Tiara Thursday: Princess Claire's Tiaras

It's a double tiara day. Celebrate!

Princess Claire's Wedding Tiara

On her wedding day in 2003, Princess Claire of Belgium debuted a new-to-the-family tiara, a dainty diamond structure purchased for her by King Albert and Queen Paola. The tiara has a small base but a bit of height, a shape that doesn't suit everyone but worked perfectly with Claire's own delicate features.

At the beginning of her marriage, this was Claire's only tiara and she wore it for all her tiara occasions. But at the 2010 wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, she pulled out a surprise and wore another new-to-her tiara, a slightly larger diamond structure of posts and scrolls topped with large round pearls.

Princess Claire's Pearl and Diamond Tiara

A new tiara in the Belgian royal family is an unusual thing, really; the purchase of Claire's wedding tiara seems to have been out of necessity more than anything, since there apparently aren't that many tiaras floating around in the family and they don't do a tremendous amount of sharing. It's not surprising, then, that many initially assumed that Claire had been loaned a tiara for the Swedish royal wedding.

We've seen her in the "new" tiara at more occasions since then, however (at both the 2011 wedding in Monaco and the 2012 wedding in Luxembourg), so it appears to be her property. In fact, we haven't seen her wedding tiara since - but Claire's tiara-wearing occasions are sparse these days, since there hasn't been a tiara event in Belgium for a few years. I hope we'll see her wedding tiara again soon, though. I do have a certain affection for the delicate piece, and it's definitely my favorite of the two.

Which one is your favorite?

Photos: Getty Images/Belga/PPE/CTK