December has been quite the month for tiaras, with everyone from Princess Kate to Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden stepping out in dazzling royal jewels (and show-stopping evening gowns to match). On Thursday, December 11, the Dutch royal family joined the ranks of this month's best-dressed, with King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Princess Catharina-Amalia welcoming the president and first lady of Finland for a state banquet.
Queen Maxima has never been one for minimalism, but Princess Amalia outdid even her glamorous mother in terms of jewels on Thursday night. Amalia, who is heir to the Dutch throne and known as the Princess of Orange, wore a beige Jenny Packham ballgown with a plunging front, accenting the modern dress with numerous historic diamond pieces from the royal vaults.
She wore the Dutch Diamond Bandeau Tiara, a headband-style piece featuring massive round diamonds that dates back to Queen Emma, who received it as a wedding present in 1879. Per The Court Jeweller, the tiara features more than 100 carats of diamonds and was originally a necklace. In the 1930s, Queen Wilhelmina turned her mother's necklace into a tiara, and today, it's one of Queen Maxima's most-worn tiaras.
Along with Queen Emma's tiara—which Amalia wore for the first time on Thursday—she also wore the incredible necklace that her great-great-great grandmother, Emma, received as a wedding gift. According to The Royal Watcher, the late queen received a diamond stomacher (essentially, a huge brooch) and diamond riviére necklace from the Dutch people when she married King Willem III of the Netherlands.
The whopping 30-carat pale yellow diamond at the center of the stomacher can be removed and worn as a pendant with the necklace, like Amalia did, and Queen Maxima styled it in the same way as her daughter when she attended her mother-in-law Queen Beatrix's abdication banquet in 2013.
As for Queen Maxima, she went with a pearl theme, wearing a five-strand pearl necklace and the Württemberg Ornate Pearl Tiara, an intricate design that was created for Queen Wilhelmina in 1897 and worn by Queen Beatrix on her wedding day in 1966.
Maxima added some extra drama with her bright red gown, with the off-the-shoulder Claes Iversen style featuring balloon sleeves and a belted waist.
