Flashback Friday: Belgian National Days Past

Sometimes, it's all about context.  Sure, the ladies of the Belgian royal family came up with some doozies at this year's National Day, but when you look at what they sported in years past, they were really just carrying on one hell of a tradition....

Queen Paola's planetary hat this year just echoed the tradition begun by Mathilde last year:

Three years earlier, she went the turban route:

Maybe I'll go as Mathilde for Halloween this year.  All I need is a roll of craft paper to wrap around my head and a bright orange outfit.

Or a swamp thing to stick on my head with matching psychedelic coat.

Even Queen Fabiola gets in on the fun sometimes, playing the roll of family fortune teller in 2005.

The Queen of the Strange National Day Costumes, however, has to be Princess Claire.

It's only when she sits that you realize that this dress has a tail.

Let's start with the handbag: it's in the shape of Belgium.  Call me geographically challenged, but all I see is a strange black blob with oddly positioned rhinestones (at least, I think that's what they are).  The coat is a tribute to Mondrian, which I can get down with.  But you'd have to try pretty hard to find anything less Mondrian in nature than the giant pouf of tulle and fluffy balloon skirt surrounding it.  That's what I call a thematic fail.

But it's not as big of a thematic fail as this gem, the pièce de résistance of sartorial tomfoolery:

There are no words.

Photos: Mark Renders/Getty Images/Gerard Cerles/AFP

Flashback Friday: Belgian National Days Past 2010-07-23T04:00:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Post By: Didik