I wonder how many royals cursed silently when they received Crown Princess Victoria's wedding invitation and discovered the mandatory event was scheduled smack damn in the middle of the World Cup. "Well, I'm dashed!" they said as they clutched their pearls and gasped. (Royals should always swear like Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady, don’t you think?) Surely some of them are the sort to prefer a bit of football over getting all fancied up, right?
Or maybe, dashing from home to South Africa to Sweden and back, they were just glad for a reason to show off their patriotic sartorial flare. Plus, think of the frequent flyer miles.
First up, we saw Princes Frederik and Willem-Alexander at the Denmark/Netherlands match. Clearly, Fred didn’t get the team spirit memo. Maybe that’s why Denmark lost. Willem-Alexander, on the other hand, orange-d himself to his princely max. Is there anybody in Holland that doesn’t like orange? Is that, like, grounds for denied citizenship?
Letizia brought her ubiquitous khaki trench coat along for her pre-wedding stop to cheer on Spain vs. Switzerland. This scarf-n-safari look is so typical of her, it barely counts that the scarf is kinda red. (They are in South Africa, maybe she actually was going on safari afterwards? One can only hope.) Felipe took half a page from W-A’s book with his snazzy red tie, but overall, it was clearly not a colorful enough appearance by the couple, as Spain lost 0-1.
Eugenie kicked off the Windsors’ ode to England at
Trooping the Colour, and William and Harry finished it out in South Africa. Since the British royal family’s insistence on ignoring important foreign royal events by sending the fewest (and lowest on the totem pole) acceptable members is still well intact, William and Harry were content to stick around in South Africa and football it up. (Boo, by the way, Queen Liz. I know you all are very busy, but come on. You’re not even that far away from your European cousins. For the love of Jimmy Choo, send us some more bling next time.) Their royal twin appearance didn't help, though: the English team got booed off the field after their 0-0 draw against Algeria.
Undeterred, the brothers took their team ties to an event supporting England's bid for the 2018 World Cup:
Why yes, I am just including that picture for the eye candy. Gotta love sporty princes hanging out with dashing athletes. That's the best part of the royals catching World Cup fever, isn't it?
2014 World Cup recommendation: team scarves for everyone!
Pictures: Pacificcoastnews.com/Jamie McDonald/Luca Ghidoni/Daylife
