Royal style & gossip: make every day Tiara Tuesday!

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Previous thread

And I shouldn't have to say this anymore but will do so for any newbies - let's keep our critiquing to the clothes and not the women wearing them.

She was a celebrity, her friends are celebrities, she's not much of a traditional woman by the looks of things, and (I believe) Americans on this thread have said that it's not necessarily traditional to have your mum in attendance.

it's not necessarily traditional

She can party with who she likes, I don’t care. It seemed like a glam event, no more, and I doubt anything was paid for by the British taxpayer. The brands involved would be positively salivating for this sort of exposure, so I highly doubt any money changed hands.

That said, I’ve been to enough baby showers, including my own (kind of boring, but nice thing to do for your friend/family member) to know what is the done thing.

Looking at the photos of MM in NY, she looks fab in her glam casual clothes. That's the look I wear most of the time. I think daytime dressy formal is a very hard look to get right and that is what she is required to wear so much of the time.

The latest gary janetti on insta is very funny.

Going back to Prince Daniel in his polo neck suit combo, I think he's actually going to be the new Milk Tray advert man 🤣
One of my old bosses used to dress like this & we all called him Milk Tray Man.

Royal children being children.

Doria couldn’t go to the baby shower as she had a yoga session with Chris Hemsworth which couldn’t be rescheduled.

Savannah seems like a right little tyke, eh? It's nice to see the kids being kids. Prince William & Harry were pretty close to the York sisters weren't they as children? Nice to see the same pattern.

Omg! mrscampbell i love Gary janneti insta! “Et tu, Beyoncé”

Meghan certainly seems to have blurrred the line from royalty to celebrity and I can see why it doesn't play well in UK eyes.

Back to fashion- I am not a fan of fur but Queen Margrethe wears it well.

Now that fur coat Looks more like an old fashion velour electric blanket.

I love this!! Does anyone remember The Clothes Show? And each year they'd do a wedding? Many years ago mum and I were sat watching the Clothes Show wedding and one of my brothers walked in and said to me "take a good look, it's the closest you'll get to a wedding"

Oh, and thank you for the good wishes, it was a minor procedure but I'm milking it while DH is on hand and I'm feeling much better for it.

I’m afraid I think Meghan loves to be in the limelight and courts attention. I agree the shower could have taken place completely in private and been downplayed.
I think whatever advice she is getting is just being ignored.
She doesn’t seem to be listening to public opinion either.
However the vicious hounding in the Press is just sickening.

She is a celebrity and also an American, so I don't understand what the fuss is all about when her celebrity friends put on a traditional American party for her with certain celebrity trappings. It doesn't play well in the UK because the UK public has bought into the idea that having the riches of Croesus is fine as long as nobody is ever reminded of that.

Which is worse - reminding people that you have pots of money at your disposal as do all of your friends, or keeping your profile low key while at the same time being the world's richest woman? The poor and disadvantaged are not seeing any benefit from either case.

The whole RF enterprise is based on very delicate management of a huge hoax, namely that it is a good thing to have a figurehead who is emblematic of the country who must be maintained at considerable public expense, that their charity work is somehow important and necessary, while in the background the rich squirrel their money away untaxed and tax rates squeeze the poor and the middle class. If taxes were sufficient to fund public services there would be no need for charities to go cap in hand to anyone.

None of that puts me off commenting on their sartorial choices of course, but it's an illusion that anything other than massive amounts of money separates us from the RF, and I for one am grateful to MM for illustrating that.

Don’t misunderstand me. I just think it was odd her mum didn’t attend. I do think it was more of an event with her celeb friends and less a traditional American baby shower.

No, your mother does not necessarily attend a traditional baby shower.

There might actually be several showers in a traditional setup with different groups in the mother's life represented in each. You might have one hosted by a friend of your mother's, with older generations invited, and one hosted by a friend with your own friends invited and not your mum. You might have one hosted by your colleagues and obv that would also involve only a certain set of people.

I can see how MM would not be able to fly all over the US to attend a shower put on by a friend of her mother's in CA and also to one in NY put on by her celebrity friends, and that it would not really be done to have her mother at the NY event even without some alleged pressing appointment that couldn't be canceled. Since showers are not done in the UK I can see how there wouldn't be one there that her mother or friends would attend or host.

In a traditional wedding shower there might be different groups hosting different showers and also different categories of gifts given at each shower.

Need to add, I love the style of Abigail Spencer. The red kaftan was to die for imo.

Excellent post mathsanxiety I want Meghan to carry on exactly as she is, all she is doing is showing publicly what the rest of them are doing behind closed doors (and are probably far more extravagant than Meghan), the Royal Family is a huge massive con they the more it’s highlighted the better in my opinion.

YY to mathanxiety’s post. K&W took their 3 (including the baby) children on a “secret” skiing holiday this half term. I’m sure they didn’t fly easyjet, I’m sure they took at least their nanny with them (will have been more than just her), I’m sure they stayed in a chalet owned by a rich friend (Charles conducted his affair with Camilla in other rich people’s houses! Andrew has flown and lived at other rich people’s expense all his life! The entire RF is at other people’s expense), and I’m sure the police protection officers who skied right next to them didn’t pay their own way.

🤷‍♀️

Pineapple Power just to clarify, I live on the West Coast myself and fly to Europe and to the East Coast regularly. Clearly money is no object for Meg but time is. She only had 5 days and then she has to be on top form for a visit to Morroco. She is heavily pregnant and crossing about 5 time zones from the East to the West Coast would leave her with some pretty serious jet lag and the combo of pregnancy/jet-lag/partying is not appealing to many, especially if she wasn’t going to get much recovery time on her return. The USA is vast and I just find the idea that you can pop from coast to coast like catching a bus with no ill effects amusing.

However, if anyone could pull it off and look rested, gorgeous and dressed for the occasion it would be the Duchess so more power to her.

BettyBooJustDoinTheDoo

Indeed, and actually she is doing it all in an American way - unapologetically living a life that costs quite a bit of money while participating in charitable work. There is no questioning (or very little) in America of the fact that some people have heaps of money and will use it to buy the huge house, the cars, the pool, the island somewhere, the vacation home/s, and all the designer clothes they could hope or wish for. Maybe that's not a great thing... (I tend to be a Bernie supporter).

However, many of the very rich support civic institutions and charities by means of balls and other swanky social events, and also by simply writing cheques. The US tax code makes it possible to deduct amounts donated to charity. The city where I live is immeasurably more livable thanks to many fantastic institutions that are financially supported by the very well off.

I think there's a good deal of humbug about money in the UK.

I seriously doubt that much money was spent by MM, save for the cost of her UK protection team etc. I think HB would have bankrolled most of it, including the jet.

The USA is vast and I just find the idea that you can pop from coast to coast like catching a bus with no ill effects amusing

I am aware obvs but I wasn’t talking about Meghan flying to Cali. I was just surprised she didn’t fly her mum in; many of her other guests flew in to attend. Doria has attended her daughter’s events before, and this one would have been more personal.

Anyway, from all the media coverage it felt more like a glam event. Maybe I just run with a poorer crowd, no one had more than one shower except maybe a mini shower with work colleagues, which wouldn’t really be the same.

Read somewhere they will do a baby shower in London for family and friends, so maybe that will be the real thing.

Maybe Doria didn’t want to go????

Doria doesn’t need to be there for everything, you know?

Maybe Doria reads this thread and didn’t want her attire ripped to shreds by people who don’t know her?

Maybe she has a cold and didn’t want to infect Meghan and the baby?

I agree with that Paradyning.

I suspect there is something about American baby showers that inspires the wild fancies of grabbiness and flaunting of wealth that have been trotted out by certain sections of the UK public and certainly its press. I have seen some sniffing at the concept here too, and especially at the detail of a list of desired items that guests can consult.

American people have money and they spend it in an American way and this has enraged a vocal section of opinion. I suspect the elephant in the room when it comes to the DM is the fact that it is African American women who seem to be spending lots of their own money too...

@mathananxiety
You are right in what you say. However, if you are as rich as Croesus for doing virtually nothing apart from turning up for half an hour in ludicrously overpriced clothes to ‘patronise’ a charity (and that really is the right term), it’s tastless to flaunt your privilege and wealth in my view. She isn’t a celebrity, she’s a minor ex actress who no one had heard of here before she met Harry. She needs to be seen to be ‘working’ by the British public, not just having a lovely time at the tax payers expense.
In th US it is normal to flaunt wealth and it’s a badge of ‘success’, but it doesn’t play well in the UK, especially for new and junior members of the RF.
She is turning up at lots of events, that’s true, but somehow it feels like someone who thinks she’s a celebrity going through the motions.
The rest of the RF do spend obscene amounts and live a very spoiled life, but they hide it better so as not to rile their boss, the tax payer. None of it is right or fair. I think there should be a referendum on the RF next. I suspect if there were, it might just swing against them.
It’s lovely to marvel at the tiaras and frocks, but WE are all paying for it.