Queen Rania's Eveningwear Part 1: December 2003 - March 2007

[paulette]

22 DECEMBER 2003

The results are in and we've counted the ballots! Now we can reveal the winners of the HELLO! magazine reader survey to find 2003's Most Elegant Woman. Casting your minds back over a whole year's worth of stylish images, you narrowed down the original 32 candidates to the ten who took place in the final, and then the winner and runners-up.

Queen Rania of Jordan is the overall winner, with a convincing 32.3% of the votes. Next comes Wales’ own Hollywood leading lady, and close behind her in third place, fellow Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, followed by Friends star and girl-next-door beauty Jennifer Aniston.

Queen Rania of Jordan

“I am flattered – this was a very pleasant surprise,” said Queen Rania on hearing she’d been elected HELLO!’s Most Elegant Woman of 2003. “It’s always rewarding to receive acknowledgment along the way. It was certainly a breath of fresh air,” added the hard-working mother-of-three.

For allure and glamour, there are few other royal ladies who can quite match 33-year-old Rania. She never fails to look exquisite, whether she's attending a state banquet in traditional Arab costume or hosting her son's eighth birthday party in a pair of well-cut, trendy jeans.

Of course it helps that she has a perfect heart-shaped face and huge, expressive eyes. She also keeps herself in great shape by jogging most days. But it's more than just her looks: tireless charity worker Rania also projects serenity and confidence, and carries off a fusion of Arab and Western style with enviable poise.

Favourite designers include Elie Saab and Giorgio Armani, who when opening an exhibition of his work in London recently had this to say about her: “Rania's beautiful, she has the body of a model and holds herself like the queen she is – what more could you want?”.

 

[paulette]

you can post pictures of Queen Rania in her gowns or lovely outfits!

 

[Humera]

Here's some pictures of Rania wearing a pretty Elie Saab dress on her state visit to Sweden last year
October 7, 2003

 

[almahboubah]

The dress looks best on the glowing Debra Messing. I guess this dress requires a full figured woman- in Debras' case, a beautiful bump.

 

[pdas1201]

I think Rania looks beautiful when she wears Jordanian dresses. Even though she has worn lots of beautiful and expensive western dresses. She truly looks magnificent when she wears something that represents her country and I am sure when she does, Jordanian people feel proud.
I absolutely love two jordanian dresses she wore, one, the coronation dress and second, the red dress she wore at Farah Dagastani's wedding.

I couldn't find a full frontal portrait of Queen Rania from the coronation day, so I just took a group picture and cropped it. I hope it doesn't look bad.

 

[Safaa Batin]

I did not like the dress of coronation she was looking very slim in it, also it was dim when people was thinking that she should wear more bright at the day of coronation.

 

[pdas1201]

I just like the material of the dress and the design and the color. Though I agree she could have worn something brighter....
All in all I just love jordanian dresses and think Rania (in fact all the jordanian princesses look good in them).

 

[Balqis]

One article described the Coronation dress as being the colour of sand. I always thought whether by design or just pure coincidence that this was a really appropriate choice for a colour. It also had to be able to go with the deep red sash of the order that the Queen was honoured with that day. To me it was a prefect choice.

 

[Moon]

I like her coronnation dress (cut and color) and it falls beautifully on her...The cut of the dress reminds me of the Moroccan traditional beautiful dresses....

 

[mahawi]

i agree with moon ,the dress was very elegant and suitable for the event

 

[Humera]

I love the fact that Rania's formal gowns in particular always have a unique touch, something that reflects her own personality and sense of style

 

[Humera]

some more...

 

[matesha]

Indeed very beautiful gowns and rania looks pretty in them.

"jordanians" must thank rania as she really made "jordan" known in the world..but this visibility is costing them ALOT OF MONEY as rania's gowns are way too expensive....

At least we are enjoying the gowns and most of us know that "jordan" is not with natural resources and lives basically on foreign money..Unfortunately, ordinary "jordanians" do not get to really enjoy 100% what other countries give as aid and that foreign money is between the king and his gang..

 

[pdas1201]

I don't think Rania is really at fault in all this. I think we need to get out of the "Rania bashing stage" and move on and ask ourselves, "fine she is like this but why?, what compels her to dress "above her standard".
True, Rania does dress in expensive clothes from Prada, Gucci and the like. But I guess she feels that she has to look equally good or better than her counterparts, the European queens. The difference in this case being that the European queens come from developed countries, maybe some even from countries providing the money to Jordan. She feels that she has to look every inch as exquisitely attired as her counterparts.
Rania comes from a developing country and might feel "inferior" in front of all the other queens coming from more developed countries, especially the ones providing the money to Jordan. By dressing expensively, she has just put herself at least, appearance wise, on the same footing as other European queens.

 

[matesha]

And so the means do not matter to achieve an end...
the implications of your post are ???????????!!!!!!
So, rania's wearing expensive clothes is that to overcome her inferior complex. but you do not care at the expense of whom she is fixing her inferior feelings..
Give me a break! Although she might have inferior complex as well as she might not have it, I do not think it is a healthy reason to dress that expensively...
The only thing i get out of this is to see beautiful gowns that look pretty on rania...but i did not want to stay at this basic level...

Talking about reality does not please to people...if we talk about clothes, jewellery, make up, vacations, then people are happy..but when we try to go beyond those appearances, people get defensive...Please know we do not hate rania nor we are in so much in love with her...but some common sense given poor jordan needs to be considered by public figures of the JRF...
After all, i care more about poor jordanians...and if european royality wear designer clothes, at least their subjects are not as poor as jordanians...

Hopefully, you understand this!

Thanks for reading me

 

[pdas1201]

Inferiory complex was just one reason at that moment for her dressing expensively. Its just an opinion, the lady isn't here to defend herself and instead of levelling charges upon charges on her for wearing expensive clothes
maybe think of the reasons she is wearing them and with an open and unbias mind please.
Also, coming back to your extreme examples about her clothes having a direct correlation jordanians going hungry. Well, I am positive, that there are countless other reasons for that happening than just Rania's clothes. Just because you don't hear about those reasons or don't bother to go in those nitty gritty details about where the money is spent, maybe on military, rather than on feeding hungry and poor people that doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

[Balqis]

I don't think Rania is really at fault in all this. I think we need to get out of the "Rania bashing stage" and move on and ask ourselves, "fine she is like this but why?, what compels her to dress "above her standard".

I disagree with the above term. Firstly we do not know what is the private wealth of the Hashemites, how much they have in their private accounts. Secondly, the majority of the clothes and accessories are free. The designers get incredible publicity if the Queen is seen wearing them. She is not dressing above her standard. The cost of her clothes, if you want to compare, are the same as for most first ladies of the Middle East nowdays for examples see Asma Assad or the President and PM's wives of Lebanon - these last two ladies always seem to wear the best clothes from what I've seen. They also wear Chanel and the like and Lebanon is not such a wealthy country.

True, Rania does dress in expensive clothes from Prada, Gucci and the like. But I guess she feels that she has to look equally good or better than her counterparts, the European queens. The difference in this case being that the European queens come from developed countries, maybe some even from countries providing the money to Jordan. She feels that she has to look every inch as exquisitely attired as her counterparts.
Rania comes from a developing country and might feel "inferior" in front of all the other queens coming from more developed countries, especially the ones providing the money to Jordan. By dressing expensively, she has just put herself at least, appearance wise, on the same footing as other European queens.

You can't compare Rania to European queens, it's a different situation. The majority of European queens are also middle aged and dress accordingly.

The above is just my opinion and well-intentioned, pdas. I do like the question you have posed, it's much better than the "Rania bashing" of old.

 

[Balqis]

I don't think Rania is really at fault in all this. I think we need to get out of the "Rania bashing stage" and move on and ask ourselves, "fine she is like this but why?,

To perhaps answer that question, you need to understand fashion and the language of clothes. The most celebrated women of our times, the most famous and well-known, have been fashion icons like Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana. Why? Because the visual is so appealing.
Some say Queen Rania is fast becoming one of those icons. One of the most attractive things about Queen Rania, and what initially gets people interested in her, is the fashion and the clothes she carefully chooses to wear. In today's world, image is a powerful commodity and fashion is its tool. But fashion is more than good tailoring, it is a way to communicate, to get a message across to the audience.
I recently came across this about Princess Diana, the Queen of Style during her time. It's a quote from Jasper Conran, one of Princess Diana's favourite designers:
'Whenever the princess discussed clothes with me, she always asked: "What message will I be giving out if I wear this?" For her that became the real language of clothes.'
Yes, it's a language. It is a way to communicate. At the beginning I think people were awed by Rania specifically because she dressed well and she looked the part of a modern-day Queen. She was poised, charming and exotic. Her personality and what she did also played a big role, but it was what people saw first that draw them to her. There was little negative response, people were charmed. She is an incredible and beautiful woman. What we see now I believe is some kind of backlash and people question things more especially the amount of money being supposedly spent on the clothes. In Australia we have what we call the "tall poppy syndrome". The more well known a person gets, the more they are visible, the more they "outgrow" the other poppies, the more flack they get. So to answer your question, it isn't about Rania herself per se - why is she like this?, but about the reaction out there towards her that has changed.

 

[Humera]

I don't think Rania is really at fault in all this. I think we need to get out of the "Rania bashing stage" and move on and ask ourselves, "fine she is like this but why?, what compels her to dress "above her standard".
True, Rania does dress in expensive clothes from Prada, Gucci and the like. But I guess she feels that she has to look equally good or better than her counterparts, the European queens. The difference in this case being that the European queens come from developed countries, maybe some even from countries providing the money to Jordan. She feels that she has to look every inch as exquisitely attired as her counterparts.
Rania comes from a developing country and might feel "inferior" in front of all the other queens coming from more developed countries, especially the ones providing the money to Jordan. By dressing expensively, she has just put herself at least, appearance wise, on the same footing as other European queens.

Yep..the so-called "inferiority complex" thing has been discussed before. She definately makes up for the fact that she comes for a poor developing nation by dressing in the best clothes. The irony of it all is that the other royals she seems to want to compete with aren't as extravagant as she is. European royal women often recycle their clothes, wear the same outfit more than once, twice, even three times. While I have seen Rania wearing a few items more than once, she's almost always dressed in new clothing. Most of us enjoy looking at her pretty clothes but even I think that wearing Chanel to a simple official engagement in Amman is a bit much.

 

[Humera]

Its interesing though, this issue was sort of discussed in a recent documentary I watched on Jordan. One Jordanian analyst mentioned the fact that its the upper-middle class Jordanians who make such a big deal out of Rania's jet set lifestyle and that the lower classes dont care.

 

[Balqis]

From Corbis:

I like the combination of lace and leather on the dress in the first 2 pics.

 

[Balqis]

From Corbis:

Dresses by Giorgio Armani

 

[cut1me]

Its interesing though, this issue was sort of discussed in a recent documentary I watched on Jordan. One Jordanian analyst mentioned the fact that its the upper-middle class Jordanians who make such a big deal out of Rania's jet set lifestyle and that the lower classes dont care.

im guessin that would be because they are not really aware of her lifestyle. Most of the lower class dont have much TV or internet, and as JTV is very selective of what they show they dont really have any way of knowing

 

[Humera]

yeah thats what I thought

 

[Balqis]

Pic 1: Jerash Festival opening, July 2003

Pic 2: Official portrait, released November 2003

Pic 3: State Visit to Germany, October 2002

Pic 4: Vanity Fair portrait, August 2003

Pic 5: charity dinner, March 2001

Pic 6: official portrait, circa 2002

Pic 7: charity dinner, January 2003

Pic 8: portrait first published in UK Vogue in April 2003 as part of an exhibition to raise funds for UNICEF

Pic 9: official visit to Russia, August 2001

Pic 10: official portrait released late 2001

 

[Humera]

Pic 1: Jerash Festival opening, July 2003

Pic 2: Official portrait, released November 2003

that is a gorgeous dress, I dont blame her for wearing it more than once

I dont know the date this picture was taken, but here's the dress again

 

[mousbah]

1. Coronation Day June 9. 1999

2. Offcial portrait

 

[mousbah]

1. Portraits of 2002
2. In Moscow

 

[Yennie]

The b/w photo in the last post is fantastic! Very beautiful...

 

[mousbah]

1. November 16 1999 official visit of france

4. Offical portrait 2000



1. may 25 1999 Jordan´s Independence Day

2. Portrait 2000