Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia attended/hosted a reception for diplomats this week. The reception looked very serious and black-tie, and it was held at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Everyone wore masks and most of them wore “the good kind,” the kind people are supposed to be wearing in the Omicron Era, those N95 masks. They’re not pretty and they’re not black tie, but good for the Spanish royals for role modeling good behavior while they work.
Meanwhile, Letizia made a somewhat bold and interesting fashion choice. Usually for these kinds of black-tie receptions, she’ll go with a Spanish designer, or with something kind of traditional look from Oscar de la Renta or Carolina Herrera. She buys new and custom pieces, but she likes to rewear both high-end and mass-market pieces too. For this reception, Letizia went deep into the archives – her mother-in-law’s archives!! Letizia wore a vintage Valentino look from Queen Sofia’s closet. Queen Sofia wore this two-piece gown in 1977. It’s in beautiful condition, right?
As much as I admire her choice of a vintage look from her mother-in-law’s closet, I do wish she had fussed with it a little bit. I get why she didn’t – you should never tailor/fuss with a Valentino from 1977 – but the skirt’s pleats are bugging me. I do enjoy how she matched the colors exactly with her earrings though.
All of this begs the question: has Letizia had access to her mother-in-law’s archives this whole time? Where are Sofia’s old looks stored? Y’all know that if Duchess Kate had any kind of access to Princess Diana’s archives, she would be wearing that sh-t constantly.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782720, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782737, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782744, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782755, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782774, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782744, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782737, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
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- King Felipe and Queen Letizia attend the Diplomatic reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid, January 17, 2021 Cordon Press ** England Rights ONLY **,Image: 653782720, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: CASA REAL/CORDONPRESS / Cordon Press / Avalon
I love this outfit – she could wear a scrunched up bin bag and still look fabulous.
Re: Diana’s clothing archive, didn’t they go the Spencer estate? Keen McButtons would def have worn and tailored the sh!t out of Diana’s clothes if she had access.
Didn’t Diana auction off many of the best looks, with others being displayed in various exhibits?
Love this look! Pink and green is one of my favorite color combos!
Letizia always hits it out of the park. Vintage, mass market, edgy studded leather – she pulls off everything, and has impeccable taste. But, she always works and is a woman of substance, not just a clothes hanger for fancy events, which makes her all the more stunning.
I really like this look too. LOL. Fan of the pink/green combo +1
Kate is probably dying to borrow this for theme dressing as Mother Earth at the next Terra Caca event.
@Digital
I dunno. Seems to me Diana’s outfits didn’t have near enough buttons to satisfy Kate. 🤔
Diana had horrible fashion taste until Gianni Versace stepped up & dressed her.
Diana didn’t come into her own, fashion wise until she left Charles.
The early 80s were bad, but she got better even before the separation. The late 80s, around ’88 she started with the sleeker styles. One of her best/first in the arena was the gray-over-white outfit worn at Ascot that year. A few more years of bad colour blocking but in sleeker designs followed.
It looks fabulous on her! But then again, what doesn’t look good on Letizia? I saw a close up picture of the earrings a couple days ago and they are insanely gorgeous. To add, the Spanish royals have been so great about wearing masks everywhere since the start of the pandemic. Probably the best from all the European royals.
they’ve definitely been really good about it. remember the time last year when Felipe was giving a speech and the daughters were there and one of them – cant remember if it was Leonor or Sofia – reminded him to put his mask back on after he was done talking and he did and said “gracias” to her. Can you imagine anyone telling QE to put her mask back on??
So the Spanish royals are an actual family, rather than a poorly-run business. Nope, I can’t imagine anyone telling the queen to do anything of the like.
Nailed it @Merricat
Why???
If you are going to go vintage I am sure there were better pieces to pick from.
Is it a skirt/top combo- because paired together those pieces are so matronly.
It’s something you’d expect her mother in law to wear now- with Letizia wearing her normal sleek modern pieces.
Has she changed stylists? The last few photos I’ve randomly seen of her weren’t great. It feels almost as she has decided to go up in maturity in her style- why?
PS also the top looks very sweater-y. It doesn’t look very formal to me, specially contrasted with her husband’s (and the other guests) morning suit.
Oh my, I think it is lovely! Esp the blouse.
Dutch royals do this on a regular basis. The queen wears vintage clothes from the former queen and even her daughters wear clothes from queen maxima or the former queen
I like how he’s matched his tie to her top.
Good eye!
This is not the first time Letizia wears a Sofía outfit, and they all look good and in fashion today. Swedish royals also wear vintage clothes from Queen Silvia.
I love this. my one quibble with it is that it feels very springtime to me – with the green skirt and the flowers – so I think I would have liked it better maybe in March or April – but that’s a small thing. I think she looks fabulous and yay for vintage. Now that’s a true rewear, lol.
You hear so many stories about her, is she as horrible as they make her out to be?
Yes, she is a hard worker and she did clean up most of the mess of the scandalous Spanish royal family.
She’s done this a few times before, in fact I believe she wore a red dress from her mother in law about 2 weeks ago. Obviously, the Spanish Royal Household takes very good care of Queen Sofia’s old clothes because they always look in very good condition.
I actually love it – skirt and all. Letizia looks great! And yeah, really happy about the SRF’s continual mask wearing.
Love this look!
It’s a lovely dress but it seems to swamp Letizia’s petite frame. It looked great on Sofia when it was first worn though.
Whenever/wherever it’s from it’s fugly.
I like the idea of it, but this is too big on her. The skirt is swallowing her up.
What a wretched outfit.
Most of the big royal houses have archives for the furniture and houseware and textiles they’ve acquired over the years. The Swedes had a documentary with a rare behind the scenes of the bunker/archive where they keep everything. (It’s on YouTube for the wedding dress exhibition)
They have teams of archivists and textile experts-no surprise they older pieces look great. I’m glad they wear them instead of hiding them away forever.
If the public pays for them then it makes sense that all the clothes are stored for future wear/exhibitions. I wonder if future generations will be interested in current clothes as some are in, say, 1700s dresses?
I absolutely adore Queen Letizia. She’s the reason all these embiggening stories about Kate make me furious. It would not be difficult for Kate to comport herself similarly, to dress appropriately, to make the appearances, do the work, and still have time for herself, time with her children.
But alas….
I don’t like it. I like the top, the embroidery/applique is beautiful but not with that skirt. And vice versa for the skirt, pretty but not with that top. Plus its too big around the waist, or at least that’s how it photographs.
I believe it is a dress, not two separate pieces. She looks fabulous!
If it’s a dress it’s even uglier.
I guess I am in the minority because this look was not my favorite.
IMO this dress didn’t suit Letizia at all. The dress was beautiful and I saw the photos of it on the prior Queen which looked great but this didn’t translate on to Letizia in the same way. Maybe because she couldn’t tailor it to fit her better? That dress would have had to be taken in so so much so achieve the same effect but on her figure!
At first I thought the pink belt was skin and it was a high waisted shirt + crop top. Very exciting fashion risk! Alas, it was not to be.
OTOH, it’s a beautiful dress with a very cool history. Not sure if it’s a nod to sustainability to bring it out, but I love it and hope we see more royal vintage.
I like everything about it. I do agree it’s a spring look but so what, it’s vintage Valentino. Some women are born with style, Letizia is definitely one who was.
It’s a departure from her usual style, but I like it. I suspect the skirt in particular is more striking in motion. Love the earrings! The thing about vintage outfits is that they’ll never look exactly of the moment, because they aren’t. You have to find something that can work now & accept that some elements are still of their time.
I wouldn’t choose it for myself, but it’s lovely and she makes it work.
Good to see everyone wearing proper masks. FINALLY I’ve started seeing more people wearing them around here.
Thanks for covering the Spanish royals!!
I love that they are all kinds of messy, but they still manage to have some dignity in the public eye. That’s probably the work of L&F too.
Yes, I like seeing other European royalty also. I miss the Fug Girls’ Royals Roundup.
You’re giving Kate ideas
I mean its pretty but extremely ill-fitting. She could at least have gotten it tailored so it fit properly. It looks like she’s wearing someone else’s dress for sure instead of making it look like she’s wearing her dress.
As Kaiser said in the above, ” you don’t tailor a 1977 Valentino”. Much like not painting over a masterpiece to bring it up to date.
My comment disappeared.
I’d love to see a side by side, I like it 🙂
I actually like this outfit and the colors. They are obviously similar sizes but not the best fit on Letizia. Based on the time period, it looks like Valentino was subtly influenced by the styling of Yves Saint Laurent’s groundbreaking Ballet Russes collection from 1976. It was all peasant blouses, prints and big skirts.
I agree it is big on her. A wider and tighter belt would make all the difference.
[*But, it’s unique and interesting nonetheless.*]
The outfit is great, but it really isn’t her style.
She is gorgeous
Now this is a strong and elegant woman and one of the best processes. She suffers a lot of mysoginour in Spain pretty much like Meghan. It seems the media there is anti royalist and Gerry sexist. Anyway I l’m curious about her relationship with her mother in law. There was that almost public fight between the two but Sophia also didn’t like her corrupted criminal father-in-law so I suppose that she gets along better with Sophia despite all?