Royal Style: We are in need of pink diamonds!

[Maireas]

Sorry about the glitch, this is our new thread smile 😊

I can get on board with an haute couture take on the grass skirt - I bet it's great fun to wear - but I'm not sure she's got the length of the underskirt quite right. I tend to think that an underskirt should be just sufficient to provide for modesty or long enough for the lace/fringes/whatever of the overskirt to look like a broad band of hem decoration, whereas this one has a ‘neither up nor down’ feel and seems to be too close-fitting for the fringes/overskirt.

Looking at the lovely photos of Melania at the scout event, her wedding ring is really wide. I wonder if it makes her finger feel hot.

The chartreuse top doesn’t fit particularly well, in my opinion, even in the portrait picture. In that the tops of the sleeves are also pulling a lot at the front.

A slash neckline can be difficult to wear without some sort of bunching up.

I do like the trained caterpillar 🐛 comments.

Max is on form today.

More pictures and a full seating plan from the banquet. I find who sits where fascinating!

State banquet seating plan: who was there, where — and who wasn’t?.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/941c5a1c-e4c1-4ae5-a30b-c34a12d0139d?shareToken=676672bb3eb794f22f6163969d009644

Interesting! Thanks, @IDareSay .
The place settings are impressive.

I’m just thinking back to when we had 28 for Christmas dinner once and how hard that was to plan, never mind making sure certain family members didn’t sit next to other particular family members 😱
Family diplomacy can be tricky! But at least nobody cared what I wore 😁

I came across this pic today of the Princess Royal and JK Rowling in 2003, Anne in head to toe brown clearly planning ahead for autumn 2025 😁

Always a step ahead.

I love the new trend of holding state banquets at Windsor Castle rather than Buckingham Palace - it seems so much cosier but with a huge sense of history at Windsor whereas they always seemed to rattle around in the rather souless BP hall

Compare the first and second Trump banquets

Love the videos of Melania, she looks so engaged and happy (which is asset to any outfit)

Max…..is just Max 😁

Melania is like Kate - seems to be happier at more informal events where they can be themselves

I love Max's green outfit! I wonder if she managed to resist doing a bit of a shimmy in that fringed skirt?

Windsor looks almost Christmassy with all the red and green and cosier lighting.It must be a big logistical
job getting them all to the right seats, I can't imagine them all wandering round peering at placecards like you do at weddings.

Watching the other evening I would have been dismayed at finding my own seat at that enormous table with my knackered hips 🙈

It's like a military operation, largely because the organisers are ex military. It's quite something.

I also think that Windsor looks far more spectacular. It is, after all, an actual castle! Hopefully due to the happy accident that Buckingham Palace is currently out of action the realisation that Windsor, as a stand in, is actually a much better location will make it a permanent thing

Well so many of them live and sleep there security wise it's sensible. Parking would be easier I expect. I'm of the opinion open up Buckingham palace as a tourist attraction. Keep Kensington for accommodation. Windsor has been woefully underused.

I wonder if any of them actually want to live at BP? I cant see Charles, with his love of luxury, wanting to move from Clarence House. Perhaps it'll just end up as the administrative centre and will open up more rooms for tourists to see.

Looking again at the photos of the two banquets, the one at BP just looks like a posh wedding whereas Windsor gives a much better impression of an actual banquet iyswim

I think that's already happening. I don't think C&C want to live at Buckingham Palace and I'd be fairly sure that William has no intention of moving the family in there.

I'd love to see more of it opened up to the public along with some of the collections of gifts etc. that get shown when they have visiting dignitaries. Also a 'fashion wing' with a rotating collections of clothes and jewels!

It'll always be the centre for the pageantry, balcony, flypasts, garden parties and some balls/dinners but it's almost becoming more of an events space rather than a home.

This popped up this morning, stop motion film of the table prep

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19fT5feBK1/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Thanks, @ExquisitelyDecorating . That's some preparation!

I agree, Charles said he was keeping Clarence House as his London residence, and using BP for ceremonial occasions only. It's apparently cold, damp and in a fair bit of disrepair.
I presume if Camilla is the dowager Queen at some point she will disappear to Ray Mill rather than staying at CH. So it would be available to William and Kate too.

What would happen to Highgrove in the long term? I would have thought it would have been willed to Harry. So many houses!