Figure 1.-- Here we see Grand Duke Henri and Maria Teresa with their five children. I'm not sure when the portrait was taken, probably about 1992 and Prince Sebastian looks very young.

Grand Duke Henri and Maria Teresa have five children: Prince Guillaume (1981- ), Prince Félix (1984- ), Prince Louis (1986- ), Princess Alexandra (1991- ), and Prince Sébastian (1992- ). We know very little about the children at this time. Hopefully Luxemburh readers will provide us some information on the royal children. A formal portrait shows the children wearing rather preppy styled clothes. An earlier generation of princes probanly would have worn suits and ties for a formal portrait like this.

A HBC reader writes, "In one sense you could say that people dress more casually today, but there's another way of looking at it. If you consider a particular item of clothing, it may move up or down the formality spectrum over time. The shirts worn by Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and his brothers (whom Wikipedia describes as Princes) would have been unremarkable everyday schoolwear when I was their ages in the early 1960s. At those same schools today, boys rarely wear shirts like that, as they would be considered too dressy. Contrariwise, European princes of 40 years ago would wear short trousers on dressy occasions, while today those same shorts would be considered too casual. So, in all eras people dress casually for everyday, but put on something fancier on special occasions. What particular items of clothing fill a particular role changes over time. Usually as a particular style becomes a little dated it either gets dropped or becomes elevated to a more formal role. One example is what has happened to lederhosen in German-speaking countries. In Germany 50 years ago lederhosen were everyday schoolwear for boys. Now they are usually worn only on special occasions, and so they are made in a dressier style."

Created: 8:59 PM 4/28/2005
Last updated: 8:59 PM 4/28/2005