In an exclusive interview with the Danish magazine “Billed Bladet” Queen Margrethe’s younger sister, Princess Benedikte, has talked about her interest in fashion, style and design. The princess also discusses the education and training she has received in the same field. Princess Benedikte is known for being well-dressed, both for the big gala parties in the royal family, but also in everyday life at work for Denmark.
To the magazine, the Princess says: “I make an effort, I will admit. I went to Margretheskolen for a year, where we learned to sew, make patterns and design. Therefore, I know what it is about. Even though handicrafts still is a great interest of me, it has not become so much abouot self-production after I went to school.”
Princess Benedikte, like her sister, Queen Margrethe, has had the pleasure of having skilled fashion designers to make their gala dresses and for many years one of the foremost, fashion designer Jørgen Bender, was the man behind the royal gala wardrobe. Bender also designed for Queen Silvia of Sweden and Queen Sonja of Norway. He passed away in 1999.
The princess has been showing some of her most popular dresses over the summer. A total of 21 of her unique dresses from the period of 1968 to 1999 can right now be seen in the exhibition “The Princess Dresses”, at Amalienborg castle. The exhibition includes outfits spanning birthday dresses, a silver wedding [anniversary] dress as well as company dresses. Princess Dresses’ opened on 4 July and the exhibition runs until 18 October.
Bender began designing dresses for the Danish Royal Family in 1967 and, in addition to Princess Benedikte, designed outfits for Queen Margrethe, Queen Ingrid, and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, the Countess of Frederiksborg, and Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, including all of their wedding dresses.
Princess Benedikte was born on 29 April 1944 in Copenhagen during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Denmark. She married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg on 3 February 1968, and they had three children together: Prince Gustav, Princess Alexandra, and Princess Nathalie. They have four grandchildren: Count Richard, Countess Ingrid, Konstantin, and Louisa. Since their three children were raised in Germany and not in Denmark, they are not in the line of succession to the Danish throne.
