Denmark's Crown Princess Mary and Prince Frederik opt for understated elegance in matching evening looks

Mary, a former advertising executive from Australia who has married to Crown Prince Frederik for 15 years, was among the high-ranking royal guests at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen on Monday night to mark the milestone birthday of Queen Margrethe's sister. Mary arrived in a lace asymmetric midnight blue gown, while hand in hand with her husband in  a complementary blue hued tuxedo.

The queen, wearing a delicate purple and black beaded gown and her sister, in eye-catching turquoise,  arrived in vintage style in the form of a horse drawn carriage. Bebedikte lost her husband of 49 years - Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg - in 2017, while Margrethe's husband Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark died in 2018 after a battle with dementia.

Mary's wardrobe is a mix of floor length gowns for state dinners and formal evening events and chic business attire she wears for her daily duties and is often cited as the inspiration for style icons the world over, including Kate Middleton and French first lady Brigitte Macron.

“People do buy what she wears,” Henriette Schmidt, a Danish royal style expert, told the Telegraph last year. "We rarely see her mentioned without a comment about what she wore, which designer created her dress or who made her shoes. She’s master of reusing old pieces over and over again, and she does have a signature style: a pair of pointed pumps, mid-length skirts and coats, classy white pearl earrings, a simple blowout as hairstyle and natural makeup. Something most of us can copy."