Kevin Berkahn will not design Bronagh's wedding outfit

Bronagh Key (right) with her husband, Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Michael Craig

With only days to go, Royal wedding fever is in full swing. Even Prime Minister John Key is talking frocks, rocks and locks. He rang me yesterday to reveal what he will be wearing on Kate and Wills' big day.

Male guests, he tells me, have the option of wearing military uniform, morning suit or lounge suit. The PM has opted for the latter. But what his missus will be wearing is evidently of some confusion.

A story in the Herald on Sunday last month said bridal designer Kevin Berkahn had been selected to design Bronagh Key's outfit for the Royal wedding in two weeks, but her husband said yesterday this is not true.

"I'm not sure where that story came from Rach, but Bronagh's not wearing an outfit by Kevin Berkahn," Key said.

His wife, a self-confessed tomboy who is no stranger to good fashion, is staying tight-lipped about who she has selected to design her wedding frock, but it should come as no surprise that the old-fashioned, mumsy styles of Berkahn were not on her list.

Yesterday it was revealed Kate Middleton, who is keeping her bridal gown a secret, is rumoured to have ordered three dresses for her marriage to Prince William. Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton is the favourite pick, but veteran couturier Jasper Conran is now the latest rumoured designer.

Bronagh's fashion flair has come a long way from her waitressing days when she locked eyes with her future husband at the Russley Hotel. She remembers sporting a peach chiffon blouse and long gabardine skirt with a big bow. [It was] "very tacky," she said. Evidently the shock frock wasn't enough to put JK off who reportedly turned to his mum and said: "See that girl, I am going to marry her."

But it hasn't all been plain sailing on the fashion front. Bronagh came in for a ribbing from the fashion pack when she wore a distinctive purple Adrienne Winkelmann jacket to her husband's inauguration. So distinctive in fact, when she wore it again at a party campaign launch she was criticised for the First Lady faux pas.

Also talking Royal wedding fever is friend-of-fashion Petra Bagust who will be reporting live from London for TVNZ's Breakfast show. Of course, fashion is very high on Bagust's agenda and there's no denying she plays the perfect mannequin sporting different borrowed designer garb each day. Let's hope she is as passionate about journalism as she is about frocks.

Industry insiders tell me Bagust, who has been an entertainment presenter for many years, has been receiving training at the network on how to be a journalist and how to ask better questions during interviews.

Evidently no one has advised her to keep a dignified silence occasionally. Is it just me or is her constant nattering and talking over co-host Corin Dann getting increasingly annoying?

Still, let's be honest, it's her larger-than-life personality and her fashion plate ensembles that we tune in for. But come Fashion Week this year, La Bagust will have to play a more diplomatic game than she has in the past. No more blagging free clothes from designers and front row seats for her and her ever-present mum Judy. That sort of behaviour is a big no-no for network stars.

Presumably Petra will be there to work though, so that will mean no more regular costume changes like some sort of one-woman fashion theatre in the manner of Lady Gaga. A couple of years ago, I counted three costume changes for Bagust during one day at Fashion Week. That meant three different outfits, three different hair styles and three different make-up looks.

While I applaud her dedication in owning the celebrity-as-fashionista brand, it would be nice to see Petra display a more meaningful string to her bow than just a pretty fashion victim who doesn't read anything deeper than Vogue.