Royal style & gossip: who's got the best gownage and crownage?

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Here we go again, and as always say what you like about the clothes but keep it civil re the wearers of said clothes!

previous thread

@creakyblinder.
Genuine question.
What do you think of Prince Charles wearing a kilt all the time he is in Scotland? Respectful or taking the piss?

Sorry over enthusiastic posting!

She's used sari fabric, but she's not wearing a sari, I guess.

PC is a mad old twat and a lost cause as far as I'm concerned, tbh. I think the younger generation could be doing a lot better. I mean, Kate lived here for years, she knows that tartan isn't daily wear for anyone. It's patronising.

Harper’s Bazaar have done a very comprehensive Kate retrospective

I think her work wardrobe silhouette is very recognisable.
She may not be high fashion, but she (generally) knows what suits her and is always appropriate.

He doesn't though, does he? He wears one at Balmoral and if he's attending the Highland Games or something like that but he wouldn't wear a kilt to visit a museum in Glasgow or a whisky shop in Edinburgh.

That's re Charles and his kilt.

PC is a mad old twat and a lost cause as far as I'm concerned
oh dear!

He loves Scotland and his Rothesay tartan (I’m assuming)
He’s been up in Dumfries house since December. Only just come back down South.

I think he probably doesn't spend the entire time in a kilt anyway, more likely when he's at an event where there's photographers. Or when he's away chasing the haggis or whatever

Looks like she's recently taken out some (or all) of her hair extensions - looks so much better for it.

"He loves Scotland and his Rothesay tartan"

I would also love Scotland if I was given big chunks of it on no merit whatsoever.

My Republican is showing!

Charles kilt wearing does occur on royal visits I'm not sure of the frequency though.

charles

Oops meant to post this for those who don't want to click links

They do look very silly. They're dressed like it's the 1940s or something.

I did see that photo, but it was a pub in Fife near the Braemar Games. Maybe that’s why.?

To be fair, most people in that link were wearing tartan. Even the wallpaper in the pub was tartan!

I agree Katie's hair looks a lot more natural and stylish. Torn on her outfit though, I mean if it was worn anywhere except where she is then I think objectively she looks great as tartan is very winter appropriate. It fits her well and she looks confident and attractive. However I'm not Scottish so I'm now seeing another side based on pp comments. What would be the equivalent if one of the Euro royals came to England? Pearl King and Queen outfits

@CreakyBlinder re: "As if they could have the first clue about how it feels to be made redundant with no other manufacturing jobs available in the region"

Surely the point is to raise more awareness, show interest in what is a terrible level of job losses, and encourage responses? Just as with Charles' work, the core purpose now for the RF surely is to bring people together like this?

@TipseyTorvey Maxima would ROCK a Pearly Queen outfit!

Raising awareness of a factory closing isn't going to make any difference. It's a done deal.

It may well have been part of a wider event in fairness it was billed as a pub reopening but they may have been somewhere before or after.

I don't think it's wearing tartan/kilts in general that's the issue. It's just that it feels a bit lazy/lacking thought. Kate likes to dress with meaning and that's great but personally I think finding an up and coming Scottish designer or something with links to the area might be a better way to do it than the more literal tartan/kilt look.

Agree with that @itswinetime there are plenty of local designers who could have been approached. I would have thought that would be a lot of the focus of whoever dresses Kate. Alexander McQueen hardly needs advertising, but tons of local designers do - and there's an art college filled with fashion design students along the road.

The Royals Giving Hugs.

She looks nice but that's a really boring outfit. I wish she'd occasionally wear something edgier - interesting trousers/cashmere/jacket. Anything but the coats and dresses.

I like the tartan outfit, but do also think it's too much of a cliche. Maybe if they were in Scotland 2 or 3 days and she wore tartan on the 2nd day or something. Like previous people have said, she lived 20 miles away from Dundee for 4 years!

Was chatting to my colleague this morning about the appropriateness of them visiting the Michelin factory and we concluded they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they didn't visit they would be criticised for swanning in, visiting a swanky museum and ignoring the huge blow manufacturing has had in Dundee. But by going it seems a bit weird, turning up in £££ dresses and fancy cars when the ones being made redundant don't know how they are going to pay the rent & bills soon.

Back to fashion - at least William didn't wear a tartan tie to match, that really would have been too much!

Black Watch is not a typical Scottish tartan - ie a cloth associated with a particular clan etc. (Though in fact clan tartans as many people think of them today were only invented in the 19th century. Before that, there were regional tartans - the special designs of local weavers - and 'uniform' tartans, given by rich landowners to poor workers/retainers.) The Black Watch tartan is a special type of uniform tartan. It is camouflage, issued to Scottish soldiers/scouts with knowledge of wild and harsh local moor and mountain conditions who joined local 'watches' (companies) of troops loyal to the Hanoverian government after the failed Jacobite rising of 1715. They had a special responsibility for putting down Jacobite rebels. They may have been wild Highlanders but they did not support the Stuarts (Bonnie Prince Charlie etc). Later, these watch companies were amalgamated with regiments in the British army, and then reorganised again in the 1880s.

So the Black Watch tartan is a government tartan. It is associated with Prince William's Hanoverian ancestors BUT ALSO as Minder very importantly says, with the area close to Dundee. Scottish soldiers belonging to the reformed Black Watch, recruited from the lands around Dundee - literally the 'poor bloody infantry' - fought with enormous bravery during World War I and suffered horrendous losses at Loos, the Somme and elsewhere. Their bravery and fierceness - and their kilts - led the Germans to nickname them 'the ladies from hell'.

I don't know whether all this is why Catherine is wearing Black Watch tartan, but many older people (and maybe some younger, too) from Dundee will recognise its sad history.

Wikipedia is quite detailed and well-referenced: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Watch