Royal style: forget all your stresses as we talk royal dresses

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Previous thread

Now. A request. Can we please keep this to critiquing the clothes rather than the wearer?

So if you want to talk about what Meghan's wearing then fine, go ahead. I'm not even saying you have to like everything she wears. This applies to all royal women - if you don't like an outfit then do feel free to say so.

But if you want to talk about "Megxit" then please go to one of the many many other MN threads about it and leave us to our clothes chatter!

Love the milk advert! Peter looks a bit like Andrew there and has the Queen and Charles' hands.

I think if Harry and Meghan's change in role was framed in a different way, or if it had been ironed out before they married, it would look a lot more like the set up Zara and Peter have and therefore more familiar. The timing and the press have made it seem more like Edward and Wallis. Anne was very smart and sensible when she chose for her children, am I right in thinking the Wessex's have gone the same way or have they kept the HRH for Louise and James?

I liked Kate and Sophie's dresses from last night but agree that Sophie's was either a bit small or needed much better underwear. But god, how awful must it be - you put something on and look great in the mirror then 2 hours later after hours of standing, some drinks and nibbles things are "hanging out " a bit more and pictures are plastered all over the world.

Sophie looked lovely but the dress was a fraction too tight around the top. The larger size tailored to fit would have been better. It's a psychological leap though, going up a size. Maybe she isn't quite ready for it!

The Sophie fail that sticks in my mind was a backless dress she wore where there were obvious tan lines visible. It was a long time ago. She just needs to get Edward to check out her back view.

Love that clip of the royals greeting each other.

Popped into to the RA & took a few photos of Bentley & Skinner’s window

Gorgeous photos of Norway's Ingrid-Alexandra to celebrate her 16th birthday. It's funny, in some photos she looks so much like Mette Marit and in others she resembles her aunt Marthe-Louise.

Beautiful girl, what lovely photos in traditional dress.

Going back to working hours, one assumes that the royals have to be briefed for each engagement. Am sure that must take some time.

Don’t normally post here, but lurk. What lovely photos of the Princess in her bunad. She looks lovely. I think she looks very much like her mum, but with her dad’s dark hair.

Going back to working hours, one assumes that the royals have to be briefed for each engagement. Am sure that must take some time.

From what I know which is only from the charities side. Prince William (his the patron of my friends charity likes a little cheat sheet on everyone attending the event that the charity prepares and sends to his Private Secretary.

At the event which is mainly made up of people who uses the charity IYSWIM, when he Circulates guests are put into pre arranged groups so that the Secretary can provide the information of who he is about to talk to before he reaches the group.

I have no idea if that is information he is already looked through or the Secretary sorts and deals with and that's literally the first William hears of it.

He will via his aides sometimes request extra information or extra time with a particular groups of guests who have had experience in something he is currently highlighting for example mental health and he seems to be prepared for those meetings without promoting.

Whatever his system my friend has always spoken very highly of him in the way he meets and greets people so whatever the system it seems to work.

That’s interesting Itswinetime

It's wine is correct - I work for a charity with a royal patron, and that's exactly what happens.

Except that I know that our patron does memorise the notes, so even if he has to be told which person in the group is which (we ask for photos but don't always get one!) he can then have a chat with them without having to be promoted.

In an evening event with maybe 100+ guests, that's quite a lot to memorise!

This is pretty much what I'd do for my clients in the context of PR. And if they didn't read the briefing notes, I'd consider them pretty slack. Inevitably, they can't remember everything and so I'd be hanging around offering guidance, but certainly, a "good" client (and it sounds like William would fall into this category) would ensure he/she is fully briefed, aware of issues/sensitivities, knows who they'll be talking to etc.

In fairness to William I don't know that he doesn't memorise as much as he can but this particular event has about 300 guests so I'm not sure any one could be expected to memorise that much information.

I wished I looked at good as MM walking the dogs..

I wear mismatched scarf, hat, gloves, head torch, thick ugly mens coat, khaki cargo pants, muddy wellies, hair scraped back, dog wrapped round my legs.
Let along carrying a baby too.

Gorgeous tiara pics @BigGreenOlives
Thanks!

When I worked for a charity with a Royal patron that was the drill. We’d nominate guests at whatever the event was to meet HRH then notes would be provided to the private office.

HRH would also sometimes circulate around the event with the chief exec, who would be there to make introductions to appropriate people, staff members etc. We all got strict instructions on how to behave too!

The instructions on how to behave annoy me. On multiple levels.

1. Why on earth should people have to behave in a special way around royals? They're just people.

On other hand...

1. It's probably necessary because I bet a lot of people would lose the ability to act normally and do things they wouldn't normally do. eg random hugging, arm clutching, inappropriate questions etc. it's so annoying that people can't be trusted.

Ooh, like what? Don’t ask for photos, don’t ask personal questions, that sort of thing?

We all got strict instructions on how to behave too!

Interesting tell us more...did they come from the palace or the charity? I might need to grill my friend more find out if the real gossip not just the organisation side of it she is holding out on me!

Yeah, it rankled me a bit too I must admit. It was basically, do give a little bow (bloke) or curtesy (woman), although HRH isn’t as protocol-keen as some and won’t mind too much (the chief executive would have done though), call them ‘Your Royal Highness’ the first time you address them and then Ma’am to rhyme with ham afterwards, have some sort of relevant topic of conversation handy but let her lead the conversation, don’t babble on and remember you’re representing the charity. All pretty basic, really.

If anyone had asked for a selfie I do believe the chief exec would have spontaneously combusted

Lol, totally from the charity. We juniors couldn’t be trusted to not, I don’t know, moon at the VIPs or something!

In fairness though it was a general briefing for all staff and there were lots of people from all over the charity attending - I’m sure some were a bit nervous about the whole thing (it was our big annual event and a huge deal to us) and having some pointers was probably reassuring.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love the royals. Have absolutely no problem with them and think that overall they are good for the UK (obviously barring obvious losers like Andy). Am happy to keep them and don't begrudge a certain amount of tax-payer funding. But I wouldn't curtsey. POSSIBLY to the queen, but I suspect that's more my catholic school upbringing where we had to curtsey to all nuns under all conditions and most adults!

No I wouldn't either. Was there ever a more cringe-inducing sight than Theresa May genuflecting to Prince William?

I curtsied a little to the Dof Gloucester when I met her. I wasn’t going to but everyone else was so I thought I’d look the idiot if I didn’t.