Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is currently making a two-day visit to the United Republic of Tanzania on 18 and 19 October in her capacity as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. On the first day of her visit, Queen Máxima made two field visits in the Kilimanjaro region. The Queen met with local farmers and representatives of ACRE Africa.
Afterwards, the Queen visited the MomCare project implemented by PharmAccess. The project is a digital healthcare package that has fixed costs and quality standards for maternal healthcare. Pregnant women participating in the project get a digital insurance card entitling them to receive health care service at selected hospitals during the various stages of their pregnancy.
Thereafter, Queen Maxima travelled to Dar Es Salaam, where she met with vendors at a local market and agents for mobile banking services and learned about their experiences with digital financial services. Dar es Salaam or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania.
Not too keen on this look. The dress was nicer with the V neck as worn by the model. Also, given that the terrain required flat shoes, the dress needed to be shorter. AnnieM
ReplyDeleteThis dress looks lovely and suits this visit so well. Love the photo of little one with the Queen, adorable.
ReplyDeleteI think queen Maxima looks lovely , happy and relaxed .. Love the colors of the dress . The dress , the flat shoes and the earrings are nice and appropriate .
ReplyDeleteWell said and agree completely!
DeleteSlippers ? Realy?
ReplyDeleteWhere do you see slippers? Are you referring to bedroom slippers? Maxima is wearing £272 sandals which is keeping in line with the ladies she is visiting with, not in price but in style.
DeleteThe Queen is glowing and looks much younger with lighter makeup. Love the dress on her and the beautiful sandals. Well done! MR
ReplyDeleteIndeed , she is glowing as I can see in photos number 6&7 .
DeleteThe shoes are a big no for me and look very unprofessional for an official visit. I also prefer the open neckline on the model to the one Maxima chose for her dress. The bag is lovely, but I wish it had a calmer backdrop that wasn't competing with the pattern. At least there's no over the top jewellery in sight, so it's not an okay look.
ReplyDelete-Nika-
The open neckline would be not proper for a queen in an official visit. I think queen Maxima looks great .
DeletePrint too busy, dress too long, and hair a mess as per usual.
ReplyDeleteAgree to all you said.
DeleteAva
Duchess Sophie is smiling happily enjoying her visit and apparently her hosts too, lovely.
ReplyDeleteIt is Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, not Countess Sophie.
Delete???????????
DeleteThis dress is nice. I see she made a new friend,cute baby. css
ReplyDeleteGiven that Maxima is in rural East Africa (an area I know extremely well), where style and fashion take a far backseat to other pressing issues such as poverty, hunger and the advancement of the role of women in a patriarchal society - which are some of the reasons she is there, I think her outfit, head to toe, is perfectly in sync and very appropriate to her environment and her audience. To nit-pick about shoes and necklines and dress length is about as tone deaf and 'first world' as it can get. 99% of the time these visiting guests haven't a clue about the true nature of their destination environment despite what they are briefed. But she did very well.
ReplyDeleteI'm touched and moved by Max's warmth and engagement with the other women, and especially the babies.
- Anon 9:13
Totally agree with you Anon 9:13.
DeleteJudy
Brilliant comment.
DeleteI disagree. I think you are making some generalisations here that aren´t in order. Yes, poverty, hunger and women´s issues certainly exist, but to suggest that style takes a far backseat to pressing issues is unfounded. Firstly, style and said pressing issues have little to do with each other and aren´t mutually exclusive. African styles are readily worn, and proudly so, inlcuding (and maybe especially) in the most rural areas - which by the way don´t necessarily need to be the poorest. This is clearly evidenced by these pictures where pretty much everybody is dressed better than Maxima, including some very polished western outfits, while Maxima looks rather sloppy and unkempt in my view. Also, saying that her non-stylish appearance is in sync with her "audience" is basically insulting her hosts as if they aren´t stylish either and worse still - as if they aren´t worthy of a stylish guest.
DeleteI see Maxima smiling in most photos, but I don´t see warm engagement with the other women, or anyone pictured with her. They look neither especially interested nor especially happy, to be honest.
I do think that Maxima is taking her job seriously, and clearly she has a very busy schedule, but that doesn´t mean that people cannot critique her appearance. What happened to your usual argument to keep this conversation strictly about fashion and leave featured causes aside?
If you want to find what´s "first world" about this all, then have a closer look into PharmAccess and how western-led organisations, including the UN, targets farmers worldwide for their agenda.
@Anon 9:13, many of us appreciate this site because it provides some respite from difficult issues domestic or international. No one is questioning the value of Queen Maxima’s visit. The vast majority of posters comment politely on the outfits worn, irrespective of the occasion (the exception being funerals or similar events). If this is too frivolous for you, perhaps you should follow other sites.
DeleteWell said and I totally agree with you anon 22:39 .
Delete@Vanessa: There you go once again comparing a Western standard of style and dress in a non-Western environment. To say that Maxima looks sloppy and unkempt in your narrow-minded Western view is not a viewpoint any of those ladies - however they themselves are dressed - would share. 20 joyful years of living among them and working with and for them has taught me at least this. They far more appreciate her being there than what she is wearing. You think they go back home and talk about it? Think again. As for not looking particularly happy nor interested in seeing her...I don't know where you get that from. Almost all are at least smiling, and the few who aren't I'm willing to bet do not speak nor understand the chosen language of communication.
ReplyDeleteI've never ever argued to keep the conversation on this blog strictly about fashion. Not ever. And I'm glad that our moderator is open and fair-minded enough to let not just me, but many others, recognise and appreciate the intangible good work these influential women do, and not only talk about the quality of their threads.
- Anon 9:13
Sorry to butt in but could I just say a couple of things related to fashion. It'll only take a minute.
DeleteThe designer of Queen Maxima’s dress, Vanessa Seward, was born in Argentina but spent most of her life between Paris and London.
After working as an accessory designer and stylist for some big French fashion houses (Chanel. YSL etc), she branched out as an independent fashion stylist under her own name in 2014.
She had also worked as artistic director for the fashion name Azzaro.in 2003 after the death of the founder, Loris AZZARO.
She is a lover of the 1970’s fashion era and has said, “the 1970s era fascinates me because its fashion never goes out of style”.
In 2017 and unknown to Venessa Seward, Catherine Middleton (Princess of Wales) wore one of her creations known as “a floral print silk-jacquard dress”.
It helped boost sales in her new London boutique and became known as the ‘Kate Effect”.
Ok, Anon 9:13, I remember having several heated discussions with you and others about politics and other non-fashion topics, but if it wasn´t you insisting on a fashion-only policy, then I apologize.
DeleteRegarding your reply to my points, I´m very inclined to say "Speak for yourself". Unless you know these women personally or were present at the events featured here, you can only assume what these ladies were thinking, and there´s no reason why your assumptions should be any more valid than my observations from seeing these photos. I just don´t see a lot of appreciation in these women. Also, if you´re right that they might not be able to follow the conversation because of a language barrier (could well be), then that begs the question how they could possibly develop appreciation for something they don´t understand and engage warmly with someone they cannot communicate with. Another question would then of course be why no translation was provided for these people who are there to be helped. To put it bluntly, to me they look like objects for a photo opportunity: neither happy nor interacting. The few smiles I can see in these photos are politeness smiles and are far outweighed by the vast majority of photos in which no-one smiles except Maxima.
These woman likely don´t care about Maxima being there, let alone appreciate her being there. Very likey they didn´t even know about her before this visit and will never hear from her again.
I stick to my opinion that Maxima looks sloppy and unkempt, and that is judged based on both where she is and who she is/represents. She looks sloppy and unkempt either way.
Lastly I want to remark on your logic which seems to be lacking a bit if you claim on the one hand that these people live a life of poverty, hunger and hardship in a patriarchical society, yet you go on to tell us about having lived 20 joyful years amongst them, working for and with them. So which one is it? Joyful life or extreme hardship?
I so agree with your comment anon 01.27. Lately there have been a lot of moralizing comments . Please let politics stay out of this sight! We are commenting fashion here.
ReplyDeleteLove Queen Maxima's outfit and sandals. Appropriate for the climate and the circumstances. @Vanessa. The fact that Anon. 18/10 22:23 thought she was Countess Sophie says enough (fashion wise). I agree also with Anon 9:13 and writing that Queen Maxima has no warm engagement is not true at all. Can you see in her heart and mind ?
ReplyDeleteCan you?
Delete@Vanessa. Queen Maxima has proofed enough that she cares about the wellbeing of women and mothers with little babies. That she works hard to make life easier for these African girls and women so that they can receive medical support during their pregnancy and instead of giving birth in sometimes painful circumstances can go to a maternity instead. She also learns them to coop with their financial problems like not having (enough) money to raise their children. She makes women and men familiar with the use of digital banking systems and other financial possibilities so that they can start their own little enterprise and earning the money to support their wife and children.
DeleteShe could have stayed at home to support her own eldest daughter who cannot go out alone anymore now that she received life threatening messages etc... but since this trip to Tanzania was planned some time ago she left with pain in her heart.
Jolie robe fleurie mais avec le décolleté en V, ce serait plus rafraîchissant ; bien harmonisée à des sandales quand même un peu trop plates ; trop craquant le bébé avec qui Maxima a l'air d'avoir la cote !
ReplyDeleteI admire wonderful dresses of native woman next to Maxima, print and colours of dresses are original and fabulous, especially the yellow one.
ReplyDeleteDear Vanessa, Dear Anon 9.13, You have both made some interesting points. I wonder what Queen Elizabeth would have worn and think that the words „sloppy and unkempt“ (including the boring topic of her hair) are the key to the whole argument. She should have done better, simply out of respect for ALL those present.
ReplyDelete🌞 Virginia
Choosing a wardrobe for a visit to a third world country mustn't be easy.
ReplyDeleteHow far should one dress up or how far should one dress down.
I think both Queen Maxima and Countess Sophie have got it right for their respective visits.
Hate the 272 $ slippers/footwear/sandals … unprofessional as is her hair. She fakes empathy… She’s hollow …
ReplyDeletePersonally, having been in a crowd and being one of the lucky folks who got near her, I can tell you she exudes a charm and charisma and warmth that's palpable. If she was faking that she deserves an Oscar for best actress.
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