QUEEN Letizia presided an International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day event at Valencia's Oceanogràfic marine life centre this week – wearing a dress retailed by a local shop for just €64.
Princesses follow their mother's example with Sfera and Zara frocks for under €30
23/04/2021
PRINCESSES Leonor and Sofía have proven to be chips off the old block as far as their wardrobes are concerned: Both were last seen in public in home-grown Spanish creations straight off the high street.
They may be a bit young to be called 'style icons' just yet – Crown Princess Leonor, immediate heir to the throne, turned 15 on Hallowe'en 2020, and her sister, the Infanta Sofía, will be 14 in just under two weeks' time – but teenagers across Spain are likely to want to copy their looks and, in less than 10 years, it is likely whatever they wear will be getting snapped up by women of all ages within hours of their being seen in it.
Plus, both young ladies had plundered their mum's wardrobe for their official visit to Cartagena (Murcia) to 'christen' the top-of-the-range S-81 submarine, the Isaac Peral, just launched by ship-builders Navantia.
In their first Royal engagement as a family unit in five months – HRHs Leonor and Sofía were accompanied by their dad, King Felipe VI, and his wife, Queen Letizia – the elder of the two daughters played the main part, since her gradual preparation of her public duties for the day she becomes Queen of Spain started right on the day of her 13th birthday, exactly the same as with her father.
Otherwise, she has been gently broken into the job practically since the cradle, with her parents attempting – successfully, it seems so far – to toe the incredibly fine line between giving their eldest daughter a childhood as normal as possible whilst laying the groundwork for a future career that only a small handful of humans on earth will ever practice.
Her future is mapped out for her, however she feels about it – she will go to university, study abroad to achieve competence in several languages, and at 18, will have to do military service, given that, once she is Queen, she will automatically become supreme leader of Spain's Armed Forces.
From this autumn, she will be moving to Wales for her sixth-form studies.
And even now, having not even completed her ESO (Spain's answer to GCSEs), what she wears in public – and her little sister, too, by default – makes headlines and influences schoolgirls and very young women when they go out shopping.
Sadly for those who fell in love with the Infanta Sofía's bright-red, ethnic-print dress, it is now last season's, since it was on sale at the beginning of the year; the only possible chance of getting one's hands on an identical version is on eBay, where the youngster's appearance in it may have caused those who already own it to 'cash in' and try to make a profit from selling their own.
Just above the knee with a tunic-shaped main body, puffed three-quarter sleeves, and embroidered in bold, but tasteful, black and white floral shapes and fleur-de-lis, with Scandinavian-style stitching on the cuffs and shoulders, Sofía's eye-catching dress retailed in the AW19-20 collection at Sfera, the Corte Inglés department store's own brand, for just €25.99.
With it, she wore black leather, pointy-toed flat pumps with a heel strap, almost certainly borrowed from Queen Letizia who has been seen in, if not the same ones, then at least an identical pair.
Luckily this style of shoe is far easier to find – the 'make and model' are not known, but it is a popular cut that is often seen in shops ranging from top designer through to unbranded budget stores.
Simple-cut, tunic-style dresses with long or three-quarter sleeves, combined with ballet shoes or flat, pointed pumps are now trademark looks the sisters have been associated with since earliest childhood, and now they in their early and mid-teens, this whole image is one that is starting to influence young adults, not just children – and Princess Leonor followed much the same pattern in her own outfit, which also included at least one item of her mum's.
Red, pointed ballet shoes – of a type which, again, are easy to find – came with an above-the-knee dress in a similar cut to that of her sister's, although with a high V-neck and worn as a pinafore dress.
Hers is tweed, red and blue on a white background with frayed hems, from budget high-street chain Zara – also a brand regularly chosen by her mother and by the UK's future Queen Consort, the Duchess of Cambridge – costing just €29.95.
It is still on sale, as it is from the current season, but now Princess Leonor has been photographed wearing it, will probably not stay on the shelves for long.
Although it cannot be seen from the pictures, HRH Leonor wore a puffed-sleeved blouse underneath it, and over the top but unbuttoned, she wore a white above-the-knee coat in a minimalist cut from Adolfo Domínguez, again borrowed from Queen Letizia and originally retailing at €198.
The fact the princesses are now sharing clothes with their mother, who is 48, means that young women of almost any age can take inspiration from the combinations the three put together.
Even though Queen Letizia is often seen in top designer creations that an average earner would have to make a concerted effort to save up for or have plenty of spending room left on her credit card, the Royal women regularly wear affordable high-street gear, usually Spanish designs – partly so as not to be too ostentatious when the society they represent and work for includes people on low incomes or without jobs, partly to showcase their country's creations on the world's stage, and partly because they just plain old-fashioned like them.
They have included, to date, a grey-and-black-chequered tunic top with a tie waist from Zara, costing €26, which Queen Letizia wore to the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony in 2018; a €15 black cap-sleeved T-shirt with the name of the Czech-German author 'Kafka' printed across it in white block capitals, and which was a creation for national publishing company Delirio by Eduardo Scala; and a black-and-white print midi-dress, coupled with red shoes, worn to meet the president of Perú in February 2019 and which cost just under €100 from Zara's 'grown-up sister' Massimo Dutti, another Inditex brand.
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PRINCESSES Leonor and Sofía have proven to be chips off the old block as far as their wardrobes are concerned: Both were last seen in public in home-grown Spanish creations straight off the high street.
They may be a bit young to be called 'style icons' just yet – Crown Princess Leonor, immediate heir to the throne, turned 15 on Hallowe'en 2020, and her sister, the Infanta Sofía, will be 14 in just under two weeks' time – but teenagers across Spain are likely to want to copy their looks and, in less than 10 years, it is likely whatever they wear will be getting snapped up by women of all ages within hours of their being seen in it.
Plus, both young ladies had plundered their mum's wardrobe for their official visit to Cartagena (Murcia) to 'christen' the top-of-the-range S-81 submarine, the Isaac Peral, just launched by ship-builders Navantia.
In their first Royal engagement as a family unit in five months – HRHs Leonor and Sofía were accompanied by their dad, King Felipe VI, and his wife, Queen Letizia – the elder of the two daughters played the main part, since her gradual preparation of her public duties for the day she becomes Queen of Spain started right on the day of her 13th birthday, exactly the same as with her father.
Otherwise, she has been gently broken into the job practically since the cradle, with her parents attempting – successfully, it seems so far – to toe the incredibly fine line between giving their eldest daughter a childhood as normal as possible whilst laying the groundwork for a future career that only a small handful of humans on earth will ever practice.
Her future is mapped out for her, however she feels about it – she will go to university, study abroad to achieve competence in several languages, and at 18, will have to do military service, given that, once she is Queen, she will automatically become supreme leader of Spain's Armed Forces.
From this autumn, she will be moving to Wales for her sixth-form studies.
And even now, having not even completed her ESO (Spain's answer to GCSEs), what she wears in public – and her little sister, too, by default – makes headlines and influences schoolgirls and very young women when they go out shopping.
Sadly for those who fell in love with the Infanta Sofía's bright-red, ethnic-print dress, it is now last season's, since it was on sale at the beginning of the year; the only possible chance of getting one's hands on an identical version is on eBay, where the youngster's appearance in it may have caused those who already own it to 'cash in' and try to make a profit from selling their own.
Just above the knee with a tunic-shaped main body, puffed three-quarter sleeves, and embroidered in bold, but tasteful, black and white floral shapes and fleur-de-lis, with Scandinavian-style stitching on the cuffs and shoulders, Sofía's eye-catching dress retailed in the AW19-20 collection at Sfera, the Corte Inglés department store's own brand, for just €25.99.
With it, she wore black leather, pointy-toed flat pumps with a heel strap, almost certainly borrowed from Queen Letizia who has been seen in, if not the same ones, then at least an identical pair.
Luckily this style of shoe is far easier to find – the 'make and model' are not known, but it is a popular cut that is often seen in shops ranging from top designer through to unbranded budget stores.
Simple-cut, tunic-style dresses with long or three-quarter sleeves, combined with ballet shoes or flat, pointed pumps are now trademark looks the sisters have been associated with since earliest childhood, and now they in their early and mid-teens, this whole image is one that is starting to influence young adults, not just children – and Princess Leonor followed much the same pattern in her own outfit, which also included at least one item of her mum's.
Red, pointed ballet shoes – of a type which, again, are easy to find – came with an above-the-knee dress in a similar cut to that of her sister's, although with a high V-neck and worn as a pinafore dress.
Hers is tweed, red and blue on a white background with frayed hems, from budget high-street chain Zara – also a brand regularly chosen by her mother and by the UK's future Queen Consort, the Duchess of Cambridge – costing just €29.95.
It is still on sale, as it is from the current season, but now Princess Leonor has been photographed wearing it, will probably not stay on the shelves for long.
Although it cannot be seen from the pictures, HRH Leonor wore a puffed-sleeved blouse underneath it, and over the top but unbuttoned, she wore a white above-the-knee coat in a minimalist cut from Adolfo Domínguez, again borrowed from Queen Letizia and originally retailing at €198.
The fact the princesses are now sharing clothes with their mother, who is 48, means that young women of almost any age can take inspiration from the combinations the three put together.
Even though Queen Letizia is often seen in top designer creations that an average earner would have to make a concerted effort to save up for or have plenty of spending room left on her credit card, the Royal women regularly wear affordable high-street gear, usually Spanish designs – partly so as not to be too ostentatious when the society they represent and work for includes people on low incomes or without jobs, partly to showcase their country's creations on the world's stage, and partly because they just plain old-fashioned like them.
They have included, to date, a grey-and-black-chequered tunic top with a tie waist from Zara, costing €26, which Queen Letizia wore to the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony in 2018; a €15 black cap-sleeved T-shirt with the name of the Czech-German author 'Kafka' printed across it in white block capitals, and which was a creation for national publishing company Delirio by Eduardo Scala; and a black-and-white print midi-dress, coupled with red shoes, worn to meet the president of Perú in February 2019 and which cost just under €100 from Zara's 'grown-up sister' Massimo Dutti, another Inditex brand.