We finally return to our "Style Icons" for the first time in over a year with today's installment. We might not share one every week but plan on doing a few over the next few weeks.
Her Royal Highness Princess Kirsten, the Princess Youssopoff may truly be considered a style icon. She joins our list among our previous notaries, Queen Maria of Hispania, Princess Augusta and Princess Xenia of Wallachia. We aim with these posts to give a broad view over several years of the particular Royal's individual expression of identity through their unique taste in fashion.
As a young Princess, Kirsten was born to wealth and privilege as a member of the ruling House of Hanoveria. One might say she was born to style and good taste with nothing to prove as well being a high ranking Royal in her own right. She had the freedom and means to be who she felt like being and her sense of duty and the responsibility of setting an example was clear. In the above pictures we see the young Princess as she stepped out into the public scene. As left the 2009 engagement of her cousin the Crown Prince Imperial and at left the wedding of the same saw her wearing family jewels and keeping within the bounds of moderation and dress code. During these early years she did not make big splashes but also did not fail to turn the odd head. Her style was fresh but did not take any risks.
Not unscathed by tragedy, the Princess faced the hardship of losing her father to an assassin's bullet and herself required plastic surgery a few years later after surviving one herself. With a help of the surgeons knife and her own coming of age gave us a Princess with radiant beauty and a seemingly new found defiant confidence. These years before her eventual marriage saw the Princess attack the red carpet with a vengeance and she was quoted to say: "A bullet cannot hit its mark in the face of a blinding glare'. Her style obviously bolder style became more sophisticated but remained within the bounds of good taste.
The inevitable came in the form of one of the wealthiest Royals in the world. Prince Felix Youssopoff, and his vast resources, was what it was going to take to harness Kirsten. The loving and exuberant match was obvious for all to see and the engagement and wedding took place in 2011. Even though her wedding dress was more "poofy princes" than expected, the effects of her marriage on her fashion sense was to make more than a few ripples on the style Richter scale.
The first event attended by the new Youssopoff Princely Couple was diplomatic, official and a front page affair. The Investiture of Queen Gloria of Normandia saw Princess Kirsten and her husband representing the Ruskian Imperial Dynasty. This required strict protocol adherence but also afforded her an opportunity to be put on the map like never before. Kirsten dropped a style bomb that hit the sweet spot like none other. With this gold Barbie International couture design and the sleek Youssopoff Comet Parure she was second only to Queen Gloria as an attention grabber. A total slam dunk as upstaging the Queen would have been insulting.
Since then Princess Kirsten has supported her husband and the Ruskian Empress in pretense at many official and otherwise gala functions. Her look is young, sleek and attention grabbing without overstepping bounds.
At less formal affairs we can see the Princess taking more risks with colour, hemlines and more "risque" designs.
A combination of Youssopof and Hanoverian family jewels allows the Princess to pull all the stops when necessary but she remains confident in her "nothing-to-prove" mode allowing for a cleaner, sleeker look.
She is also not beyond wearing outfits more than once as this photo in comparison with the one above, second from right, proves.
From bold black and white at the 2012 Christmas Ball (top left), to traditional princess at the Syldavian Investiture 2012 (top right), to sassy pink and then sexy silvery sleek at the 2013 Christmas Ball, Princess Kirsten flicks that Richter scale every time albeit sometimes less and sometimes more.
At the 2013 funeral of Empress Crystobel, her aunt, the Princess was obviously toned down but her true nature as remained undiminished under hat and with diamonds.
Her undeniable glamour and the spectacular Youssopoff diamonds (seen above) will always draw a crowd and the media. This factor she has unfailingly harnessed in favour of the many charities she support as was seen at this year's charity auction of a sapphire parure.
The Princess is one of the few who has experimented with her look but always with success as this stylish outfit proves. Worn a few weeks ago it was her latest red carpet appearance to date and we look forward to many more as she keeps up the good fight of inspirational shining in the face of predjudice. May this Princess inspire the Princess in whichever heart it may be found.
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