It would be a modest Prinsjesdag, in terms of clothing and hats. Fortunately, it was not too bad and it turned out to be a colorful party with pink fascinators, a turquoise bucket hat, yellow ocher ruffles and bright yellow ties.
Queen Máxima has an exemplary function, also in this time of crisis. And although she sat obediently silent next to our reading prince, her dress spoke volumes. Buy locally, wear again and dress up, said that dress, because it was a previously worn item from your own closet, designed by Dutch Dane Claes Iversen and dyed from canary yellow to yellow ocher for the occasion. The waist brooch was not new either, as William III gave it to his fiancée Emma in 1878. Sober? Not that, but nice, all those ruffles on the plush.
Understated, ammehula! Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, laughing briskly, must have thought something to that effect when reading the memo that it all had to be a little less exuberant, for this Budget Day in the middle of the crazy corona time. Van Nieuwenhuizen chose an ensemble that was a boarding school girl on the one hand, thanks to the brave high-necked collar and puppet bag, and horse racing in Ascot on the other – thanks to the pale pink fascinator and the lilac flower prints on her cuffs and pleated skirt (not in the photo).
If Carola Schouten wasn’t Minister of Agriculture, she could easily apply for a job as a figurehead for a certain airline. Service with a smile, exactly, and that’s where the emergency exits are. Schouten earns extra points with the hat, a design by the Dutch Emmy Jaarsma and in hat jargon called a pillbox, a pill box. Well suited to Schouten’s headache files about nitrogen.
Kajsa Ollongren kept it hateless, colorless and minimalist, even her accessories were ivory white: the Starbucks cup, the beautiful handbag and the (unfortunately invisible here) high boots that were perhaps a bit more majorette than Minister. Ollongren is consistent, even in the landing photo of the then brand new cabinet in 2017, she was wearing over-the-knee boots under her dress.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a Thunderbird? Or Lady Penelope’s eccentric aunt? No! It is, in effective disguise, VVD Member of Parliament Helma Lodders, who showcased an example of far-reaching K3 styling. Here, the colors fuchsia and turquoise playedfully fought for attention: on the bucket hat, in the ornamental stone necklace and even in the bracelet. Two big questions remain: why was the handbag not carried by the handle? And why didn’t Lodders wear a pink and / or turquoise face mask?
Making a good-looking hat is a profession, and the guts to put one on at an angle is rare in the Netherlands. This cartwheel hat by designer Irene Bussemaker was perfectly in place on Lilianne Ploumen’s head. It was really unpretentious, the polka-dot dress was second-hand, from fashion house Celine, and Ploumen’s (invisible here) Jil Sander pumps were worn earlier during the inauguration of the king.
The yellow ties of this cheerful trio from the Party for the Future are undoubtedly intended as a reference to the yellow sun in their logo. It is a pity that under the copper platter they do not color solar but piss-yellow, which makes the men look as if they are about to be strangled by yellow pythons. Tip: dye those ties a few shades darker – maybe Queen Máxima has leftover fabric dye.
