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!

To be fair, I think the fashions and makeup of the eighties could be quite ageing when you look at them now. We were watching Top of the Pops Two the other night from 1989 and commented on how the audience were probably all in their twenties but looked at least 10 years older!

TOTP audiences were mainly late teens! You only had to be 16 to go. Women wanted to look older then I think (SILs same age as Diana).

Not wild about those flower tiara things but cpm ear rings?! Now those I can get behind.

You meet a fella in a bar in Sydney and end up wearing that tiara and those earrings - CPM

Just having a nose of the DM online and there's an article about H&M and the Beckhams. Ignoring the gossip element of it I thought I'd share this snippet, as apparently Meghan has previously publically mentioned that she can't wear VB's clothes because she's short waisted. I thought that was rather interesting because when we've critiqued her outfits and found them lacking, this is probably the main reason why.

I think she has worn VB a couple of times but it was when she was pregnant.

Yes, there was a picture of the church walk when she was in the navy VB.

I don't like that Cartier tiara, it looks a bit Accessorize.

God the H&M stuff today has actually kinda shocked me. The Disney stuff! Touting for a job at a royal engagement!!!

Can I ask a stupid question? What does short waisted mean?

Short waisted is when you don't have a long torso. So less space between bust and hip.

@MrsGrindah it means you have a short upper body and longer legs. Long waisted is the opposite. And your height has nothing to do with it!

Not many inches between boobs and hips. It can mean clothes look a bit scrunched and at their worst, frumpy.

I'm long waisted which is the opposite problem, there's about a foot between my boobs and hips. It means tops are never really long enough and if I buy a dress with a seam attaching bodice to skirt, it's always too high up and looks like I'm wearing a maternity dress. Kate is long waisted and whilst she'll never look maternity as she's too thin, often the seams are too high up on her too and it looks odd.

I've just pulled this from IG, it shows the opposite of short waisted. Kate has a long torso which is why this jumper doesn't work on her. You can see the frill sits too high so the proportions are wrong (I'm long waisted too and have this problem, belts on coats/dressing gowns aren't in the right place). We have a 'natural' waist which is why some tops can look wrong. Meghan is the opposite of Kate and has a shorter torso which is why the belted dresses on her aren't always flattering as the belt isn't sitting in the right place and adds bulk to an area that doesn't need it.

I'd prefer to be short waisted and have long legs.
I'm the opposite.

Thanks all. Still can’t see what’s wrong in that photo of Kate though. Not sure what I am . Suspect short but my droopy boobs are perhaps confusing the situation

MrsGrindah, the idea of a peplum-ish top like Kate’s is that the peplum hits your hips and creates a wider effect, making a sharper contrast between waist and hips - creating curves. When the ruffle doesn’t hit the hips it can look as though you’re a child who has outgrown a dress iyswim.

However, that’s all based on preconceived ideas about what we want our clothes to show/hide/accentuate/emphasise and modern (western) fashion history. It just explains why people see it as looking wrong. If we had a culture where ruffled cropped tops where the norm we wouldn’t blink of course

That top and trousers are lovely but should never have been put together and neither on Kate (sorry).

bean I'd just like thin legs, I've got legs like a chunky farmhouse kitchen table

I know what you mean @banivani but it's a bugger to get rid of that mindset! See also the messy vs neat hair thing, although that also has racial connotations.

I find it interesting to look at the different European clothes brands vs British, even for the high street, and see what sort of look is popular in different countries. Stores like Cos play with shapes and go for clothes that drape rather than cling to the body. One way I heard it described was "clothes not designed for the male gaze".

I actually found that Disney video quite funny, Harry acting like Meghan’s agent ,

Kate in that attire is probably the lest flattering think she ever wore.

One way I heard it described was "clothes not designed for the male gaze". What a great concept, I love this! For the record I am very short-waisted with big boobs. It's very easy to look dumpy, despite long, thin legs. It's a bugger of a silhouette.

There have been a few threads admiring Japanese dressing, and on them someone said that in Japan one is more aware of the space between the clothes and the body - as a positive thing. Quoting from memory so caveat: it’s not word perfect.

A lot of British women are probably heavily influenced by What Not To Wear and their boob-hoiking emphasis on fitted clothes, so there is an idea that this makes “flattering” and flattering is desirable. There’s often no real analysis of what this flattering is striving towards IMO. It’s just “flattering” without knowing why - it’s blindly following certain rules. Now the UKRF are in my opinion stuck in 1970s respectable middle age fashion because that’s when the Queen stopped evolving (no disrespect, it’s normal). So there’s a clash there between wanting the younger royal set to both be WNTW “flattering” ie fitted clothes that emphasise breasts, legs, curves and the role model of a middle aged queen who wears coats, hats and low heeled pumps. If they do the former they’re railed at for showing off. The latter and they’re boring. It’s very stupid.

I always think of the short waisted/long waisted thing is whether the wearer can carry off a 20s style (particularly a flapper) dress. If short waisted like me, it just looks odd!

Banivani you are correct in describing the RF current fashion situation, but then I see so many Other European royalty , and non Royal who just dress so much better for all occasions and I just think it can’t be this difficult?
Beatrice Borromeo IMO is the best dressed ,she just nails every time. Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama always looked impeccable and appropriate.
Kate Dresses so prim and proper although I remember she was a bit more daring at the beginning with her skirt lengths and probably was told off for it. It’s nice to see her appropriately dressed but it would be nicer if she goes a bit modern. I liked her Christmas Day coat , but in any other place it would look so out of date and too costumey! .