There was universal praise as well for William, glowing in his scarlet Colonel of the Irish Guards uniform with his rich blue silk Order of the Garter sash and Royal Air Force wings, and his best man and brother, Prince Harry, dripping in the gold braids of his handsome Blues and Royals officer’s uniform. “They were fantastic,” said Grant. “Who knew they had such style?”
William’s stepmother, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, wore an unremarkable champagne silk dress with a pale blue and champagne pleated coat by Anna Valentine, the same designer who created Camilla’s wedding ensemble when she married Prince Charles in 2005. Middleton’s mother was also appropriately conservative, in a pale blue dress and coat with a nipped waist by the house of Catherine Walker, a longtime, London-based designer who died last year. Walker was a favorite of Princess Diana’s.
As for the guests, Victoria Beckham — fashion designer and very pregnant wife of soccer star David Beckham— stood out in a short-sleeved navy tunic dress from her most recent collection, with a smart Philip Treacy navy pillbox hat perched on her forehead.
“And my gosh, what about those Fergie girls?” gasped Grant. Indeed, the daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson — William’s first cousins — caused an uproar with their wedding attire. Beatrice chose an elegant flesh-colored haute couture dress and matching coat by Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli but topped it off with a swirling sculpted headpiece, also designed by Treacy, that was deemed so ludicrous by wedding watchers that within hours there was a Facebook group named Princess Beatrice’s Ridiculous Royal Wedding Hat, replete with snark.
Eugenie, meanwhile, was wrong from top to bottom: a gaudy Vivienne Westwood royal blue and green floral print jacket that appeared two sizes too small, with a royal blue satin asymmetrical pouf skirt that appeared two sizes too large, and gold platform pumps. “Was she wearing this outfit, or was it wearing her?” blasted the Daily Mail. That the sisters were seated behind the queen during the hour-long service didn’t help matters. As Silver noted, “They have always been a little eccentric.”
And then there was the queen, dressed in an Angela Kelly daffodil-yellow wool crepe dress and coat and a matching hat with a cluster of yellow silk roses on the band. On her coat she wore Queen Mary’s rather impressive True Lover’s Knot diamond brooch. Silver called the queen’s color choice “optimistic.” Grant said, “She stood out, as she should.” But de la Renta summed it up best:
“The queen,” he said approvingly, “was the queen.”
Thomas is a freelance writer.
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