in a longer setting with emerald and diamond pendants, and those pendants can also be worn separately as another pair of studs.

On her dress, Máxima pinned a brooch that has quickly become a favorite piece: her dogwood brooch from the Spanish brand Luz Camino.

Here’s a closer look at the jewel from the Luz Camino website. It’s described as a spray of Philadelphus coronarius, better known as English dogwood or sweet mock orange. Various materials were used to create the blossoms, buds, and leaves, including white resin, enamel, diamonds, tsavorites, and chrome diopside.

Máxima made her public debut in the dogwood brooch during a visit to open the new global headquarters of Royal Philips in Amsterdam in October. On that occasion, she wore the brooch with a bright green dress.

We also saw Máxima wear the brooch in January as she arrived for the annual diplomatic corps reception at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. She wore the brooch with another green dress for that occasion, plus a bright blue coat. She paired the brooch with the same emerald earrings worn for the ship christening at the reception as well.

Here’s one more look at Máxima wearing the brooch with the emerald earrings in Texel on Thursday. Which outing of the brooch has been your favorite so far?

A quick scheduling note: for the rest of the week, I’ll be covering current events as they happen, rather than at our regular scheduled times. Stay tuned for coverage of the Princess of Wales celebrating St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow, the Nigerian state visit to Britain on Wednesday, and the Danish state visit to Australia later in the week.