Queen Sofia appeared at Prince Hussein's wedding wearing a tiara that belongs to her personal collection and is loaded with meaning.
The wedding of the Jordanian heir, Prince Hussein, with the Saudi architect Rajwa al Saif has been the occasion for Queen Sofia to wear a tiara again. She hadn't in the last nine years. The last time she was at a gala dinner at the Royal Palace in honor of the president of Mexico. She then wore the Fleur de Lis tiara, one of the "jewels of passing", which Queen Letizia uses today. The tiara chosen for this occasion by the emeritus queen is loaded with meaning. It is a piece from her personal collection, a wedding gift from Greek shipowner Stavros Niarchos that demonstrates the Greek royal family's love of tiaras.
The trip to Jordan, one of the places that Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía visited on their honeymoon, has undoubtedly brought many memories to the mother of Felipe VI. There she met her husband, King Juan Carlos, whom she had not seen for nine months, when they attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II together, in London, and there she wanted to fill the jewels she wore at the post-nuptial banquet.
Who gave Queen Sofia the ruby tiara?
The tiara is actually part of a long necklace of Burmese rubies and brilliant- and baguette-cut diamonds designed by the jeweler Van Cleef and Arpels, which has been in the Queen's personal jewelry box since the 1960s. This same double necklace by Van Cleef & Arpels was also worn by Sofía Loren and Audrey Hepburn, although the latter did so in a longer version. The queen wore the matching tiara and necklace, a stunning two-strand dressing, with matching ruby earrings. The queen has used this game on numerous occasions.
The tiara leaves all the prominence to the fabulous stones and has a sober and modern style. We were able to see her with him at the gala dinner offered to Nicholas Sarkozy on his official visit to Spain in 2009. Even though Doña Letizia has borrowed some pieces from her jeweler over the years, the Niarchos tiara and necklace have not been between them. Doña Sofía also chose it for the “Te Deum” mass on the occasion of the proclamation of King Juan Carlos, in 1976.
For the banquet after the ceremony, the queen has chosen a pearl gray silk and lace dress. For the ceremony, she has opted for her Haute Couture wardrobe and has chosen a dress by Valentino, her leading designer for many years, a pale pink chiffon model with a multi-layered skirt and floral embroidery from the 2003 collection, that he wore on the 60th anniversary of King Gustaf of Sweden, in 2006, among other occasions.
She has combined it with a set of sapphires and diamonds, a choker, and earrings, also from her personal collection, and has complemented it with a kite-shaped brooch from the jeweler Pierre Sterlé, with a cabochon sapphire surrounded by diamonds whose trail is made up of bright yellow gold threads. It was a gift from General Franco on the occasion of the birth of Don Felipe, in 1968, which he wore at his baptism, in the Palacio de la Zarzuela. A way of remembering the king, who did not attend Jordan's wedding, despite being invited along with Doña Letizia.
