Royal style & gossip: What a smashing, positively dashing spectacle - the Ascot opening day

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Obviously today's the second day of Ascot but given Kate's outfit yesterday, I felt a My Fair lady tribute was fitting!

Link to previous thread

Link to ALL other RS&G threads for anyone who wants a big catch up.

They are definitely supposed to go weddingring first they shall eternity but engagement can swap I it fits better.technically it goes on last.
This is because to are never ever supposed to remove your wedding ring so there should be nothing in the way

Thanks all. This makes sense to me - as well as how it looks best.

I take the De Beers point too - especially since they were also the ones who coined the idea of spending three months salary on an engagement ring, I think? Some very lucrative ad lines in diamonds, obvs.

I'm thinking of an eternity ring to go with my fairly unusual wedding band and engagement ring (all bought years out of order and to my specifics).

Eternity ring, if I do it, will be for a milestone birthday. And also to a design chosen by me.

I think we must all be middle class (or worse!) in Oz too @SenecaFalls 🤔😁

Thedarklady I really appreciate balance but now you’re coming across as badly as anyone there - some of us don’t like any of the royals . We were just mentioning how Kate spent loads at Anmer Hall... Personally I think the PR works all ways. Popularity of the royals abroad is waning - family and friends in the commonwealth didn’t want any royal as head of the CW this time around, and don’t want any more royal visits - it is very empire-y and H&M don’t change that. Personally think we’ll see the whole thing wound up in a generation as they’re all as bad as each other

De Beers were also responsible for setting the amount a man was expected to spend on an engagement ring. It started with one month's salary but they put that up to two as it clearly wasn't enough once they also set the price of the diamonds!

I'm not against M&H as people, Queen, just as royals. Its wonderful to see Harry so happy, long may it last. I also thought that Meghan's bi-racial background made her a welcome addition to the RF. but of course she's more than her race, and as a personality I think she's a bad fit. That's based of course on my personal impression and not on personal knowledge, before people start frothing.

There are others within the RF who respect the traditions and are capable of carrying them forward in a modern way, Zara, Eug and Bea all spring to mind. H&M aren't modernisers, they are rebellious children. It's too much of a distraction.

What do they spend all this cash on?! What does a few mil do? Gosh I can’t imagine

Refurbishments cost more than new builds from scratch.
They’ve had extra buildings, security, etc

All the buildings will be listed so they will need specialist heritage companies to complete the renovation work who all charge 1019282% more than normal tradesmen. Speaking as one who knows

I’m intrigued by them being modernisers... I’m a big old leftie and thought they’d be a bit more... modern? There’s too much I can’t reconcile, like taking titles and spending so much, I’d like them to be really explicit about their ideas for modernising their role. It’s confusing to say you’re modernising but don’t really spell out how They have loads of time to do that, but needed to make a good first year’s impression I guess

(I meant W&K on Anmer re expenses!)

I’m blaming late night reading of this thread for the dream I had last night where I went for a meal with Harry and William and William told me I was ‘indulged’ and I ended up snogging Harry passionately outside a lift as I was storming out 😂

De Beers are also responsible for controlling the price and supply of diamonds. There are a million squillion diamonds in the world- they are maintained as rare and expensive artificially.

Edit - Have them not haven't them

On the eternity ring thing - the concept might be newish and invented by De Beers but the rings themselves are definitely not. My paternal grandmother had a stonker of what would be called an eternity ring - a diamondset band, all the way round which she referred to as a keeper ring and wore daily with her other rings. It wasn’t a five stone ring or a regard ring and is almost certainly Victorian. It is huge and beautiful and I want it! Her family were aristocrats a decent way up the totem pole of poshness (she was Lady Firstname her whole life, before and after her marriage). De Beers just pounced on a marketing idea for a design of ring that had been around for a long time and made them naff to some but that would be quite similar to saying all diamond engagement rings are naff even though people were giving diamond rings as betrothal rings in the 18th century (though more gave coloured stone rings as regency diamond rings obviously didn't have the advantages of cutting tools that we have later on). There are also coloured stone keeper rings; gemset bands with the stones going all the way round. It is the terminology that is unsmart and modern not the wearing or the design.

(I’ll go back to lurking now and hoping the DoS ring is just a fake one til her fingers get normal again)

The amount spent by taxpayers wasn't the entire cost of renovating Frogmore Cottage. It's an obscene amount of money to spend for someone so far down the line of succession and for a family that has so many other accommodation options.

Frogmore is also totally unsuitable long term IMO - I give it 10 years max before they "have to move" for privacy or security issues.

I thought the ring alteration was a bit crass, now I’ve seen how similar it is to her old ring. Wow 😮 that’s a bit weird isn’t it. If I’d had a previous engagement ring/wedding ring I think I’d want something totally different.

Who in their right mind buys a separate ring that is quite like but not exactly like their real engagement ring which has been talked about publicly, as a stand in whilst they lose weight? Good God.

Maxima. Fabulous.

For all we know the extra diamonds on the ring band may be from Diana's collection and since Archie was born Harry & Meghan maybe wanted to add the these extra diamonds in memory of his Mum.

Who knows, as long as they're happy.

Who in their right mind buys a separate ring that is quite like but not exactly like their real engagement ring which has been talked about publicly, as a stand in whilst they lose weight? Good God.

^
This.

You just, er, take ring off and leave it at home till your fingers go back to normal size.

“You just, er, take ring off and leave it at home till your fingers go back to normal size“
Can you imagine what the Press- and Mumsnet- would have made of her going out without her engagement ring?
A keeper ring, incidentally, isn’t the same as an eternity ring. It’s a ring designed to stop other rings sliding off if your fingers got thinner or old rings couldn’t be resized.

That's a great photo of Max Curly.
It makes me think of the James Bond/Queen sketch at the 2012 Olympics. Though if Max was our HM I could actually imagine her doing the parachute jump for real.

It's definitely definitely definitely not a stand in. Shes a small woman who is still a small woman.

This is her permanent engagement ring now.

For better or worse, lol!

Devil's advocate here - but maybe she didn't like the old ring band?

Plenty of women don't actually like the band/ring chosen for them by their partner and are then left in the awkward position of sounding terribly crass in wanting it changed rather than the 'oh you love me and this is the ring you chose for me'.

I, for one, dropped plenty of hints and even pointed the damn thing out for him.
There was no way DH was going to be trusted in choosing my ring!

Friend was left in awkward situation that She didn't like the ring. At. All. And he was all confused at her upset as as far as he was concerned she was was marrying him and it shouldn't have been about a piece of metal/pretend diamond that the cheapskate had bought and she found out about.
Then she felt awful for seeming ungrateful but end of the day she's have to wear the ring all the time!

The Japanese imperial family have attended an awards ceremony. The women seem to wear a variation of the same thing each time, and I'm not sure that style of hat does anything for Masako. Their western outfits are so conservative they make Kate's pastel coatdresses look racy in comparison!