Queen Letizia finally dons the Cartier Tiara and premiers Spanish designer Ana Locking

A double debut! Queen Letizia finally dons the Cartier Tiara and premieres Spanish designer Ana Locking

16/4/2018

On Monday evening King Felipe VI & Queen Letizia held a gala dinner at the Royal Palace of Madrid for the President of Portugal who is on a State visit to Spain. This followed on from the official welcome and luncheon held earlier in the day.

Image source: casareal.es

The State banquet was also attended by representatives of government, business leaders, cultural ambassadors and the media from both countries.

Image source: casareal.es

Her Majesty premiered a beautiful blue gown by Ana Locking. This was Letizia's first time to wear a peice by the Spanish label which is a Madrid based womenswear, menswear and accessories brand founded in 2008 by fashion designer Ana González.

The slim gown has a round neckline with cutouts under and around the arms. It features pearls of varying sizes which adorn it from top to bottom, and it is finished with a thigh-high slit. The piece is from the designer's Spring/Summer 17 "The Thinker" collection.

Ana Locking blue gown with pearls from Spring/Summer 17

In another first, we finally saw Queen Letizia don the Cartier Pearl and Diamond Tiara!

Queen Letizia wears Cartier Pearl and Diamond Tiara

Image source: Jose Gegundez

It was designed by the French jewellery house in 1920 for Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain (Ena). The platinum diadem is composed of swirls of diamonds surrounding eight large pearls, and is said to have been inspired by Egyptian motifs which were popular at the time.

The tiara did originally have an additional pearl at the top as seen on Queen Ena in the portrait on the left. The pearls can be switched out for other stones and Ena occasionally replaced them with emeralds as shown in the portrait on the right.

Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain (Ena) wearing Cartier Pearl and Diamond Tiara

Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain (Ena) wearing Cartier Tiara with emeralds

Following the exile of Spanish royal family in the 1930's the tiara reappeared in the 90's on the head of Queen Sofia.

Queen Sofia and the Cartier Diamond and Pearl Tiara

Image source: orderofsplendor.blogspot.com

Her daughter Infanta Cristina also wore it in 2010 for the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria.

Embed from Getty Images

Tonight Queen Letizia coupled the royal headpiece with the joyas de pasar diamond earrings, also from Queen Ena's collection. Complementing her stately ensemble was the Order of Christ (Portugal) sash.

Image source: Wikipedia

On her feet were her navy Nina Ricci suede pumps.

What did you think of the double debut tonight?

25 Comments

Geneviève

17/4/2018 02:07:39 pm

Jewels! Make-up! Hair! Gorgeous!

That dress is a disaster.

Astur

17/4/2018 05:04:57 pm

Why a disaster?
In Spain this dress has succeded very much, finally! And here almost averybody criticise Letizia all the time. But not this time.

Elisabeth, do you know about the top pearl of the tiara? Why is not on its place since decades? I think it is a shame it is missing...
What do you think about?

Elizabeth (Admin)

17/4/2018 10:26:18 pm

Unfortunately I could not find any information about what happened to the top pearl! I forgot to mention in the blog that the tiara originally only had 6 pearls set in the swirls and now there are 8 in total (4 on each side)!

Nuria

17/4/2018 10:34:37 pm

lfirst transformation of the tiara, it happened when receiving the Queen Victoria Eugenia, as a legacy of her godmother, the Empress Eugenia of France, some emeralds, which would be mounted first by Ansorena and later by Cartier. In this transformation the upper pearl was removed and the rest of the pearls would be replaced by those emeralds. Already in exile, the Queen would end up selling the emeralds, and the tiara would recover the pearls again, returning to its original appearance, but without the superior pearl. Upon the death of the Queen, the tiara would pass into the hands of his daughter, the Infanta María Cristina de Borbón y Battenberg. King Juan Carlos, would reach an agreement with his aunt, the Infanta Mª Cristina, and buy Tiara Cartier.

Geneviève

18/4/2018 02:27:39 pm

It's interesting that this dress was well-received. There must be different sensibilities. I mean no disrespect but for me cut-outs evoke clothes for very young women to wear to a club - completely incongruous with the occasion. Plus it's odd the way they draw attention to the arm pit.

edita

17/4/2018 04:09:58 pm

She is very beautiful but I don"t like the dress.

Nuria

17/4/2018 05:50:36 pm

http://desvistiendo-a-letizia.blogs.diezminutos.es/files/2018/04/DL_u401208_028.jpg

Probably you can see better the dress in this photo.

I like the dress but for presenting an award or something, (as an actress did last year) not a formal gala dinner in the palace. Two many pearls, the tiara, earings, dress...

Edith

17/4/2018 08:06:31 pm

I love the pattern and the colour of the dress but why all these pearls?
It makes the dress too heavy looking for Letizia's delicate figure.
Love, love the diamond earrings - gorgeous!

Paloma

17/4/2018 08:59:12 pm

Ana Locking (Ana González) is very critical with the government and monarchy and quite active on social media about those subjects so it's obvious that the Queen has no favourites and every designer will be treated according to the same standards.

Paloma

17/4/2018 09:11:18 pm

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/871f0e474be04a412f40e86196cdf3f0d8b0e50425582b7f6561dec7116d57f4.jpg

Spanish actress María Nieto wore it first.

Alicia

17/4/2018 09:18:51 pm

Oh dear!! This dress is for a red carpet or something like that, not for a state dinner.
Cartier tiara looks great with that hairdo.

Nuria

17/4/2018 09:21:15 pm

This emeralds were a present from the Empress of France Eugenie of Montijo, she was her godmother , so called, Victoria Eugenia.It's said that she sold the emeralds in December 1961 to pay JC part of the bill for the Athens wedding with Sofia next spring. Chaumet has the necklace now and a Swiss lady bought the brooch and ring and she gave them to Meister jeweler to change the frame. They were sold again in 2011.

Astur

18/4/2018 04:31:05 pm

Gracias por la informacion!

Nuria

18/4/2018 10:47:42 pm

¡De nada!

Sandy

17/4/2018 09:49:21 pm

This dress is just too busy. There are too many cutouts at the shoulders and sleeves and way too many pearls of different sizes.
It must be very heavy and extremely uncomfortable to sit in. It would be a big improvement if they removed all the pearls. But Letizia looks very Queenly with the tiara.

Patrícia

17/4/2018 11:25:46 pm

Wow. Wow. This is a big surprise. I'm not crazy about the dress but to me this is a major look. The thing about the fashion designers that work closely to the royal women is that they do conventional, likeable outfis, with superb artistry but are often... boring. When the designer is indepent one looks at the outfit and one sees an idea, a concept, an independent free creation. That is what I see in this dress. Quite original. The tiara and earrings are divine. Hair and makeup perfect.

Beata

18/4/2018 12:02:52 am

I remember when Letizia sported a similar dress, but full of crystals, during a visit at the Obamas', and she looked like Dolly Parton dressed for Grand Ol' Opry (love Dolly, btw :)). Here, she seems to have hit a night of 3 million pearls. I'm not a fan.
My favourite element of this outfit are the earrings, which are absolutely gorgeous!

JoAnn D.Kirk

18/4/2018 08:45:25 am

Love the look, but how does one sit on all those pearls?

Maya

19/4/2018 11:09:17 am

My thoughts exactly. :)
It is a lovely dress and she looks amazing. I am a big fan of pearls. However, how does she sit? Maybe there is some kind of padding?

SDR

19/4/2018 01:11:35 am

I admire Queen Letizia for her bold choices, and this is no exception. I actual like this dress for its originality and regalness. This says, "The Queen had arrived."

katie

19/4/2018 10:45:34 am

Do you know what shoes she was wearing?

Elizabeth (Admin)

19/4/2018 02:27:27 pm

Katie I believe she may be wearing her navy Nina Ricci suede pumps.

Maya

19/4/2018 11:12:09 am

I love this tiara. It looks fantastic on Letizia. She should wear it more often.
Do you ladies know, are there some rules about which tiara exactly should be worn in each specific occasion, or can she simply choose by herself?

Vanessa

20/4/2018 04:30:42 am

How does she sit down comfortably with pearls all over her bottom????

Bertie

9/5/2018 12:02:43 am

Simply stunning, Letizia really rocks that stupendous tiara, it's set off perfectly against her dark hair. I don't like all tiaras, but this one is wonderful with nice spaces in the pattern unlike the chunky fringe styles which don't work for me.

I love the dress, all those pearls on midnight blue like a starry sky - very dressy! Not sure about those slits in the bodice, but Letizia handled them well enough. They might look better in the original design than in execution since they seem a bit lost on Letizia. It's still great that she's found a new label to try.

I like how she deals with the official regalia on her sash and I just adore those earrings!

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A double debut! Queen Letizia finally dons the Cartier Tiara and premieres Spanish designer Ana Locking

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