Queen Margrethe II Designs Ballet Costume…Again!

Jun 22

It is not often that a modern reigning monarch has a side hustle, in fact, it is almost unheard of. However, Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II is no normal Queen Regnant! She has found a way to balance being a hard-working head of state as well as a costume and set designer, and at age 82 she is still throwing herself into the field.

On Saturday, June 10th, she attended the premiere of a new Danish ballet Svinedrengen (The Swineherd) a rendition of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale held at the Pantomime Theater at Tivoli in Copenhagen. The Danish Queen Margrethe II has created the costumes and sets herself, and they’re really good! But, they should be given she’s pretty much a seasoned professional at this point.

Over the years, Queen Margrethe has been a costume and set designer for many other ballet productions including The Nutcracker, Cinderella, the Royal Danish Ballet's production of A Folk Tale and the 2009 Peter Flinth film, De Vilde Svaner. Her design style is similar to her own personal fashion taste, bright and colour without inducing headaches.

She is also a seasoned illustrator and painter! Her illustrations (under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer) were used for Danish editions of The Lord of the Rings, which she was encouraged to illustrate in the early 1970s.

While she may be a reigning monarch, Margrethe is down to earth and at her heart simply an artist with a thrive to design.