Queen Maxima of the Netherlands Wears a Show-Stopping Hat to Royal Ascot
Once again, the Netherlands' Queen Maxima dove head-first into a bold style choice. The royal is known for her maximalist looks (see what we did there?) but today at Royal Ascot, she truly outdid herself.
Maxima arrived in a carriage with Queen Elizabeth, Prince Andrew, and her husband, King Willem-Alexander. And boy, did she steal the show. Whereas the men adhered to the dapper-yet-understated dress code required by Ascot's Royal Enclosure, and the Queen was up to her usual monochrome antics (this time, in blue), Maxima's entire head was obscured by a veritable bouquet of fake flowers.
The accessory was less a hat than an ornate sculpture, a sartorial ode to excess. To her credit, Queen Maxima pulled it off with ease, seeming to scarcely notice that half of her visual field was obscured by a pile of faux blossoms. She even piled on more outrageous pieces, pairing the hat-cum-vertical garden with some very, very large diamond earrings.
It's the jewelry that links this Maxima outfit to the last time the Queen of the Netherlands knocked our socks off: at a Buckingham Palace state banquet this past fall. Banquets always bring out the tiaras, but even when compared to Queen Elizabeth and Camilla's stunning sparklers, Queen Maxima's Stuart Tiara easily took the cake. The pile of oversized diamonds nearly matched the height of her head.
As royal jewel expert The Court Jeweller points out, the Stuart Tiara is actually convertible, and a few of the piece's most gigantic stones can be taken out and worn as earrings. It seems that this is likely where Maxima got today's impossibly large diamond earrings.
Many would shy away from such shows of excess-but not Queen Maxima. Queen Maxima gives the people what they want.
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