Crown Princess Letizia (Spain)

[Deleted]

Ha! I must've been spending too much time in the threads of the young starlets, because the dress looks plenty long to me.

may2, do you know why some countries want their princesses to dress only in designers from that country, whereas others don't seem to care? I can understand wanting a princess to wear a home-country designer for her wedding gown, like Princess Mary and Princess Diana did, but they also wore/wear all kinds of other foreign designers, whereas Letizia can't. Is it just because Spain is a more conservative country?

[divasahm]

IIRC, Diana wore English designers exclusively until she and Charles split. Then she started mixing some Versace and Valentino in with her longtime favorite Brits.

The reason for that is that members of a royal family represent and promote their country--and wearing homegrown designers generates interest and hopefully revenue for that country's fashion industry.

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2009 10:46:55 GMT -4 divasahm said:

IIRC, Diana wore English designers exclusively until she and Charles split. Then she started mixing some Versace and Valentino in with her longtime favorite Brits.

The reason for that is that members of a royal family represent and promote their country--and wearing homegrown designers generates interest and hopefully revenue for that country's fashion industry.

Thanks, divasahm. I understand the reasoning behind the symbolism of wearing only designers from your home country, but I guess I think the idea's a little outdated now, and not all the royal families seem to have to do it. (Princess Mary, for example, has worn Prada, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Chanel in addition to Danish designers.)

Michelle Obama seems likes the perfect modern example of how fashion can be used to promote new designers from your own country (Thakoon, Rodarte), endorse cost-friendly brands from your own country (J. Crew, Talbots), and show deference to other countries (for example, when Mrs. O wore French designers during her trip to France, or that gorgeous dress from an Indian-American designer that she wore to the State Dinner). Seems like the royals could benefit from this sort of approach.

[may2]

I don't think Letizia is always dressed in Spainsh designers.

[Fraggle Rock]

One of the reasons Letizia sticks to primarily Spanish designers is to avoid criticism. At the engagement ceremony, her white suit was by Armani. There was some criticism/rumblings about it being a foreign designer. Since then, she mostly wears Spanish designers for the clothing and mixes in the foreign stuff (Jimmy Choo, Burberry, etc) with the accessories. So clearly she doesn't have an aversion to non-Spanish stuff. She just doesn't have the freedom to explore other designers or mix and match the way the Queen or the Infantas do. The minute she started doing that with regularity the press would be all over her.

The state of the Spanish monarchy is tenuous as it is. They can't afford to have the image of a princess that splurges on clothing. Even though she wears Spanish designers, it's usually the lower cost or middle of the road brands - not the more expensive lines.

Also, she and Felipe receive their money directly from the King. Because the Spanish finances are shrowded in such secrecy, it's not known exactly how much they get, but I think it's safe to say that Letizia doesn't have the clothing budget that Mary or Mette-Marit have.

[Babycakes]

I love her outfit here. She looks great.