Red Carpet Wedding: Johan Friso of Orange-Nassau and Mabel Wisse Smit

There are understated royal wedding dresses.

And then there is Princess Mabel’s wedding dress.

When Mabel Wisse Smit married Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau in Delft on April 24, 2004, she wore a snow-white Viktor & Rolf gown covered with 248 handmade bows.

Not 24.

Not 48.

Two hundred and forty-eight.

The bows began small across the fitted bodice and skirt and became progressively larger toward the train, eventually turning what was otherwise a remarkably classical dress into one of the most instantly recognisable royal wedding gowns of the 2000s.

A royal wedding in Delft

Prince Friso, the second son of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus, married human-rights campaigner Mabel Wisse Smit in the historic Dutch city of Delft.

The day began with a civil ceremony at Delft Town Hall, conducted by the city’s mayor, Hein van Oorschot.

It was a relatively intimate affair, attended by around 50 family members, friends and dignitaries.

From there, the couple travelled to the Oude Kerk for the religious blessing.

That ceremony was considerably larger, with around 1,400 guests filling the medieval church.

Afterwards, the newlyweds returned to Noordeinde Palace for a private lunch.

The Viktor & Rolf dress

Mabel worked closely with Dutch designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren on the gown.

And this was not a bride particularly interested in disappearing politely into royal convention.

The finished dress had a close-fitting bodice, long sleeves, a bateau neckline and a flared skirt in white satin duchesse.

Structurally, it was actually quite traditional.

And then somebody apparently looked at the word “traditional” and decided it needed approximately 248 bows.

Correct.

The bows covered the intersections of the dress’s geometric seams: 85 on the bodice, 128 on the skirt and another 35 on the train.

A team of four reportedly spent more than 600 hours making the gown.

Even Mabel’s satin shoes continued the theme with matching bows.

Classic — with a very large wink

Mabel described the dress at the time as essentially classic with a wink.

That is probably the best description of it.

Without the bows, it could have been an extremely restrained royal wedding gown: covered shoulders, simple neckline, fitted waist, long train.

With the bows, absolutely nobody was going to confuse her with another royal bride.

And twenty years later, that matters.

I can look at dozens of perfectly beautiful white satin royal gowns and occasionally need a moment to remember which princess wore which.

Mabel?

You remember the bows.

The wedding tiara

For the ceremony, Mabel also wore an all-diamond tiara created using elements from the Dutch royal jewellery collection.

Its clean geometric shape worked surprisingly well with the gown.

With 248 bows already happening below the neck, this was probably not the afternoon for an excessively complicated tiara.

Sometimes even royal jewellery knows when to let the dress speak.

White spring flowers

The bridal bouquet was almost completely white and filled with spring flowers.

It included lily of the valley, snowdrops, jasmine, white roses and star-shaped eucharis flowers.

Against such an unconventional gown, the delicate bouquet was wonderfully traditional.

Again, balance.

A royal wedding with constitutional consequences

This was also an unusual Dutch royal wedding for reasons that had nothing to do with fashion.

Under Dutch constitutional rules, a royal who wishes to retain succession rights must receive parliamentary consent before marrying.

Friso and Mabel chose not to ask Parliament for that approval.

As a consequence, after the marriage Friso was no longer a member of the Dutch Royal House and lost his place in the line of succession, although he retained the personal title Prince of Orange-Nassau.

It gave the wedding an unusually private dimension for the marriage of a queen’s son.

This was a royal wedding, certainly.

But it also marked the beginning of a life for Friso and Mabel somewhat outside the formal structure of the monarchy.

The RCW verdict

Princess Mabel’s dress is one of those rare wedding gowns that still causes an argument.

Some people adore it.

Some people see the bows and immediately begin backing slowly out of the room.

I would much rather have that than indifference.

Viktor & Rolf took an extremely conventional royal silhouette and added one completely unreasonable idea until it became unmistakably Mabel.

And really, that is what memorable bridal fashion usually requires.

Not necessarily 248 bows.

But commitment.

Although 248 bows certainly help.