Royal style: we want more salwars and we're not sari about it!

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Previous thread

pallisers

I think if I were a pakastani woman interested in style, I'd be very disappointed to see the DOC wear the same clothes women wear in my own country

Pakistani woman interested in style here! 🙋🏽‍♀️ I think it's great that she's chosen to wear Pakistani clothes and she looks (mostly) fab. Also, those who are grumbling about her "having" to wear these clothes should remember, as a previous poster mentioned, that nobody is holding a metaphorical gun to Kate's head to do so.

The wearing of Western clothes in Pakistan is both normal and common place, so nobody would have batted an eyelid had she conducted the entire tour in her usual LK Bennett frocks!

Have loved Kate's clothes during this trip. Just hope they get home safely as that flight sounded scary!

Love the young princesses outfits, especially the white with the cardigan over the top!

The keep quiet and carry on thing must feel very unfair to them but it doesn’t feed the trolls. There will be a lot of people in this country who think the Duchess of Sussex has probably quite a nice life in comparison to them. There are different kinds of problems and she has some real ones of course and the press have been vile - but for those with maybe more pressing issues such as children with terminal illnesses, inability to pay for both food AND heating, pick one or the other, long term unemployment, impending homelessness, blah blah - you get my drift - it will annoy more people than it will endear to them. Camilla, Fergie and Sophie - And even Diana at one stage, have all been blasted hard, day in day out. The Fergie negative coverage was really hardcore as well. It’s crappy that it’s their turn now. But life could be worse for them.

Thanks for the new thread Queen, great title. I liked your sari too.

Kate: you can take the girl out of the coat dress but you can't take the coat dress out of the girl

I have been reading these threads silently for a while now and as someone from a Pakistani background i justed wanted to say that there would have been no issue at all had Kate worn her usual style of clothes on this tour. The mosque tour would have been the only place where more “modest” dress may have been expected but its quite upsetting that people are seeing her wearing Pakistani style as something negative.

People in Pakistan wear many styles of clothing, including western and the big cities have many of our UK high street shops in the malls.

Coverage of the tour in Pakistani media shows how some of the Pakistani celebrities attending the evening reception were dressed in western attire.

Kate always seems to highlight local fashion and designers on tours and this has been greatly appreciated in this instance too. It will be talked about for months to come in Pakistan and i have heard her outfits are already being replicated

There are different kinds of problems and she has some real ones of course and the press have been vile - but for those with maybe more pressing issues such as children with terminal illnesses, inability to pay for both food AND heating, pick one or the other, long term unemployment, impending homelessness, blah blah - you get my drift - it will annoy more people than it will endear to them.

I have no way of knowing, of course, but I doubt it's those people behind the racists attacks on Meghan. But this notion of relatively privileged people of color just need to shut up about racism because other people have problems, too, has been with us well, since the first person of color acquired a bit of relative privilege.

I think it's very difficult to say what criticism is due to racism and which isn't. Without doubt some is racist, and some is from non-racist people who have been fed information from those with racist agendas. But it's definitely not all racist, as this is a well-worn trope towards female interlopers to the royal family.

Some of it is justified though and either way they have to do something to improve their image. What they're doing isn't working and in fact seems to be turning people off of them.

this is a well-worn trope towards female interlopers to the royal family.

I agree that it comes with a big heap of misogyny as well. Also, in Meghan's case, some xenophobia.

I agree with that @SenecaFalls

I think being an actress is seen as a bit 'low-class' as well. Plus I think people don't really want the royal family to enjoy it too much-they're privileged so they should have to suffer a bit to earn the finer things they enjoy. Someone who obviously enjoys the limelight, as an actress, challenges that. I think Letizia suffered a bit from that too.

Thank you Queen - another great title.
I prefer the Black and White to the orange

As Whiter & Seneca point out (sorry if I've forgotten any pps) it always seems to be the females who get it in the neck (though I know DoE was criticised non stop at times & Mark Phillips (Anne's first husband) was called a few names like Foggy, bright but dim etc.
Harry could have married Kylie Minogue, Michelle Obama, Crown Princess Victoria, Katie Piper even the blessed Mother Mary herself & they would have all been wrong e.g too Australian, too black, too old, too foreign, too related, too scarred & even too religious.
I think even HMQ & Diana wouldn't have been the right sort for a prince of the realm to marry for some media & people.
It's misogyny, stupid & wrong.

Sophie in Kosovo
She is the future Princess Anne of the RF.
Puts her head down and gets on with the job.

Meghan’s interview
It’s a very American approach to bare your soul / emotions.
It will win her plaudits and sympathy in the US, but she’s going to get a very divisive reaction in the UK.

I liked Kate's white and black outfits today, especially when wearing the black over jacket, and the flat shoes with the cross straps were spot on too.
Overall, I've been a bit disappointed with the clothes, I would have liked her to have worn more of a mix of western and ethnic styles, for instance when she was at the cricket academy she could have worn a western sporty style, or for the hospital visit a pretty day dress perhaps.

I think part of the problem for Meghan is that she rushed into the marriage without fully appreciating what the pressure and the huge change in her lifestyle was really going to be like.

I remember her talking about when Harry was asking her to marry him, and she said that she'd interrupted him saying "Oh! yes yes!". That headlong rush must have been typical of their early days, and you can imagine being swept away by the adrenalin of it all.

I felt TB was very much feeding the lines in order for Meghan to give the response she wanted to get across. It seems a calculated manipulative approach (on TB's part perhaps, rather than hers).

I agree I don't think it's going to help.

What will happen when William becomes king? Can he basically say Harry pipe down? I get H&M are tying to break the mould but they're making a right mess of it.

If Meghan had been my bff I would of advised her to hold off getting pregnant for at least a year to adjust to her new life. Also told her to rein in her expectations of her scope of influence.

Wow just seen the interview. She appears very genuine. I expect it is very hard to be her. It must be really hurtful to read horrendous things about yourself. However... their privilege is always going to make it not really ok to speak out about herself in the UK, there’s a cultural barrier to it. The ‘are your diamond shoes too tight’ factor isn’t going to go away.

H&M will only have influence for a maximum of a decade.
After that, they will be properly middle aged and have less appeal.
The Cambridge children will be teenagers, and because of their position as Prince & Princess of Wales, W&K will be much higher profile.
The Cambridges also play the media; but much better, and they are conscious of their long term role.

It’s a very American approach to bare your soul / emotions.

Also very much in spirit with the whole mental health awareness/good to talk/sharing your troubles type message they have been involved with in recent times.

Thanks for the new thread Queen and your sari was heavenly.

Kate can lead Meghan away from the belted dress look please!

I am a textbook Apple (as confirmed by the diagram on the last thread!) and tie waist belts are my style kryptonite.

I do feel sorry for them both for many reasons. I think they look alone? Don’t know if all the stories about a rift and cutting out old friends are true or not, but it must be lonely and tiring looking for support from celebs they hardly know.

Also a pattern I see with Harry , is trying to make damage control by explaining the reason behind it only to make it worse.

@SenecaFalls yes - you make a very fair point, that the people who are really truly up shit creek are probably not the ones with the problem. Other things on their mind! I think that she should take the same approach as the rest of the royals as the more they complain (Prince Charles’ interview horror did not help his image AT ALL), the worse it gets. It doesn’t help that she is a WOC, that is true. I think it is also the marry-inners. And the queen had three previously handsome sons. Their wives were up a creek pretty quickly and early on.

I’ve just watched the clip with her - I kind of think that Tom Bradby eked that response from her and i want to ask if they asked him to do that to get sympathy - BUT - she said winsomely “thank you for asking if I’m ok, nobody asks that” and I think if I were her - and I imagine they have lots of control over the content, I might have cringed and said “take that bit out!”. I think people --twat— have said “she’s American! She doesn’t know about the BRF!” But to a degree that’s true. She has Americanised her husband’s approach to PR - and we are not America. We are insular, possessive and stroppy as a nation, particularly of the Royals - the biggest criticism of the Sussexes that I can think of, is that they flew by private jet shortly after he gave an earnest speech at Google Camp about climate change. Prince William allegedly had an extra marital affair (and if he hadn’t he would have sued someone a LOT for saying so, they always do if they can prove a lie). That is a bigger deal morally (for me anyway- but others may be different) and because he said zip and Kate said zip, it’s all gone away.

I’m not saying it’s fair because everyone should be able to stand up for themselves but history shows that the reason the Royals just don’t bother saying anything is because the tabloids ramp it up so much if they complain. Sad but true.

Its unclear to me why they should just sit back and accept people telling outright lies about them. Being called names etc is horrible but par for the course but the invasion of privacy and lies are a whole different story.

As for them being blamed for supposedly releasing clips to overshadow the Pakistan tour?! What the actual f*. For a start, its itv. But really, its rubbish. And if Kate and Williams people are making these comments they should rein them in.

I love kate personally and feel shes more likely to be someone I would hang out with in real life. But if their people are doing this back door briefing and they are aware of it, I am disappointed.

I quite liked Kate's outfit today, especially the shoes, they looked great.
All in all, I've enjoyed seeing her clothes on this tour.

Queen, your sari looks amazing, love the colours.

@banivani just in case you seriously wanted the answer, and I can't see that anyone else answered on the previous thread, the Queen wears clothes in single bright colours to be seen. Maybe to do with being small too.