Brunei Royal Jewels


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I love emeralds but this tiara is a little bit too much for me! That ring also looks too much! The same thing goes for this tiara! :ohmy:
 
Now that diamond tiara is quite beautiful because the photo focuses on that single piece. That is one massive wall of diamonds! Those pear-shaped stones on the top border are absolutely huge. But I don't care too much for the emerald and diamond tiara; the top element makes it look too high.

I think it's because it's the custom for the royal ladies to wear the tiaras over their veils that give these tiaras such a stark appearance. Since they're not nestled in their hair, they just stick up on their heads and this doesn't give a soft appearance, in my mind.
 
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Yes, and so little style nor elegance of design. Just goes to show you can have all the money in the world and still have no taste.
and why is that? Perhaps because they don't conform to western/European standards of elegant and stylish royalty? Maybe to them European royals are austere and bland.
Brunei is a tiny but immensely wealthy nation and it's monarchy goes back to the 1300s. The way their royal ladies dress, the jewels they wear on special occasions might not be everyone's taste but it's perfectly reasonable and normal to them, more importantly its a reflection of their culture and heritage.
 
Queen Saleha's engagement ring is way too big! Just absolutely tacky and ostentatious in my opinion.


But in the Eastern culture, this is exactly the point. The bigger the size and quantity of jewellery shows one's status in life. To evaluate the overall effect of the fantastic display of jewellery, one must view through Eastern eyes. Of course to our Western tastes it all seems just too much. But I hazard a guess that HM the Queen of Brunei would never look at some of our royal ladies and criticise them for their lack of jewellery. She relaxes, secure in the knowledge that she is being a good wife, displaying her husband's wealth!
Our two cultures are so different one should not make snap judgements and certainly not bring out words such as 'tacky', but rather use greater imagination when discussing what is a vast, glittering display of jewels.
 
To quote Elizabeth Taylor when Princess Margaret tried on her 69.42-carat pear-shaped ring.
“Doesn’t look tacky on dose it!”
:whistling:


The actual quote was ... Princess Margaret described the Krupp Diamond as the most vulgar thing she had ever seen, yet of course jumped at the chance to try it on, whereupon Elizabeth Taylor quipped 'not so vulgar now is it!'
 
One of my clients has a ring that big. I try it on all the time....trust me...feels good on!!!
 
Wow is all I can say.
 
I really liked the emerald tiara she was wearing. Personally I think she had on way to much jewelry and think how heavy all that jewelry is and having to wear it for hours.
 
In a lot of Asian cultures brides, royal or not, wear a lot of heavy jewellery (you'll see this trend in Bruneian, Malaysian, Indian, Pakistani weddings, for example). It marks their status as a new bride and start of a new married life full of happiness and prosperity. Royal brides are understandably heavily bejeweled to not only reflect their status, but also that of their new husband and his family. It is all based on deeply rooted tradition.
I've seen pictures of non-royal Bruneian and Malaysian weddings and even those brides wear tiaras (some are real, some aren't).

I did note that the new bride, Princess Raabi'atul 'Adawiyyah, did not wear any notable new pieces. Both the ruby and emerald parures, for example, have been worn by several members of the royal family before.
 
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I don't think it's tacky but I tend to like over the top. It's their custom so it is fine for them.
 
Imagine.....I could take the smallest emerald in the suite and have an incredible ring!!
 
Personally I'm not fond of tiaras being worn with head scarfs. But that's cultural diversity. The emerald parure is especially stunning. The design of the ruby tiara looks a bit to stiff for my taste, but the stones are whoppers as well.
 
I think Queen have amazing collection of jewels. But me personally i'm not so much fan especially the tiaras.
 
I think stomachers went out with Queen Mary.
 
Her jewels are craaaaaaazy! Each stone is its own piece.
 
Even the purses are diamond encrusted!

In the older pics Queen Saleha always wears the tiara in her hair, but in newer pics she wears it on her headscarf. When did she change her preferances? I can't say that I like the look of tiaras on cloth.
 
Possibly the royal jewels are nice, but there is so much opulence, so much Edelkitsch all around, that even the most beautiful diamonds have to surrender in their attempts to undold their splendour. The adagium "less is more" seems unknown to the Brunei royals.
 
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