Tiaras And Hair


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Boris said:
Dear Thomas Parkman, it's always a joy to read your posts. The closest thing that came to a tiara disaster caught on camera which I remember happened to the late Princess Diana & was duly featured in one of those infamously staged TV documentaries about the cozy life of The Wales' in the mid-1980'.
Place: Australia, 1985; time: Arriving back to wherever the Wales' were staying after the good-bye gala dinner; incident:
Gloomy Princess Diana, in a gorgeous blue satin & lace evening gown, wearing her Saudi-Arabian sapphires & diamonds along with the Spencer tiara, has taken off her tiara (you can actually see that there's a rubberband in the back of the base - horror!). Holding the tiara in one hand and grabbing her skirt with both hands, she proceeds to march up some grand flight of stairs on her way to bed - only to realize that the tiara's diamonds have caught up with the lace of her skirt. She marches on, trying to unravel lace & tiara, finally gives up on it, straightens her back and soldiers on upstairs and out of the camera's sight, with the tiara still caught up in her dress and dark clouds appearing on the horizon beyond her rather grim face.
I never got over that rubberband. So much for securing tiaras in short hair.
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You could it also see last year when Queen Sofia wore the Fleur-de-Lys Tiara in Thailand that there is a elastic band (or something like this) on some of the photos. I think so tiaras can also be worn i different shapes like when Grand Duchess Maria teresa wore the empire diamond Tiara on time more in the shape of a crown and more round like the other time.

Btw. I read somewher that 2 Queens (don't remeber exactla who it was i believe either Fabiola or Juliana was one of the 2) when the greeted each other the came to close with ther tiaras and the tiaras caught in each other.
 
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Thomas Parkman said:
... Or worse still, in the middle of 2,500 photographers at the state dinner for the royalty of such and such...
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If only the line about the photographers was true Thomas. Unfortunately, apart from the formal pics of HM, the Duke and the guests of honour, pics of the galas at Buckingham Palace are few and far between.

Recent examples: there is just one grainy shot of Princess Anne's "mystery tiara" (which remains a complete mystery); the only pic of Camilla wearing the Queen Mother's Mrs Greville tiara was taken through a wet car window as she was driven through the Palace gates, and the most recent state visit produced no publicly-available pics of the female members of the Royal Family apart from HM. Why pictorial coverage of State Banquets is so restricted is yet another of those Windsor mysteries.

As to securing tiaras, most have special holes at the back of each end or taper through which elastic or ribbon is threaded.
Be thankful the securing strap is not worn under the chin. :D
 
I don't know Warren, I remember a picture of one of these Indian Maharajas, no shrinking violets they, with this massive turban with ropes of diamonds, BIG DIAMONDS in chains as it were and now I realize they probably tied the whole glittering gorgeous mess to his massive hairy and bearded head. I just loved it. Plus necklaces and jewels everywhere.

I further have a picture in the Bible of some american heiress or whatnot with a tiara with the Saucy diamond and stands of pearls dangling off it and hanging down below her neck. We could start as new style. A diamond or pearl tiara tie on with bow-in diamonds no less, to secure the tiara to the head without massive amounts of 'transformations' to serve as an artificial platform for the contraption.

Of course in the 18th century women builty up these massive hairdos that were feet tall. In two cases in England the poor women's hair was so tall and greased together with so much fat that they caught fire from the ceiling candles and the poor women burned to death. A neat string of diamonds to tie the thing on is so much more elegant.

BTW, Warren and members, eat your heart out. I have just gotten courtesy of Amazon, the Bible, or Tiaras, a history of splendor by Geoffry C. Munn. I have been drooling for hours. The pictures are drop dead gorgeous. It is as good a chocolate. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
 
Thomas, you'll get a chuckle from the "don't mess with me" photograph of the Comtesse de Castiglione on page 246.
Mr Munn is better than chocolate! :)
 
Thomas, I was reading your post and thinking, he found a picture of an american with jewels in the bible?
And then I remembered who wrote that post.....
it's Thomas's Bible
 
Dear Warren,

I have looked repeatedly at the enraged Comtesse de Castiglione and the words come repeatedly to mind: don't mess with me bubba. Would hate to meet the good woman in a dark alley, which seems to be the sort of place she would enjoy. A rather scandalous soul. I am not so sure I liked the tiara either. all the antiquarian stuff was rather wearying. But she is hilarious to look at but I would not care to be in the shoes of the poor Comte.

Of course Thomas bible, as opposed to the Bible, is really quite something. It has all those gorgeous pictures in it. Who cares about the text, whereas in the real thing there is all this often difficult, obscure but admittedly wonderful text that you must plow through and in my day memorize. A few well chosen photographs of the Pharoh of Egypt in his crowned glory or a few of Solomons jewel bedecked wives would certainly have helped things along nicely. Cheers.

PS. I wonder would it be possible or even of any interest to create a thread about ancient or classical diadems tiaras etc. HMMMM.
 
The Swedish women have their hairstyles down pat. They wear tiaras best (IMO).

It also seems like a lot of the ladies use hairpieces to add that extra something.
 
I liked the way the Queen Mother wore tiaras low around her head when she was the Duchess of York. She had a gorgeous short hair style and it suited her very much. She wore both the Strathmore Tiara and the Lotus Flower Tiara in that fashion.
 
I think the young Duchess of York kept the same hair style she had as Queen Mother, long and in a bun in the back. (We wouldn't usually notice the bun because royals are rarely photographed from the back!) But I, too, liked the way she wore tiaras in those early days, almost like a headband.
 
kerry said:
I liked the way the Queen Mother wore tiaras low around her head when she was the Duchess of York. She had a gorgeous short hair style and it suited her very much. She wore both the Strathmore Tiara and the Lotus Flower Tiara in that fashion.
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If you'll notice other royal ladies of the same time - Astrid of Belgium for example - they were also wearing their tiaras in the same style: http://content.answers.com/main/con...een_Astid_and_King_Leopold_III_of_Belgium.jpg
 
Wearing a "bandeau" (Headband) was very much the fashion of the 1920s. So why not try it with a precious tiara. Many royal ladies did as you say.
 
I have to say that I am glad to see the tiara-as-bandeau out of style. I think that it was rarely flattering to royal ladies. To me it always looks a bit dowdy in those old photographs. The exception in my books is Maria Jose d'Italia, who carried it off stunningly.
 
Prince of Chota said:
I have to say that I am glad to see the tiara-as-bandeau out of style. I think that it was rarely flattering to royal ladies. To me it always looks a bit dowdy in those old photographs. The exception in my books is Maria Jose d'Italia, who carried it off stunningly.
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It's not so different from what Diana did in Australia, when she wore her bracelet across her forehead. (Of course, most things looked lovely on Diana -- and I couldn't get away with it either!)
 
I think the emerald choker/bracelet as a bandeau was a mistake on Diana's part. But since she was Diana, she could get away with such mistakes from time to time.
 
wow one of my favorite thread are still going strong....
the way sonja wore her tiara and hair in Finland reminds me of Silvias why.

who looked the best at Haralds birthday gala,
 
does any one know the address of "DANJEL SITE" for tiaras

Thanks in advance
 
The pictures were removed from Danjel's site due to the breach of copyright law. See here.
 
First pic of this post..
Does anyone know what this occasion was?
 
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ulik said:
i couldn't agree more..Diana only had 2 tiaras, and poor Sarah and Sophie with one bloody tiara
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And Sophie's tiara looks like the lace hem of a maid's apron --- awful!
At least Sarah's tiara had some some substance to it.
 
I've moved some posts. The distribution of British Royal Jewels should be discussed here.
 
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Her Majesty, I think Victoria's hairdo makes her look much older than she is.
 
I haven't had time to read all of the postings, but I feel that the hairdos of the 1960's and 1970's were the absolute best times for tiaras. Big bouffant puffy hairdos which made a backdrop for the tiara. Look at photos of the young Princess Paola of Belgium - divine!
Flat hairdos (like Autumn Kelly and Letizia's bridal dos) did absolutely nothing for the tiaras which they wore.
Queen Silvia to this day has beautiful big hairdos when she wears a tiara and looks magnificent.
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but a lot of these tiaras were created up to 200 years ago when women had lots of hair and piled it up their heads in elaborate hairdos - they set off the beauty of the tiara. Todays' modern hairdos do not lend themselves very well to the wearing of a tiara.
 
iowabelle said:
Her Majesty, I think Victoria's hairdo makes her look much older than she is.
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Somehow I don't this it's only the hairdo who makes her look older...
I think it's because of the make-up ... and the horrible way the Tiara has been placed on her head (too distant from her forehead).
 
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