The queen uses an optical illusion to achieve her signature look.
If anyone is a fan of a good pair of heels, it is Máxima. Our queen has quite a few beautiful ones in her shoe closet, but did you know that there is something special about them? With her shoe size 42, Máx wants to make her feet look a little smaller than they actually are. And she does that with a specific trick.
10 centimeters
Queen Máxima, with her height of 1.78 meters, wears shoe size 42. To make her shoes look a bit more compact, she often chooses heels of at least 10 centimeters high. This is what Liesel Swart, shoe designer and teacher at the Dutch Shoe Academy, says. Together with her students, she worked on the design of the ideal pump for our queen a few years ago. Why exactly the height of 10 centimeters? According to Swart, a heel of 10 centimeters breaks up the length of the shoe, making it appear optically shorter and therefore smaller.
And to be fair: the trick does work! But hey, judge for yourself:
Low budget tights
With a closed heel, our queen often chooses tights. Small side note: in the past, it was an absolute faux pas for female royals not to wear tights under a dress or skirt. That time is over: in 2024, royal ladies are showing off their legs – and rightly so, we at the Glamial editorial team think. Sometimes an outfit just looks a little better without tights.
Although etiquette does not require Máxima to wear tights, we know that she does it regularly. The queen can’t get enough of skin-colored tights in particular. Skin-colored items can have a tendency to create a strange look, but with Máx it always seems to work out well. So you would think that she orders her tights from some designer who specializes in tights, but what do you know? They come from HEMA!
Source: Nouveau, Blauw Bloed | Image: NL Beeld
