Favourite Royal outfits

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

Would anyone like to join me in my attempt to unite the board and discuss our favourite royal outfits (before it enviably turns into another bun fight 🤣)

I’ll start with my favourite Catherine outfits first…

I still think Camilla is the best dressed Royal Woman. Charles dresses well too.

I wasn’t trying to derail the thread, I just think accusations that people (and it’s only ever Royal women by the way) “copy” each other as some kind of competitive oneupmanship incredibly silly.

Fashion is cyclical. Anyone who has lived for more than a couple of decades will know this personally. Styles, colours, textures, proportions all make their way into and out of fashion as designers strive for new things. The designers who clothes we buy and whose aesthetic we buy into are influenced by the past, by different cultures, by their own house archives (if you are Dior, etc) by the zeitgeist and by each other, plus a hundred other things. And most of us are just consumers of this output, with no more individual ability to influence it than an individual fish can influence a shoal.

Against that backdrop, no consumer of fashion can “own” a style, a colour, a pattern. They simply see something which a designer has already thought of, designed and had made up. Countless also people will also see and like that same idea.

When it comes to royal women dressing for formal occasions, they are working in a fairly narrow range of choice. They each have favoured designers, but they moment they step out of fully bespoke (like Camilla, for example) there is a high likelihood that someone else will see what they are wearing and think “I like that - I’ll get one too”. So they are not setting the style in any way, just the first to display it in their circle. Sometimes Kate will wear a style first and others will follow her (the teal Jenny Packham evening dress below). Sometimes it will be Mary of Denmark (I think she was the first to wear the ever so popular Beulah day dress). Sometimes Meghan (the Safiyaa caped-style dresses she wore have been worn by any number of Royals, including last week by the Dutch Crown Princess in a beautiful lilac version for the Omani State Dinner).

This doesn’t make any of these women inherently “better” at fashion. It just means they are fishing in the same pool, and have their eyes open - as you might expect.

Ah yes, Grace Kelly's wedding dress! Was there ever a more beautiful wedding dress, and it suited her down to a T!

You didn't derail at all @Serenster , others tried too (apologies if my post implied that).

I loved Meghan's evening wedding dress and her aquamarine ring was exquisite; that is one royal jewel I would love to own. The dress also looks gorgeous on Sophia - the forest green is stunning.

Queen Mary of Denmark and Catherine wear such similar clothes and look so alike that I often have to double check!

I aso don’t have a problem with royals looking to vintage fashion, or past style icons, for inspiration. It’s often an easy shortcut to a polished look.

So I’m fairly sure Meghan’s couture Dior coat and gloves were intended to call back to Wallis’ incredibly similar Givenchy coat and gloves. In the same way that Maxima leaned heavily into a 50s look, and Mary a 40s look for their respective outfits here. They have to come up with some many different looks - if you go for a look that’s already a classic, it’s a fairy safe one (Princess Alexandra of Hanover has even taken to just wearing some of her grandmother, Grace Kelly’s, actual dresses!).

The late Queen was a bit of a glamour puss in her time, this dress was very similar to the one Diana wore on one of her first engagements after she was engaged to Charles.

I remember Diana’s dress causing quite a stir at the time, particularly when she was getting out of the car! The press went crazy, I was about 11 at the time and remember thinking how stunning she was and that I wished I looked like her!

Speaking of Dutch Queen Maxima, I love her utter fearlessness in the face of fashion. I don’t think she’s ever seen something and thought it was too much 😀. But someone prepared to take big swings and sometimes miss also can have big wins. Here are some of my favourites.

Chill out! It’s a thread about fashion

The worst outfit Diana wore, ever!

The royal style thread in S&B is wonderful on Maxima.

She was way ahead of the game style wise. A true fashion icon

I was hoping someone would post Queen M - she’s fabulous.

We must be about the same age and I also remember Diana's boobs almost spilling out of her dress as she got out of the car. I too thought her to be the height of beauty and glamour.

Apparently Charles thought her dress too 'daring' and I guess he was right, but he was also wrong if you catch my drift!

It's an interesting trait in a queen of what is still a culturally Calvinist nation, which frowns on ostentation and frivolity!

We must be about the same age and I also remember Diana's boobs almost spilling out of her dress as she got out of the car. I too thought her to be the height of beauty and glamour.

I remember that too, IcedPurple, and also some of the tabloids hinting you could see a bit of <whisper> nipple.
It was then said that it was just a bit of the frilly material.
The Not the Nine O'Clock News annual that year had a piece explaining that any hint of soon-to-be-royal areola was actually caused by a shadow from a freak lunar eclipse.

The aquamarine ring was the cherry on top. I remember watching the wedding and being so disappointed with her church dress (I think because I was spoiled with Catherine’s)! But I was pleasantly surprised by the evening dress, it was a real wow moment.

The Stella McCartney reception dress is maybe my favourite Meghan dress, but as so often, the fit was off and it was way too baggy on her. Sofia's version is much better fitted, which is how it was designed to look.

That's a great dress. I think navy is Meghan's colour, and simple, structured pieces suit her best.
This Dior dress she wore to one of her first royal events was also fab.

The style gives her a defined waistline, especially with the belt on the navy one. And the flared skirt balances out her shoulders.

It would look good in cream or ivory with a floral pattern too.

Those heels ! 😳

Oooh if we’re doing other European royals I absolutely adore Beatrice Borromeo’s style (married to Pierre Casiraghi of Monaco). Probably helps that she’s a Dior ambassador. I could post loads of her outfits, she is so beautiful and stylish.

I was perfectly chill. If you look, you will see I was responding to another poster??

I know what the thread is about, but thank you.

It also doesn't hurt that she has the height, face and figure of a model!

She wore not one but three custom couture gowns for her wedding. They were all gorgeous but my favourite was the Armani she wore to the evening reception in her family's castle on Lake Maggiore. It must be nice to be rich, beautiful and marrying your equally rich and pretty husband.

Gosh she’s in a different league isn’t she, no wonder she’s a Dior ambassador.