Spending of Royal Ladies

[MARG]

I think it's important to add the variables to these hard numbers. Maxima, Mathilde, Elizabeth and Camilla have a lot of clothes that are made for them and nobody has a clue how much it cost them.

2017 was Catherine's first year as a full time royal. Camilla along with Mary and their spouses are covering a lot more of the Monarch and Consort's workload. Both of these situations necessitate more clothing to cover the workload.

Queen Elizabeth has made a habit of changing her ensembles and wearing wonderful block coloured coats over print dresses with matching hats. However, none of us or those in the business have a clue how much she spends, how much she recycles and how much she mixes and matches and (joy of joys) it must drive them demented.

 

[Mbruno]

I'm always surprised at the notion that we should be taken aback by the amount spent by royals on different things. We know they're rich. Why should they pretend to be anything else?

I suppose the problem is that royal ladies don't always pay for clothes and jewelry with private family money, but also (sometimes mostly) with the stipend they get from the State. To me, that is fine because the main job of a queen consort or a crown princess these days is basically a ceremonial representation of the State and they are supposed to dress at their best, especially on formal occasions. That obviously has a cost that the State must be prepared to pay if it wants them to keep "doing their job" so to speak.

People who are anti-monarchists will always complain anyway that the royals spend too much on personal items.

s double dresses , shoes etc than Queen Mathilde. I am not sure if that is true. Queen Máxima and Queen Mathilde both regularly are seen in repeated outfits. And both frequently appear in new outfits, new gala gowns, etc. I think Queen Máxima has more accessoires like hats, purses, gloves, stoles, pashminas, belts, shoes, etc. Queen Mathilde and Queen Máxima will have more or less the same garderobe, they more or less have a similar frequency in public appearances.

I suppose there are many issues in play when we compare Mathilde to Máxima (please correct if I am wrong):

1) I don't know exactly how much each family is worth, but the general consensus obviously is that the Orange-Nassaus are now much wealthier than the Belgian Coburgs.

2) The Belgian RF, in absolute terms, gets less money from the State than the Dutch Royal House, and the money in Belgium has to be divided between Philippe/Mathilde, Albert/Paola, Astrid, and Laurent. In the Netherlands, only Beatrix, Willem-Alexander and Máxima get public funding.

3) Belgian royals have to pay both income tax and inheritance taxes; Dutch royals who get public money are exempted.

There is, however, at least one thing where Belgian royals are better off: they now have the right of disposal to much nicer residences than their Dutch counterparts thanks to King Léopold II's setting up the Royal Trust and the Dutch RF giving up most of their palaces in recent times.

 

[M. Payton]

I have a serious question about all these royal ladies and clothes...just where in the heck do they store all these clothes, hats, shoes, purses, gloves and everything else they wear? Think of Queen Elizabeth and her hats for goodness sake, she must have thousands of hats in every color there is and more........where do these ladies keep all this? Do they turn the dungeons into huge closets, at times I wonder if there is an underground warehouse of clothing in all those castles, palaces, and mansions they own. Everything must be labeled when they wore it and who was at the event, dates, times, places, on each piece of clothing, gads the work the serving women do to keep all this clean and ready for the next time........and they must use golf carts to go back and forth down the lanes of clothing to find anything...............boggles the mind a bit...

 

[MARG]

Worse, it's probably all computerised. What ensemble she wore and when with an addendum to when trimmings on hats or buttons on coats were changed . . .

 

[Lady Marlboro]

I have a serious question about all these royal ladies and clothes...just where in the heck do they store all these clothes, hats, shoes, purses, gloves and everything else they wear? Think of Queen Elizabeth and her hats for goodness sake, she must have thousands of hats in every color there is and more........where do these ladies keep all this? Do they turn the dungeons into huge closets, at times I wonder if there is an underground warehouse of clothing in all those castles, palaces, and mansions they own. Everything must be labeled when they wore it and who was at the event, dates, times, places, on each piece of clothing, gads the work the serving women do to keep all this clean and ready for the next time........and they must use golf carts to go back and forth down the lanes of clothing to find anything...............boggles the mind a bit...

Thanks for this. I have often wondered about this too. The golf cart part gave me a really good laugh this morning.

 

[Winnie]

I believe I mentioned once prior {years ago} that there was a special on this "closet/storage/cold area" of rooms in BP that stores all of Queen Elizabeth's dresses, coats, hats, furs, gloves, shoes plus a few favorite pieces of jewelry that she wears extremely often. If I remember correctly there are 3 or 4 employees that keep all these articles cleaned, pressed and dust free. I believe there are 5 rooms at perfect temp. At that time they were just thinking of computerizing each garment and cataloging exactly when and for what occasion they were worn. I am sure that has been done by now as at that time it was done by hand in large ledgers. I believe it was on the History Channel. It also showed a small bit on Phillips' different uniforms, etc. I don't know how to look this up on the computer, but someone on this forum must be Internet savvy and maybe could find out more information. Thinking back, it had to be prior to 1996 as I watched while still living in New Jersey.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

The Dutch royals store everything worth preserving in the Royal House Archives. In the 1990's an underground extension has been added. When you scroll down you can see the drawing:

Welkom in het Koninklijk Huisarchief - Koninklijkeverzamelingen

 

[victor1319]

Royal Fashin Costs - 2022

The Blog 'UFO no more' made by own accounts the hard work of estimating the fashion costs for the leading Royal Ladies.
https://ufonomore.com/blog/2022/how-much-is-it-worth-2022

Very interesting and they have a chart listing the expensives and other charts too!

So, the highest costs for her wardrobe in 2022 had Princess Charlene of Monaco: Roughly 740 000 €uro/Dollar.

Second and very distant came Princess Olympia of Grecce: 230 000 €/$

The most new pieces had Princess Catherine of Wales - roughly 200.

All this and much more under the link above! Very much recommended (at least by me)!