Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby and HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway
August 25,2001
Mette-Marit was never the typical royal bride. An ex-waitress single mother with a past marred by involvement in Oslo's drug culture was a hard sell to the Norwegian public; the run-up to the wedding included a press conference during which Mette-Marit, in tears, apologized for her past. She deserves extra kudos, then, for showing up in a wedding dress that was absolutely, uniquely her, rather than trying to use a giant fantasy dress to try to prove herself the fairy-tale princess nobody thought she could be.
This is a wedding dress you might not like at first. At first, it might seem way, way too simple. Too bland, not enough sparkle. But just keep looking at it - eventually, it will hypnotize you.
It's like a cloud, isn't it? Designer Ove Harder Finseth collaborated with Mette-Marit on this surreal, dream-like interpretation of the fashions first worn by Queen Maud of Norway.
The dress itself was created from thick custom-dyed ecru silk crepe and 125 meters of silk tulle. The 2 meter long train on the dress was unusually shorter than the silk veil, which was a whopping 6 meters long - nearly 20 feet! Such a veil does take a bit of management:
Yes, that's the Queen and future King of Norway, standing guard on dress duty. Royal weddings are the best, if for no other reason than you get pictures like this, right?
To go along with this rather minimalist dress, the King and Queen gifted her with her first tiara, an antique piece dating from around 1910:
In the years since her wedding, Mette-Marit has grown and evolved into her style as Crown Princess, and these days she's much more likely to glam it up, but this dress still holds its place as the ultimate expression of her personal style. In fact, the more I examine MM's fashion, the more convinced I become that there has never been a better personality-to-dress match in the history of royal weddings. And that is more than enough to warrant a place on the Top 10 list!
Click here to see all of the Top 10 dresses!
Click here to see all of the Top 10 dresses!
Photos: Aftenposten.no/IBL/silkehuset.dk/Corbis/Gamma/Foto Langhbehn/Polfoto/NRK