Queen Silvia of Sweden has paid tribute to the artist Christer Lindarw, a popular drag performer (who is well known for imitating Silvia for almost five decades) and fashion designer – Princess Victoria of Sweden often wears his creations. TV show What a Life! was filmed at Stockholm’s Oscar Theater, the same stage where Lindarw first transformed herself into Queen Silvia in 1977, just one year after she, the German-Brazilian hostess Silvia Renate Sommerlath de Toledo, became consort of the Swedes through her marriage to King Carl XVI Gustaf.
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In the same theater in 1977, a memorable moment took place when the king and queen attended one of Lindarw’s performances. The artist, dressed as Silvia, gave a rose to the queen seated in the royal box. Silvia stood up to receive it.
Now she has given him a rose: “From a queen to another queen,” said the queen, who thanked him for “your kindness, for making everyone laugh, not only the king and me but Prince Bertil and Princess Lilian,” recalling the king’s brother, the Duke of Halland, and his wife.
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The emotional gesture was magnified by Silvia rewearing the yellow Dior dress that Lindarw wore in his show. Silvia had worn it a year earlier in two of her first gala events after her wedding, to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony and on a state visit to the Netherlands. The piece with a rounded neckline, semi-transparent sleeves and sprinkled with glitter was the first one Lindarw copied and tailored for one of her shows. “It’s the original,” confirmed Silvia herself to the actor’s surprise.
But not only has she appeared on the program with this iconic design, but she also wore a tiara, specifically with the Napoleonic-cut steel one composed of oak leaves set in gold among acorns, flowers and feathers. A delicate relic that Queen Hortense of Holland, daughter of Empress Josephine, left to her niece, Princess Eugenie of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, who left it to her sister, Empress Amelia of Brazil, and from her to Queen Josephine of Sweden and Norway. No one wore it for more than a century, until after the arrival of Silvia in the royal family. Rediscovered, Queen Silvia first wore it on a state visit to Austria in 1979 and at several dinners during the 1980s and 1990s, though perhaps the highlight was to attend the 60th birthday of King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway in 1997.
Originally published in Vanity Fair France