“King Willem-Alexander — the second youngest monarch in Europe at 49 — and his 45-year-old fashionista wife, a former investment banker who hails from Argentina, soaked up the sun and spent time greeting their adoring fans, many who were dressed in orange and came waving Australian and Dutch flags.
Queen Maxima, a United Nations special advocate for financial development who is renowned for her chic fashion sense, looked resplendent in a unique beige and green dress by Dutch designer Mattijs van Bergen, matching headpiece, gloves and metallic slingback stilettos.
The royal couple are in Perth as part of a two-day visit, which includes experiencing Melbourne Cup Day at Ascot on Tuesday. The King’s last visit to WA was nearly 20 years ago before he was married.
Strolling along the Fremantle harbour, the couple was given a brief local history lesson by Fremantle historian Mike Lefroy before being officially welcomed by Premier Colin Barnett and his wife, Lyn”.
Tags: Dutch, King, Mattijs van Bergen, Maxima, Queen, Willem Alexander
Oosterman Treats Blog 
November 2, 2016 at 2:53 am |
Wow, Gerard, have you thought of a career in fashion reporting. 🙂 –Curt
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November 2, 2016 at 5:11 am |
Oops. Should have acknowledged the West Australian paper for this piece. I did not write this one.
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November 2, 2016 at 7:47 pm |
Sounds like a fine outfit.
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November 3, 2016 at 9:43 pm |
The Dutch royals, apart from being very rich generally keep a low profile. I can’t work out why his wife is a queen. When Juliana was a queen her husband was a Prince (Bernard).
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November 3, 2016 at 2:11 pm |
Somehow I missed that the Dutch still have royalty. I must have known — they need to get the publicity agents the British have, or act more badly from time to time.
However, I’ll be learning more about Queen Wilhemina, as she showed up in the midst of my traveling: metaphorically, of course.
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November 3, 2016 at 9:49 pm |
Yes, it is easily missed, Linda.
They are here to commemorate the discovery of Australia well before the English Captain Cooke.
This would be a different Australia if the Dutch had claimed it, or…perhaps not.
We would certainly to have turned out a much more progressive country.
I am curious about your reference to Queen Wilhelmina.. She and family spent time in Canada during WW2.
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November 3, 2016 at 10:10 pm
It’s a bit of fascinating history, for sure. I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. Australia plays into the story, too. 🙂
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November 5, 2016 at 2:22 am |
I guess they are allowed to travel unmolested, as they didn’t come here by boat?
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November 5, 2016 at 10:26 am |
Yes, but they came by air and could not have drowned. Dutton is trying to fix this right now.
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November 5, 2016 at 3:36 pm |
Why do these royals exist? At uni, our course in ‘modern’ European history began with the wonderful Dutch Republic, which did very well without royals. Here in the YUK we are sadly afflicted by them.
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November 6, 2016 at 3:18 am |
Yes, Royals are a theme on their own. The Dutch republic did very well. Out of the blue, and from the UK a Dutch Monarchy was born again. The Spaniards and The Treaty of Utrecht had something to do with it.
You can imagine how our PM went awarding Prince Phillip another Knighthood!
We still can’t believe it.
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