Royal style: the Sussexes in Africa - it's gonna take a lot to drag us away from them...

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Previous thread

Tour itinerary

As always, let's critique the clothes and not the wearers.

I'm from Belfast!!

I’ve followed Ireland’s rugby team for years

Don't blame you, but you know, eventually, they'll cotton on to you following them round all the time if you aren't careful...

@Inniu That’s great about Seneca Falls. It’s a beautiful area.

@Boscoismyspiritanimal Yes, I have to say that I’m glad that I had the opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone when I was 20 because there is no way that I could manage that now.

I'm another one who looks forward to checking out this thread every day. I actually joined MN for the feminism discussions but now this is about the only thread I'm on. It's a pleasant break from weightier matters, of which there seem to be more and more piling up, in life and in society at large.

Plus it's made me a bit more adventurous with my style choices. I've been shopping for dresses for a family wedding; both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding will be formal. Does anyone else try on something and look in the mirror and say to herself, "Well, what would @QueenOfTheAndals and gang think of this?"

Hah @SenecaFalls, glad we are your style go-tos!

Speaking of style, I have a wedding to go to next month and the month after and I have no idea what to wear! I have plenty I could wear if it was summer but I can't do sandals in the winter. I'm not really a Coast or Monsoon type of person. Any ideas??

Felicity

Queen the (other) ladies on the parisienne thread are great at wedding style advice!

I’ve really enjoyed all the lurkers coming out to wave at us and have lost count of the Irish contingent altogether. 🙌🏻 🇮🇪 So many!

Princess Madeleine has been to the Swedish book and library fair (insider Swedish joke: “the mess with the books” - if you get it you get it) to promote her new children’s book “Stella and the secret”, about child sexual abuse. Co-written of course. She wore clothes, am adding a photo.

Not sure I'd be welcome among the Parisiennes @banivani when the OP said our threads creeped her out!

I'm an occasional poster with absolutely no Irish heritage sadly. This is my favourite MN thread - I enjoy the pictures, the comments, the gentle gossip and the bits of history.

Another lurker fessing up and yep, you guessed it, I'm 100% Irish 🇮🇪 . So funny that so many of us are interested. Maybe it's because the UK is so familiar to us, but we don't have the burden of putting our taxes towards them .

I think I've posted once under another name, but I love lurking and like a PP said, once I see/find out anything it's already been covered here. I love the style, engagement rings, events, weddings, jewels, all of it. And I absolutely love this thread - thank you all the regular contributors you're fab .

I've said it before and I'll say it again, that the reason I think these threads are so successful is because we are pretty good at expressing our opinions and respecting those whose opinions are different, we challenge each other and hold each other to account when there are 'differences' and while I'd never be anyone's idea of stylish or beautiful, I like to think I've inspired one or more to think of their airing cupboards for storing things other than linens! if I really did have Hottie Hakkon in mine I would be far too busy with other 'things' to comment on here, oh how I wish

they don't have Diana's star power and just never will. She was so charismatic that, although she wasn't a classic beauty, you couldn't take your eyes off her.

I think Diana was so different to the rest of the RF in that she let people in. She seemed warm. Also it was before the internet so we didn’t really have access to as much information about the royals. Everything was filtered. I think Meghan seems quite warm too but we are used to her. We can type her name and get thousands of hits and find out so much info about anyone she has ever stood beside. With Diana it was what was printed only. And we didn’t hear about her tantrums or her courtship of the press until years and years later. What I’m saying (very poorly) is the less we have, the more we treasure it and the internet is the reason nobody has lived up to her since.

Waving to my fellow Irish women and honorary Irish/kissers of the Blarney Stone..

(Though I discovered via 23andMe that I have hitherto unsuspected and completely unknown French/German and Spanish/Portuguese ancestors).

I walked past a Penelope Chilvers shop the other night - I probably wouldn't have thought about it if we hadn't been talking about Kate's boots on here. The boots in the window were gorgeous. I've never bought anything the royals wear but I'm tempted by the knee length boots (if my calves are slim enough!).

@QueenOfTheAndals ah no that was only regarding the Max love and the word creepy was retracted. I feel the same about the PCP love tbh.

What sort of wedding is it and how do you want to be different?

@SenecaFalls. Haha me too!

Meghan has been paying her respects to murdered CapeTown student and she visited her mother.

I think on this trip, Meghan has felt confident to dress in her own style, which is casual but works well for her, so she has looked really good.
I think on the last trip, she was trying to dress as she / Jessica Mulroney thought a duchess “should”. There were also more formal occasions and she had her newly pregnant; changing body shape to

I think the wardrobe on this trip has been much more her own work. In theory for overseas trips she has a budget from the FCO, but she appears to have spent very little.
She listened to feedback, has dialled down the designer gear and is hitting her stride as an “ informal” duchess.

Agreed, Curly. She seems much more happy and comfortable on this trip. Hopefully this will carry on when her at leave finishes and she gets back into things in the UK.

Yes, @Curly, with you on these thoughts, on the whole, she's looked, been fab this trip.

Every pc better than the last.

I'm starting to wonder if she's not going to re-invent this whole duchess thing, at least according to what we thought we knew.

(Still think she might take some months/a year or so out to have baby no2 though.)

Mostly a lurker, occasional poster, not particularly stylish but love these threads.

And I had an Irish granny though sadly I never met her.

I’m mostly a lurker too, though post very occasionally. I’m also usually behind the curve when it comes to the goss!

Love these threads though, thank you to all of you who keep them going, post gossip and news and keep them light and frivolous.

They’re a lovely glossy, bejewelled break from the grinding awfulness of politics and the world at large!

Am watching Suits on netflix series 7. Seems surreal to see MM acting when she is a Duchess now. Her clothes are lovely on suits, you can see what suits her compared to what she is wearing now.

Within a few years, Kate is going to be PoW.
Meghan and Sophie ( Duchess of Edinburgh) are going to be the 2 duchesses in the RF, both are more casual in their own way.

I read it earlier today that Kate’s loyalties are Queen, Country, Family.
There is also going to be a big pullout on Kate in the You magazine tomorrow. Apparently they’ve noted her “ style evolution “ in the last few months. ( I’m going to ask my mum to save the magazine for me. DM reader. Lost cause!)

Other news Eugenie in NY at the UN.
She is continuing with her anti slavery work.

I read it earlier today that Kate’s loyalties are Queen, Country, Family

I like Kate and think she is very good at her job but she must be bring af to sit next to at a dinner party. Also, if that’s supposed to be the order her loyalties lie then I don’t believe her. Like she would put ‘the country’ over her kids.

It was in the DM, so it must be true.
Kate's loyalties are to her family first and so they should be.

Her children are in the broader sense the Queen/Crown so the top of that list.