Denmark’s monarch always hosts a lavish New Year’s Eve reception and banquet. Queen Margrethe encouraged all of the royal women to wear their biggest and best jewels, and the royal men are usually in their dress uniforms. Well, King Frederik and Queen Mary have kept up the tradition, and here are some photos from the event. Mary pulled out all of the stops, even wearing a specially-made tiara. Mary had the tiara made from 19th-century diamonds repurposed from a belt.
Queen Mary of Denmark rang in the new year in style. The Danish royal and her husband, King Frederik, celebrated the holiday with a New Year’s Reception and Banquet at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen on Thursday, Jan. 1, and the Queen dressed for the festive occasion in a champagne-colored Jesper Hovring gown.
She and the King also both donned the unique and ornate collars that denote them as members of the Order of the Elephant, a Danish order of chivalry and Denmark’s highest-ranked honor. New Year’s Day is one of the few collar days for the order.
But the standout piece of the Queen’s elegant ensemble was her bandeau tiara. The circlet’s impressive rose-cut diamonds were actually pulled from another piece in the royal archives: a medieval-inspired belt made by goldsmith Carl Martin Weisshaupt in 1840, according to The Crown Jeweller. Queen Mary and experts from the Danish Royal Collection designed the new tiara in 2024, removing the largest diamonds from the belt setting but leaving spacers so that they can be replaced if desired.
The King and Queen’s eldest child, Crown Prince Christian, 20, was also in attendance at the New Year’s reception. However, their other three children — Princess Isabella, 18, and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, 14 — were not photographed at the event.
In addition to the repurposed tiara, Queen Mary’s gown was also a bit of recycled royal fashion. The lace bodice and sleeves were reportedly added to the Jesper Hovring piece since the last time she wore it.
All of Mary’s jewelry and honors are impressive, and she’s a very handsome woman. Regal, even. But the dress is not my flavor whatsoever, nor do I think it’s right for Mary. The “champagne” color reads as lifeless and beige on-camera. The lace is much too fussy for New Year’s Eve. While the belt is awesome, it leaves the impression that the dress is two-tone, with a lighter shade of beige on the bottom. Anyway, the British royals rarely repurpose diamonds from some archival piece these days. It’s interesting that Mary was allowed to do it, although I’m sure the original belt was saved, and it’s possible that they could somehow put the diamonds back into the belt if push came to shove.
Also: Prince Joachim and his wife Marie were allowed to come to the NYE bash. They must have flown in from DC for the holidays. That’s where they live now, in Washington.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
