Is the Jordanian royal family the best dressed of all?
Behold: the first royal wedding of coronavirus times. Princess Raiyah of Jordan married British journalist Ned Donovan, the grandson of author Roald Dahl, in a socially distanced ceremony in the UK on Tuesday.
The couple had originally planned for a more traditional, bigger celebration in Jordan back in April, but when their plans were halted due to the pandemic, they decided to scale the whole thing back and host an intimate garden ceremony with just their parents present.
The party may have been smaller, but doesn’t it still look chic? And a suggestion, perhaps, that the culture surrounding royal mega-weddings was getting out of hand, and that a beautiful portrait of a happy royal couple could still be deemed newsworthy, even without a 1,000-strong guestlist and a hefty (in some cases tax-payer footed) bill.
The bride, Princess Raiyah bint Hussein, wore an all-over lace gown with long sleeves, teamed with a plain organza veil. Her look was delicate and rather Art Deco, not overtly flashy or princess-y.
The mother of the bride, meanwhile, is American-born dowager Queen Noor, the 68-year-old widow of King Hussein and matriarch of the Jordanian royal family. For the low-key occasion, she wore an exquisitely-embroidered mint green kaftan, which she had previously worn to the Takreem Awards in Marrakech in 2014.
The whole event showed how in tune the Jordanian royal women are with the fashion mood of the moment. It would have been bad taste, would it not, for them to boast of couture princess gowns, and bring out the biggest, blingiest jewels from the family vault? The bride’s headband, too, was upcycled, as the centrepiece was a diamond and sapphire brooch which her mother had owned since the 1990s. Choosing this personal touch, and a headband in place of a more elaborate tiara, arguably made it one of the most special royal wedding outfits in recent years.
Noor is a famous royal ‘outfit recycler’ - the Duchess of Cambridge gets frequent praise in the UK fashion press for the fact that she doesn’t mind being photographed in the same stylish dress more than once. Noor has been doing it since the 1980s.
And then there is the current Queen Rania of Jordan, 49, Noor’s daughter-in-law, who is absent from these pictures because she hasn’t spent lockdown in the family’s UK residence. Since marrying Prince Abdullah in 1993, Rania has embraced her nation’s dress codes and traditions, but she has put her own fashion-forward spin on things too, championing brands such as Valentino, Dior and Armani as well as Middle Eastern talents.
Excitingly, you can follow Rania’s every fashion move on Instagram - while Kate, Queen Letizia of Spain, and others choose to only share certain elements of their life on very public occasions, @QueenRania updates her six million followers on a weekly basis, sharing new pictures.
Between them, the women of the Jordanian royal family have just about every fashion box ticked - and every one of them knows how to dress well. While we have some style stars in our British royal pack, we also have plenty who routinely let the side down.
Are the Jordanians the best-dressed dynasty of all? If there’s strength in numbers, then certainly.
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