Royal style and gossips: gowns and crowns but please no frowns!

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Just in the nick of time! Clothes and light-hearted gossip only please...

Everything at Sandringham seems to be on Christmas Eve. I strongly suspect they all hare away after Mass next day as if they're arses are on fire and spend the rest of Christmas Day with "the other side".

Autmn is from Montreal and the kids have dual citizenship, apparently. Her parents have both remarried so her family is a bit more complicated than others so Christmas would be a pain in the arse for her even if they lived in Canada.

Following on from @IPromise Sophie retrospective.

here are more of her outfits. I think she found her style groove in her 40s.

The grey outfit was taken in 2009. Reminiscent of a Meghan’s Givenchy outfit with HM.

No they have the adults lunch on Christmas Day.
It’s a cold buffet in the evening so the remaining staff can let their hair down.
I think the exodus starts on Boxing Day; if they’re not shooting.

Do they ever put royal jewels on display? I mentioned the Cartier exhibition here in Australia in an earlier thread which featured some. Eg. The wedding dress displays that some PPs have been too, do those feature tiaras as well?

Last week, there was the lunch for the Kent’s and the Gloucesters at BP. I guess they all just spend Christmas at KP and have the grandchildren over. Prince & Princess Michael of Kent used to have a country house

Nether Lypiatt but they had to sell it in 2006 as they couldn’t afford it.
I wonder if the Gloucesters have a country house.

IPromiseIWon'tBeNaughty
Your list of Royals at Sandringham this Christmas included some adults that are married but I doubt share a bedroom.
Wink ( emojis don't work on my Mumsnet app)
Just how many bedrooms does Sandringham have ?

@Ahoydelboy
I think the wddding dress exhibition, eg Meghan’s has the matching Cartier one on display.
The best place to see Tiaras is a KP. They had a few Tiaras in a darkened room. They were spectacular.
I have yet to see the Crown Jewels.

The other way to see fab jewellery is when someone wealthy / famous / aristo dies and their estate sells off their jewellery.

The only “recent” ones which come to mind are the Duchess of Windsor and Princess Margaret.

Sophie looks much better now than she did in the earlier years. She must of really upped her skincare regime or something because she looks lovely and glowy now.

Once the Queen dies, I doubt there will be so many of the RF who will rush to Sandringham to have Christmas with Uncle Charles.
I bet Andrew will celebrate at the Royal Lodge with Fergie, the York Girls and the grandchildren as they come along.
Anne will probably have her brood at Gatcombe.
Maybe Edward and Sophie will stay Loyal.
It’s interesting to see how the Queen is the glue which holds the family together and how things will naturally shift once she passes.

AhoyDelBoy yes, Meghan's bandeau tiara is on display with her dress. As is a fake bouquet! And her shoes.

Agree with Curly, the jewels in Kensington Palace were fabulous.

That was refreshing. Thank you. That particular poster is quite prolific on other threads as well in the same vein. I have a similar background and have many links to the RF, but I don’t bang on about it.

I am interested in them and their lives because of it.

Anyway..back to the frocks!

beanaseireann

CurlyWurlyTwirly
Your post at 4.59 re Wanttobe was brave.
I did find the posts interesting but somewhat grating at the same time. Certainly a life lived differently to my mundane life.

Did the DM link say 39 bedrooms? I can't remember and don't want to give them an extra click!

Those posts make me laugh, though, and remind me of Hyacinth Bucket!! Her sister, remember, was wealthy and "had room for a pony"!

But obvs some of those bedrooms are for staff. It's a skeleton crew but still there'll be several staff on when you think of kitchen staff and front of house.

God I wonder who the butler is?

(The mind boggles at some hugely intimidating Downton Abbey/PG Wodehouse throwback)

Sandringham has about 30 bedrooms.
I have read previously that some of the family are housed in “servants quarters” in the eaves.

Sorry for the DM link, I only skim read it at 5am and didn’t notice the entire first half was so bitchy. I do try and avoid posting direct links to the DM now, as so many of the writers are illiterate xenophobes, but they do always have tonnes of photos.

Modest and restrained lodgings!

Love that grey outfit on Sophie - if I had the budget, occasions to wear them and nerve I would love to have some retro outfits like that. So elegant. I used to sometimes wear a tweedy fifties style midi pencil skirt to work and I always felt fab in it. It's such a sharp, flattering look imo.

beans

Pressed send to soon

Thank you Curly for the Sophie link. Her style is great.

Great post earlier Curly!

The discussion of charity patronages was interesting - I like the way that PH and the Cambridges have thrown themselves in to their charities and seem to be very involved - the Heads Together campaign was great. Similarly Meghan with the Grenfell ladies and doing something practical. I think they seem to have a more modern approach to their charities. From experience, I know that the more old fashioned name on a letterhead approach to patronage doesn't always make that much of an impact to a charity's work, but can create a lot of work for them to try and keep the patrons happy!

Spudlet I love the sound of your skirt! Sophie has grown in confidence, and it shows. She came into the RF at a tricky time. Early on in the relationship, Diana told her that it would never work out with her and Edward! I'm glad that she seems happy and looks great.

clionba. Jewels! I saw my jeweller patient yesterday and he told me that the Royals have the best pearls he's ever seen, including very rare pearls with a slightly gold sheen that appear to glow. Sigh.

I wonder if the Royals ever clutch those pearls? 😁😄😁😆😁

I found this link about how to dress like the Duchessof Cambridge - some capsule wardrobe suggestions. Unfortunately it was on a website for “40 plus style”. So as many people have said, she does dress a bit old for her age. ( As iam pushing 50; I don’t see it so much and just think how well turned out she is).

So for this week’s little game, we will play “Style a duchess”.
We can kick off with Kate, but you can also do Meghan.
You need to post a pic or a link of a day engagement outfit and an evening one. Also can add casual outfits, hair style suggestions.lets see whether we see any of our suggestions appearing on the Duchesses!