Fashion Dress in The Present: Chanel Haute Couture

Royal Fashion Minute: Luxembourg Royal Wedding--The Pre-Wedding Gala Dinner COUTURE!

A Couture Dinner...

Introducing the William and Kate of Luxembourg: (left to right) Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Princess Stephanie de Lannoy, Prince Guillaume, and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg

In case you didn't know, the tiny European nation of Luxembourg is celebrating a Royal Wedding this weekend. In fact, the nuptials occurred today--full "Royal Fashion Minute" Report in my next blog post.

Where Is Luxembourg: For those of you who fell asleep during your high school and college geography classes, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a landlocked European country, bordered by Belgium, France and Germany, and is less than 1,000 sq miles in size.

Who Is Getting Married: 30-year old Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg married 28-year old Countess Stephanie de Lannoy. Prince Guillaume is the last hereditary prince in Europe to get married, and if all goes to plan will follow in his father's footsteps and rule this tiny nation. Stephanie, is from Belgium, has royal blood and therefore not a "commoner" and will now be known as Princess Stephanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

Civil Ceremony: Princess Stephanie de Lannoy and Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg

The Groom's Parents: Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa Mestre y Batista of Luxemboug. The Grand Duke--like most European royals--is related to a lot of neighboring royals and therefore has VERY blue blood. He is a nephew of the King of the Belgians, Albert II and his maternal grandparents are Kind Leopold III of Belgium and Astrid of Sweden. The Grand Duchess is Cuban--and famous for her love of COUTURE.

Civil Chanel: The bride--Princess Stephanie de Lannoy, wore Chanel for her Civil Ceremony

Sad News: As the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg prepared to celebrate this Royal Wedding, there was some sad news for the bride in the untimely death of her mother, Countess Alix, who died of a stroke at 70 years old only TWO MONTHS ago, back in August.

Who Is Paying: The Luxembourg state said it contributed €350,000 euros (about $456,000 in current exchange) to the two-day celebrations which began yesterday with a Pre-Wedding Gala Dinner and continued onto today's religious wedding and Gala Wedding Party. But, according to some royal watchers, the groom's parents will foot most of the bill of the lavish nuptials of Europe’s last single heir. They will be responsible for paying for the accommodation and travel
arrangements of foreign guests, among whom are likely to be a glittering
array of European royals.

The Pre-Wedding Dinner: Occurred last night with a lavish banquet held at the Grand Ducal Palace. Lots of royals were there--from The Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Jordan, Great Britain, and many others. So...let's get to the royals at this Pre-Wedding Gala Dinner and more importantly, the FASHION:

Sequined Princess: In the top photo, the Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg toasts to his Daughter-in-Law Countess Stephanie de Lannoy. Stephanie wore a gunmetal gray heavily-beaded gown with a deep cowl draped back from Elie Saab.

Saab Duchess: The bride wasn't the only one wearing Elie Saab. Her Mother-in-Law, the Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg in a Elie Saab Haute Couture Fall 2012 (worn by supermodel Karlie Kloss on the runway in the photo above). Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab is the Grand Duchess' favorite couturier and she is one of his biggest clients. This gown is estimated at about $50,000. It is Couture, all hand-made and made-to-order for Maria Teresa. I'm happy to see she's passing on her love of Elie Saab Haute Couture to her new daughter-in-law. If you've got the money, then why not...

Dapper Brothers: Prince Sebastien of Luxembourg, Prince Felix of Luxembourg and Prince Louis of Luxembourg--brothers to the groom, at thee Pre-Wedding Gala Dinner

Yasou: King Constantine II of Greece and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece arriving at the Pre-Wedding Gala Dinner

More Elie Saab Haute Couture:

Princess Marie-Chantal and Prince Pavlos of Greece: Always the fashionista, London-born Marie-Chantal wore Elie Saab Haute Couture Fall 2012. The gown featured 3/4 sleeves, a bateau neck and gold hand-embroidered sequins as well as a gold skinny "belt". When Marie-Chantal ordered it, she took the center front slit away as you can see from the runway version. PS: when you order a Couture Gown, you can change ANYTHING darling!

Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice and Piedmont and his wife Princess Clotilde--Clotilde (a beautiful French actress) also wore (wait for it!) Elie Saab Haute Couture Fall 2012

Princess Astrid of Belgium--Astrid wore Elie Saab Ready-to-Wear Fall
2012, a hunter-green sequined cap-sleeved gown. Ready-to-Wear NOT
Couture. Shock of All Shocks. So Pedestrian (What's "LOL" in Royal Language?).

Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein and Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein: Yes, kids...she's wearing Elie Saab. I really wonder if the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Maria Teresa must have given a COUTURE Discount of sorts to her Wedding Guests--if they ordered from him? Inquiring minds want to know...

Fashion Star: Argentina-born Princess Maxima of The Netherlands with her husband Crown Prince Willem Alexander---Maxima wore a strapless red and silver gown with a silk organza "puff" wrap. She is known to be a "Fashion Royal" amongst all of the other girls and both royal and fashion watchers are always interested on what she is "featuring". Besides that puff wrap, it's ALL ABOUT that tiara and necklace. One word: WOW.

Prince Hassan of Jordan and Princess Sarvath of Jordan: He is brother to the late King Hussein. Princess Sarvath is from Pakistan and the daughter of a diplomat. Love her sari gown and his matching sash.

Pucci Sweden: Princess Mette-Marit and Prince Haakon of Norway--Mette-Marit wore a red sequined silk gown from Emilio Pucci designed by Peter Dundas. Dundas, happens to be from (yes, you guessed it!) Norway. So, in other words, she is supporting Norwegian designers. I guess. This gown is inspired by the black one on the right from the Pucci Fall 2012 Collection. But Mette-Marit's is red, added cap sleeves and godets of organza volants (cascade ruffles).

Princess Caroline of Hanover and Hereditary Princess of Monaco: Princess Caroline (yes, Grace Kelly's daughter!) wore Chanel Fall 2011 Haute Couture to this Pre-Wedding Gala Dinner. Caroline always wears Chanel and is one of Karl Lagerfeld's best friends. For her gown, she customized it from what was shown on the runway. As you can see, she had the style lengthened to a gown and added lining (good call darling!). Like I said before, when one orders Haute Couture and is paying $50,000+, then you can do just about anything.

Slight High Low: Princess Claire of Belgium and Prince Laurent of Belgium--she wore an off-the-shoulder emerald green gown draped and fitted in the torso and A-line from waist down. It had a slight "high-low" hem line as you can see. Do we like?

Princess Mathilde of Belgium and Prince Philippe of Belgium: Princess Mathilde wore a royal blue silk chiffon gathered gown that looked beautiful on her. Along with that crown and necklace...it was Princess Perfect.

Duchesse Satin Queen: Queen Sonja of Norway wore a royal blue duchesse silk satin gown with horizontal pleated upper torso detail. She looks like a Queen. Period.

Disco Ball Guest: Princess Martha Louise of Norway with Prince Kyril of Bulgaria--Princess Martha wore a one-shoulder silver oversized paillette gown. Let's just say she kinda "stole the show" with that get-up. Not sure if a Royal Wedding Dinner is where I would wear this too, but I give her "Nick At-a-Girl" points.

Finally, a Queen Diva: Queen Fabiola of Belgium---LOVE her hair, her hair diamond pin, the fur stole, her purple eye makeup...She's FABULOUS!

* Next Up---The Wedding!!!

Runway Report: Paris Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2011--Chanel

Bouclé Lamp Shade Couture...

Freja Gives Tweed: Model Freja Bbeha Erichsen in Chanel Fall/Winter 2011 Haute Couture

For Fall/Winter Haute Couture, Karl Lagerfeld, Creative Emperor of the House of Chanel went Dark, moody, and very traditional to the old-school 1920's/1930's aesthetic for Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. The collection began with lots of those traditional and iconic tweed/bouclé suits which will make his devoted clientele from St. Tropez to Shanghai very happy. Most of these suits featured elbow-length oversized sleeves (as opposed to those super-tight, can-barely-move-my-arm Chanel sleeves). The peplum was a HUGE silhouette detail for this collection, showing up in the suits as well as the gowns toward the end. If it's up to Karl Lagerfeld, the Chanel Couture Woman will be in a "Lamp Shade" mode when it comes to this year's Fall/Winter season.

Lunch Ensemble: Chanel Fall/Winter 2011 Haute Couture

Colors ranged from light gray...to silver gray...to dark gray--as well as black and midnight blue. There were "shots" of fuchsia for the client in need of more color than just four shades of GRAY. And of course, all the expert Lesage (it's owned by Chanel after all!) hand-beading and sequins that Chanel Haute Couture is famous for was there in almost each and every look. Beautifully done and one assumes, terribly costly. But who cares, it is Couture! Doesn't every billionaire's wife need a hand-made tweed suit with hand-beaded Lesage embroidered sequins to wear to her next lunch date at the Hotel Plaza Athenee?? Take a look: