Royal style (and occasionally gossip): thread 3

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Here we go again!

Diana was shot for vogue in a ball gown and tiara but still managed to look regal and approachable. She’d only been a princess for 9 years (vs Kate’s 7; not forgetting the decade as William’s girlfriend).

Kate is confident in the royal style she has chosen, sort of 1940’s Queen & Queen mother.
Well probably see her recycling those coat dresses when she’s 60.
I actually find HM’s clothes more interesting than Kate’s...

Tbh I don’t think Kate needs to be worried about outshining any bride.

Coat dresses ( smart coat + matching dress underneath; not a dress that looks like it’s a coat) are A Thing amongst posh people. It’s considered a bit gauche to be unequal to the weather, whatever the weather, so this combination is always useful. I hope she’s actually rocking a 90s revival silk slip dress underneath and shakes her hair out once the public gaze at the churchyard isn’t on her and William.

I saw her in the flesh once, in Oka on Fulham Road. She was wearing a black jumper and grey jeans and had her hair in a messy bun. She looked exactly like a naice middle class mum, which is what she is. I like her all the more for it: the queenly clothes are a work uniform. Or a disguise.

I don't think she's that interested in fashion

But she worked as a fashion buyer for Jigsaw!

MissClimpson - you probably know this, but "vest" is American for "waistcoat"

I quite like the concept of Kate seeing her Royal clothing as uniform/disguise - isn't that what they partly do with the children too?

I think Kate seems more herself in evening gowns (there will be of course some exceptions which don't work) and when she's doing outward bound or sporting activities either here or on overseas tours. Maybe the daytime "formal" is just a uniform and she can't wait to get home and sling on some jeans.

She turned up in a parka for her Vogue photo shoot. So she has reasonably trendy mum style from the sound of it.
I think she's very wisely decided to have a work uniform in order to differentiate from their home life.

Kensington Palace's instagram has put up some footage of Meghan talking about her wedding dress. It's from the upcoming itv doc about the queen and the commonwealth.

Another clip shows her talking about how the "something blue" she incorporated into her veil was a piece of fabric from the dress she wore on her first date with Harry - that's almost too fortuitous!

Kate was an accessories buyer for Jigsaw and I'm sure we'll all agree that she has nice earrings!

It doesn’t matter what type of buyer she was, she should have both an interest and an ‘eye’ for fashion if she worked in retail. It wasn’t as if she was the accountant or similar!

I think she just has poor taste. Pippa is the same.

She has nice earrings because she's usually wearing ones that have been in the royal family for years!

In fairness, it’s pretty hard to fuck up earrings. Especially if you have a royal house’s collection at your disposal.

I like the theory that DoC wears the fuddy-duddy stuff as a work uniform, but I think it’s more likely that she’s just a bit dull. From how she dresses, her lack of pre-marriage career, even re-using her first child’s middle name as her 3rd’s first name, everything about her is just bland.

Using Louis twice does seem a bit odd to me, but the Queen used Edward twice. I suppose if you have limited names to choose from and a tradition of giving children a string of them, you might have to recycle one or two.

It wouldn't be hard to think of a 'new' name. George only had three for goodness sake! There are more than three boy's names to choose regardless of how determined she was not to use anything vaguely different to the existing royal names list. Seeing as they were going down the route of using 'family names', it would have been nice if she had included her father or brother's name in one of the six male names.

I think so too, Jackie. They are perfectly fine names.

I find it a little odd that they didn't use any names from her family but it's their choice! And Louis is after Mountbatten, who William never knew.

I find Kate's voice irritating and a bit forced. Note how she says "amazing" !
Megan's is more natural. Whether she is an actress or not ...she has the ability to speak from the heart.

In terms of a career I think she was between a rock and a hard place. She was being hounded by the press.

I agree that she could have used Michael somewhere.
It's a perfectly nice name and would be a nice tribute to her Dad.
Caroline could have been used instead of Carole/ Carol.

Was Kate hounded by the press? I remember seeing a few shots of her going shopping etc or having a night out, but I don't think it was as bad as what Diana went through when she got engaged to Charles.

Re names, out of the queen's children it's only Anne who used some names from her husband's side for her kids.

Though one of Harry's names is Charles so I guess you could argue he's named for his father and his uncle. Most surprisingly, one of his other names is David, and the only David in the family was the Duke of Windsor!

Agree @beanaseireann there's nothing wrong with Michael or even James. Not like they're called Kevin and Dazza! Though Prince Daz of Cambridge has a nice ring to it...

I like Michael - good solid name!

James I like but I wonder if they thought it was too Jacobean? Not sure if there have been any royal James’s since James II?

Feeling a bit sorry for Kate from this thread tbh. Dull dresser, terrible accent, doesn't speak from the heart, should have chosen different names for her kids, should have had a different career etc etc...

I honestly don't see why the two duchesses are compared at every turn. They're totally different women with varied backgrounds, cultures, upbringing. Imo they're both elegant, impressive women, in their own ways.

If Kate does use her safe dressing as a uniform to stand behind, this thread in and of itself is a bit of an explanation as to why. Which is a shame because I've being massively enjoying it.

I don’t think people are necessarily comparing Meghan and Kate. There are many threads saying similar things about Kate on MN (just run a search) and they were written long before MM was associated with the RF.

I think Kate comes across as trying hard to do her best. On other threads she seems to get critcised for having maternity leave which seems a bit harsh on Mumsnet. I think she and William suffer from being damned if they do and damned if they don't.
There are other Davids btw. The Queen Mother's favourite brother was David and of course there is Princess Margaret's David. David was the last of the Duke of Windsor's seven names.