Costs, Income, Fortune and Expenditures of the Danish RF

[bbb]

my first thought was wow only $600 grand a year, i mean that's really not much to "rich people", very interesting thanks, ricarda.
in the celebrity world the higher profile you have, the more free stuff you receive. everytime she's in a photograph, it's free advertising for them,
win-win for both parties. i've often read of other high profile royals over the years that expected to pay less or not wear.
in the news lately the late queen mother in britian, letters to her dressmakers during the war have come out, it's amusing looking at history -the stories on the sums spent for clothes, the tzarinas, the empresses, the queens, the princesses, shoot i'll bet Caesar complained about how much his wife spent, at least it's consistant and i'm sure it sells papers.

[sgl]

Originally Posted by msleiman

Do you think that some of these items are giving to Mary? If it is a gift then no money comes from her allowance or personal wealth. I think that she is giving alot of things for friends, family and designers.

My guess is that she is given things by designers. Just as they do for actresses at award shows, designers often give gowns to prominent women who will be photographed and featured in magazines. It is free advertising for the designers. After all, what is more flattering than seeing a royal person or a world-famous actress in your design? If she is purchasing everything, then she should definitely recycle more. However, I would not be surprised to learn that designers either gave her gowns or lent gowns to her for events.

[ashelen]

i have to think that she like all the other CP may get some staff for free as publicity, otherwise what kind of closet they should have to put all their dresses, gowns, hats, shoes, handbags etc........, may be they have a huge dressing room!????????

[highpriestess]

Originally Posted by sgl

My guess is that she is given things by designers. Just as they do for actresses at award shows, designers often give gowns to prominent women who will be photographed and featured in magazines. It is free advertising for the designers.

But a Danish crown princess doesn't have the drawing power a Hollywood star has. She may be valuable for Danish designers, but international designers such as Prada? I'm not sure. Maxima paid for her Valentino gowns. Why would Prada give something to Mary for free when her name recognition is very limited on the world stage? Plus, royals belong to the small group of people who actually can afford haute culture. If top designers give clothes to these people for free, where do they make money from? BTW, most top designers who give stars gowns to wear for the Oscar actually ask for the gowns back after the show. It's a "loan", not a free gift.

Plus, it's okay for Hollywood actors/actresses to act greedy. Is it really acceptable for royals to accept freebies when they are already on taxpayers' dime? Nancy Reagan's accepting free gowns from designers caused a scandal in the US. Aren't royals in the same boat? Royals, and politians' wives, are held to a higher standard than actresses.

[dee4855]

highpriestess....But a Danish crown princess doesn't have the drawing power a Hollywood star has. She may be valuable for Danish designers, but international designers such as Prada? I'm not sure. Maxima paid for her Valentino gowns.


How do you know Maxima paid for her gowns? We do not know if Mary was given a discount or not. This is just a personal opinion from someone that thought they might have. Once again it is a guessing game. None of us will ever know the truth either way.

[ashelen]

Originally Posted by dee4855

highpriestess....But a Danish crown princess doesn't have the drawing power a Hollywood star has. She may be valuable for Danish designers, but international designers such as Prada? I'm not sure. Maxima paid for her Valentino gowns.


How do you know Maxima paid for her gowns? We do not know if Mary was given a discount or not. This is just a personal opinion from someone that thought they might have. Once again it is a guessing game. None of us will ever know the truth either way.

i agree with you, we will never know the trouth about a lot of things about them. how we know if they have a discount, pay in full , promotion, etc.....
certenly they have the money to pay all of this but in the other hand they do not use many times all this dresses and just for one time dress to pay a valentino o prada it is a lot of money !!!!!!!

[Fashionista100]

Originally Posted by biboquinhas

Well I don't know how mucht she spend on clothes but I waht I do know is that she should recycle more, she has almoust everyday a new outfit. Yes she recycles like the blue suit she has recycle a few days ago but I think that she could recycle more and not spend so mucht money on Prada bags and shoes.Her clothes are lovely and to me she is one of the best dressed Royal but also I think that she spends a lot of money on clothes and she should't

Biboquinhas,

Mary recycles more than almost every Crown Princess. If you go to the CPM message board there are huge threads devoted to her recycling. It just isn't followed on this board much. Also, Mary is no different than other Crown Princesses in dressing. I hope the critique is also is on their threads too. I think Mary dresses well. She, IMO, dresses better than the other Crown Princesses. I think her style is refined.

She does get a lot of loans too. Esp. in jewelry. Some jewelry she owns outright, many are gifts from designers who say so later. And yes, some are given to her by her husband. Clothes are the same way.

[GlitteringTiaras]

I have to disagree with you, Fashionista. Mary does not recycle her clothes more than any other Crown Princess. All of them recycle no more than any other average Judy, Jane, Sally, or Kate () on Earth.

Furthermore, and this is not directed at you or anyone in paticular, but does it really matter all that much if Mary's clothes are SWAG or if she pays for them?

She has done quite a bit as Crown Princess, so far, and to nit pick everything she does seems frivolous and, to be blunt, pointless (equally so by counting as well as sorting photo by photo how many times she has recycled particluar skirt or top.) I mean, why?

Finally, it's not a competition as to who recycles more often and thus they are the better woman for doing so (and I'm not saying you said that, Fashionista.)

Essentially, are there more important issues to discuss like Mary's involvement with the Danish Heart Association and/or her three day Basic Military training stint to name a few.

[highpriestess]

Originally Posted by GlitteringTiaras

does it really matter all that much if Mary's clothes are SWAG or if she pays for them?

She has done quite a bit as Crown Princess, so far, and to nit pick everything she does seems frivolous and, to be blunt, pointless

Since her life style is paid for by tax payers, she does have to answer to tax payers when she seemingly spends a lot of money on expensive wardrobe and extravegant renovation. In today's political environment, royals need to justify their existence and extravegant life style doesn't enhance any royal's image.

[GlitteringTiaras]

Originally Posted by highpriestess

Since her life style is paid for by tax payers, she does have to answer to tax payers when she seemingly spends a lot of money on expensive wardrobe and extravegant renovation. In today's political environment, royals need to justify their existence and extravegant life style doesn't enhance any royal's image.

Yes, that is true, but I'm not so sure that she spends five grand a day, more or less, on clothes.

Furthermore, I noted that perhaps some of the clothes she recieves may be SWAG (Danish designers only thus free advertisement in Billed Bladet, and other magazines, newspapers, and so forth) or offered to her at a steep discount (Prada, Hugo Boss, etc, etc.) If this were true, she wouldn't be spending five grand; in fact, it would be less...waaaaaaay less. Also, the papers would have no idea if she recieved the items via SWAG or steep discounts. They're only going by how much those ensembles originally cost to us little people.

Now, if there is an official list, with every single receipt for all the clothes, detailing every single minute item (including black panty hose) which notes she did indeed fork over that much money a day, then there is a problem.

The only list I know of (and another a year before) is the one Ricarda mentioned in a previous post, but that one is not as detailed. In fact, it's very basic.

[Marengo]

Well, isn´t it entirely her own business what she does with the money she gets? As long as she looks in order and the staff is paid she can do what she wants. ´The Danish taxpayer´ pays her for representing Denmark but that doesn´t mean that a royal has to spend the money the way taxpayers want them to! She can throw all the money in the sea for all I care, it is her money!

The life of any public servant is paid for by taxpayers, do they have to awnser to them too? Sure, Mary gets more money than the average Danish public servant, but that doesn´t give anybody the right to know about her private financial behavior (apart from the tax-office).

But you (ricarda) have a point that overspending isn´t a wize thing to do, PR wize. In my own country the Queen prefers Volvo´s and Fords over more expensive cars, to evade the image of a flashy moneyspending family. I gather that the Danish royals wouldn´t like their image to be that of jetsetting and overspending people either, but IMO that doesn´t seem to be the case. The amount of money that Mary spends on clothes should be more or less the same as her European ´collegues´ (or maybe even less than some as she doiesn´t wear the most expensive couture of Valentino and such), their house doesn´t seem too lavish (compare it to Laeken Palace where the Belgian CP-ly couple are living). Redecorations/restaurations of old buildings usually brings high costs, so it is hardly surprising that a palace where nothing changed for about 50 years will have a lot of costs and works. Some of the public will grumble about that indeed, like they do in Norway whenever Queen Sonja restaures anything, or in The Netherlands when Queen Bee had the palaces in The Hague restaured etc etc.

[Madame Royale]

It would be my guess (and that is all it is) that Frederik and Mary don't see it as mine and yours, but ours.

They 'seem' to be a couple who think as a partnership and though Mary is accorded her own official sum of money from Frederik's income, I just get a feeling that much of the sum allocated to the Crown Princely couple is shared and distributed, dare I say it, evenly (I could of course be wrong).

We musn't forget that the money they receive also pays the wages of their staff and the upkeep of their household.

$5000 a day? What a rediculous allegation. Anything substantiative to support it, because for the past 6 or so months there's seemed to be nothing but media dribble... which I'm hopeful no one actually takes seriously and without factual precaution.

[Fashionista100]

She has done quite a bit as Crown Princess, so far, and to nit pick everything she does seems frivolous and, to be blunt, pointless (equally so by counting as well as sorting photo by photo how many times she has recycled particluar skirt or top.) I mean, why?

Finally, it's not a competition as to who recycles more often and thus they are the better woman for doing so (and I'm not saying you said that, Fashionista.)

Essentially, are there more important issues to discuss like Mary's involvement with the Danish Heart Association and/or her three day Basic Military training stint to name a few.

[/quote]

I think it is fun to track her clothes. It's a fantasy, part of the fairytale. After a very stressfull day, it's my bit of fluff to make me relax and enjoy. I think that is why people do it. Why must everything be so serious.

No, you are correct. It is not a competition. But Mary seems to bear more critique than most about everything.

Yes, there are other issues and we do discuss them. But sometimes, you need to discuss fun topics too. I live some of the things Mary is patron of, so for me why get bogged down in my life when I can escape with fun stuff?

[MargreteI]

As far as I can remember the 25.000,- dkk was the amount she was wearing on a particular day. Not the amount she spends.

Besides she often does wear garments from danish designers, that - all though not ordinary medium prized chain brands, they are in reach for many non-rich people who does not suffer from the quantity over quality syndrome.

:)
.

[highpriestess]

Originally Posted by GlitteringTiaras

Now, if there is an official list, with every single receipt for all the clothes, detailing every single minute item (including black panty hose) which notes she did indeed fork over that much money a day, then there is a problem.

See Tricota's post #234 above:

"Actually they know pretty accurately because the royal family do not pay VAT, or rather it is refunded once a year. And in order for it to be refunded, they ofcouse have to show proof of purchase in the form of some kind of receipt. And the amount is, I believe, at least semi public record.

So its not just guessing..."

This would not include all the purchases Mary did in London or Milan, as we all know she did frequent. So the media does have a way to get a partial picture.

Some posters have been insisting that Mary got most items for free or at a highly discounted price (which I doubt). But we're talking about image issue here, not accounting accuracy. The public has no way of knowing such under-the-table arrangements. All they see is that Mary is wearing top designers' outfit day-in and day-out. They could get the price of a Hugo Boss's dress or a Prada dress from a fashion magazine. They would assume Mary paid the ticket price. They would start wondering the money she spent on clothes, just like some tabloid press had done. In PR, perception is reality.

[UserDane]

'Top designers' outfit day in and day out' - LOL. You never do give it a rest do you? Keep up the good work