Why Argentina's chic first lady Juliana Awada should be at the top of your international fashion radar

Argentina's first lady the has long been admired by style bibles like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, but she is garnering more mainstream recognition as the appetite for international style icons continues to grow.

Throughout the week, Awada and her husband, Argentinian president Mauricio Macri, have been hosting a state visit from Spain’s Queen Letizia and King Felipe, and with Letizia’s accepted position as the world’s best dressed royal; their pairing has been made for a fashionable feast. Awada arrived to a reception at the Four Seasons hotel in Buenos Aires in a dress from Argentinian label Ménage à Trois, of which she has long been a fan.

Under any circumstances, it would be considered an experimental option, but perfectly showcased her confident personality opposite Letizia’s knee-length strapless cocktail dress.

On Tuesday, she greeted the royals, with whom she has a long-standing friendship developed over an increase in official visits over the years, wearing a red pleated ankle length dress by Dior, accessorising with a matching bubble clutch and satin heels.

Women elevated to powerful positions of global influence in their respective countries have used their profiles to boost the fashion industry, balancing the delicate art of diplomacy, a skill she mastered in her many years working for her family’s textiles business and although her rise to prominence has only occurred over the last four years, she has been in training for a global role her entire life.

Most women’s style evolves notably throughout their time in the public eye, but Juliana’s uniform in 2019 is still in keeping with her first foreign visit to meet The Netherlands’ Queen Maxima in white tweed Chanel suit. It is the perfection execution of expensive aspiration without being too ostentatious.

Since her husband was elected president in 2015, she has been pictured setting the tone with Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron, who have, until now, often held the majority of the headlines. Her appearance is one of the style highlights of the annual G20 summit: in 2017, she arrived to a concert with her husband in a semi-sheer beaded black dress and while attending an event with the other partners, she looked effortlessly glamorous in a patterned midi dress and her hair tied in its signature half up-half down style.

Awada is, as her wardrobe suggests, no shrinking violet. She’s an Oxford-educated businesswoman and philanthropist and wed Marci, who is 15 years her senior, in 2010 and theirs is a very modern family. It is her second marriage and his third and she has the hallmarks of classic first ladies like Jackie Kennedy with the perfect amount of contemporary influence. A true style icon for our times.