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It’s the first of February, which means that Amethyst Season has officially arrived! Our celebration of this month’s birthstone begins with a look at the way Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden has worn pieces from the family’s glorious Napoleonic Amethyst Parure.
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The tiara was one of the earliest sparklers worn by Victoria at gala events. Above, she wears the tiara, earrings, and small brooch from the set for a gala banquet held at Laeken Castle during the Swedish royal family’s state visit to Belgium in May 2001. Victoria was still learning to wear the complicated tiara from the set, which is essentially a large necklace set on a simple frame for wear as a bandeau. In this early appearance, she simple placed the tiara atop her head, set far forward with the frame completely visible.
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A year later, Victoria wore the tiara again, this time in Oslo for the May 2002 royal wedding of Princess Martha Louise of Norway. On this occasion, Victoria wore the tiara placed at a more flattering angle on her head, disguising the frame much more successfully in her hair. She also wore a pendant, brooch, and bracelet from the set.
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Victoria has often used pieces from the suite to coordinate with other jewels, especially for the annual Nobel Prize festivities. In December 2006, she paired the amethyst earrings with diamond jewels, including the Baden Fringe Tiara.
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She wore the Baden Fringe with pieces from the suite — earrings, small brooch, and bracelet — again in December 2008.
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And in December 2009, she wore the earrings and brooch, plus the necklace setting of the bracelets, for the Nobels with the grand Diamond Six Button Tiara.
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One of Victoria’s most successful outings in the parure to date came in April 2013, when she wore the set for the dinner held the night before the abdication of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the subsequent inauguration of her son, King Willem-Alexander. For the glittering occasion, Victoria wore the tiara, earrings, brooch, and bracelets from the amethyst set.
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The event was one of my all-time favorite appearances for the tiara, which is incredibly hard to wear. The way that the piece was integrated into Victoria’s hair looked natural and avoided the “flattening” effect that can sometimes happen when wearing the heavy bandeau.
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More recently, Victoria has continued to integrate the other pieces from the parure into ensembles for both day and evening. In December 2015, she wore pieces from the amethyst set with the Connaught Diamond Tiara for the Nobel Prize celebrations.
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That evening, she delighted royal jewelry lovers by pinning the grand brooch from the parure into her hair.
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And in October 2019, Victoria took a piece of the parure with her to Japan, where she attended the enthronement ceremonies for Emperor Naruhito. She used a brooch from the set to secure the sash of the Order of the Chrysanthemum for the occasion.
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