Royal style & gossip: a visit from He Who Must Not Be Named

[QueenOfTheAndals]

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Looking forward to our RF dressed as a Morris side.....

I guess we don't have an English dress because we didn't emerge as a nation/get merged into a nation in recent history. Most of the European countries with strong national dress seem to have either had a period where they were emerging from a large 'empire' or bring together small principalities/duchies to make a state. In the later case you get the strong regional dress within the country where that area used to be more independent (thinking of French regions).

So we get Welsh and Scottish national dress because they are the formerly independent regions that needed to make a statement of their identity in the face of English attempts to suppress that identity/language/culture, but the English never had that crisis of national identity so never developed a strong sense of national dress. It's actually quite interesting when you start thinking about it

I agree that Meghan's style is a bit edgier, and suits her personality. I think that getting pregnant so soon (which I still believe was one of those hilarious "your fertility fell off a cliff 2 years ago when you turned 35 so get busy the night of the wedding" pregnancies where the poor woman is gobsmacked to discover it's totally possible as a 37 year old to get pregnant in less than three months), completely threw her. She strikes me as extremely organised naturally so I would not be surprised if she had been at least thinking about potential outfits at leat until the end of 2018, most of which then had to be thrown out because of the baby.

When she is dressing for her natural style and shape, she always looks amazing - that armani suit before they got married, the green leather skirt combo etc.

And where the "untidy" idea comes from is completely beyond me. She might wear her hair in looser arrangements than Kate, but she's the complete opposite of untidy. Her outfits tend to be crisp, her make up and hair sleek and her nails glamourous.

so only the poor women are forced to wear it, the little decorative creatures. The men are in suits, even though there is a men's version too.

Was thinking exactly the same

Whenever I see the Swedish National dress it reminds me I could do with a trip to IKEA.

Hey everyone! Had to pop back onto the thread to say well done to Kate for listening to our sartorial wisdom and adding a brooch to that lovely outfit! I liked the coat dress very much, actually, and I thought her was beautifully done.

Next, you could try swapping out the shoes for a navy, berry, olive suede pair, or maybe a cognac leather!

Sigh, I thought her hair was beautifully done.

I’d love to know what Meghan thinks about Kate’s clothes. I’m a middle aged middle class fat woman who lives in jeans or jodhpurs and thinks a nice dress from Seasalt is lovely for a party and I think they are dreadfully dull and ageing and do her no favours so what Meghan must think.....

Meghan has presented the Royal dress protocol with a couple of problems and it's timely to rethink them.

Nude tights and Ballet Slippers nail varnish are not appropriate for a darker skin. They don't look 'nude' as they are supposed to. Taupe or darker would work so much better on her.

Also, hair. I am naturally curly, my hair just isn't tidy no matter what I do. I can straighten it, but regrowth is always going to be wayward! Surely at some point she is going to need to let her natural curls have their way. Long term straightening of her hair (if it is her hair, I'm not very clued up on extensions etc) must be detrimental to its condition.

formerly independent regions Countries

derxa well yes. But at the time I was mentally thinking about medieval France where there were lots of now French regions which then had dukes which were fairly independent but also tended to owe loyalty to another King. And it is slightly different from the concept of nation state and country as it emerged a few centuries later. So I ended up writing regions as a result...

Absolutely, because you equate the Flat Cap with Yorkshire which is a region.

BeetrandRussel I always imagined you as living on a houseboat in Campden, not a horsey mum in the Home Counties.

@Myimaginarycathasfleas I've given up trying to straighten my hair and now embrace the curls. A decent cut and a modified Curly Girl method has made all the difference! I think we need to move away from the idea that straight hair = neat and tidy, as think of the damage this has done to many a barnet! Even Nicole Kidman has said that years of straightening irons has wrecked her hair so imagine how much worse it must be for women who use chemical straightening agents?

Re Kate "dressing for posterity" by copying HM's colour-blocked suits, this is how HM dresses now, as a woman in her 90s! As a young woman she wore a wide variety of fashions and was rather glam.

I suppose it’s just how Kate feels most comfortable. I certainly don’t think she owes it to anyone to be some kind of fashionista, and if she did try to be very adventurous she probably wouldn’t feel herself at all. Maybe she just doesn’t feel confident in the way that one needs to be to be able to carry off more interesting clothes choices. She obviously likes dressing that way for formal occasions and I think that’s okay. Meghan can be the more sharply dressed one, that’s fine by me! There’s room for both.

Yes to the curly hair looking untidy. My younger dd has such a curly ‘mop’ her word! Typical Mediterranean curly hair. Older dd has dead straight. They both want each other’s hair.

I continue to disagree that curly hair looks untidy. As Queen says, good quality cut and careful management and it looks different to straight hair, but still good. It is only socialisation that makes us think its untidy.

Plus, Meghan NEVER wears her hair curly so again, even if we bought into that, why do we think she's untidy? Her hair is usually amazingly smooth and put together.

Bert I'm similar to you (minus the jodhpurs) but even if I had to do Kate's role I would wear most of her outfits, their too classic for me. I prefer Meghan's style which has a more relaxed vibe to it even when she's suited and booted. I particularly liked her inky blue asymmetric dress.....

Typo!!! I wouldn't wear Kate's clothes!!

And they're, not their......I can spell, honest

Apropos neat and tidy - did people bitch about Fergie's hair too in this regard?

Just seen this on Facebook not sure how accurate it is obvs

Well there was no Twitter or social media, or photographing everything on your phone in Fergie’s day. So she didn’t have the intense detailed scrutiny that the RF get now.
Weeks or months could go by without any RF news coverage at all.

• So she didn’t have the intense detailed scrutiny that the RF get now. Weeks or months could go by without any RF news coverage at all.*

I think you & I remember the 80s & 90s very differently.
Diana was on the front page of a newspaper practically every day.
Fergie was absolutely pilloried. Mainly for her dress sense and also her weight; and this was before her toe sucking scandal etc.

I actually the press is less venomous than it was during the years of the “Merry Wives of Windsor”

Not terribly accurate iknowimcoming because the Queen was wearing the Vladimir tiara and not the Devonshire tiara which belongs to the Duchess of Devonshire. It's a beauty though!