While the banner topic for the event may not have been quite as conducive to creativity as previous years, Queen Maxima put her classically bold spin on the night’s fashion, wearing a bright pink evening gown by Edouard Vermuelen of Natan, one of the royal’s best-loved fashion houses. If the ensemble looked familiar, royal watchers may well have recognised the gown from another outing, 19 years ago, when the then-Princess Maxima celebrated her husband’s 40th birthday at Het Loo Palace.
Queen Maxima had previously worn her Natan gown for King Willem-Alexander’s 40th birthday party, 19 years earlier
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For Thursday’s Gala, almost two decades later, Queen Maxima paired the dress with one of the Dutch royal family’s heirloom tiaras. The Ruby Peacock tiara and parure were first created in 1897 by Schurmann & Co. at the behest of Queen Emma of the Netherlands, using rubies from her predecessor, Queen Sophie. The set is comprised of a tiara, a necklace (also worn by Queen Maxima at Thursday’s Diplomatic Gala) and a stomacher in the shape of a peacock tail.
Intended as a lighter alternative to the family’s Mellerio Ruby tiara, the versatile tiara was commissioned for Queen Wilhelmina, who wore the set for a number of occasions throughout the early 1900s, though she lent the necklace to her daughter, Queen Juliana, who wore it during her own inauguration in 1948.
It was assumed that Queen Wilhelmina would pass the jewels on to her granddaughter, the future Queen Beatrix, when the family gathered at the Het Loo Palace to mark Beatrix’s 18th birthday in 1956. However, Queen Wilhelmina bypassed the future monarch, instead gifting the parure to her younger sister, Princess Irene, much to the shock of the royals.
Princess Irene would go on to make good use of the rubies, adapting the versatile tiara for a number of occasions, including the Belgian state visit to the Netherlands in 1959. In 1964, Princess Irene gave up her claim to the throne after she secretly converted to Catholicism to marry Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, though she retained the Ruby Peacock parure, wearing it to Princess Margriet’s wedding gala and a gala in honour of Queen Juliana’s 30th anniversary in 1967.