Is Miss Middleton a fashion icon in the making?
I don't know if you're aware, but Prince William is engaged to Kate Middleton. He proposed while they were on holiday in Kenya, with his mother's sapphire engagement ring, and she wore a blue dress by London label Issa when the pair fronted up to media following the announcement.
The
royal family are all "delighted", as are Middleton's parents.
Of course you know about all of this. Royal fever has well and truly taken over the world, providing the perfect excuse for terrible headlines ("with this ring Di thee wed"), old-fashioned snobbery (Middleton is a "commoner") and lots of fashion escapism. Who cares about what this marriage represents for the future of the monarchy, all anyone wants to know is who will design her wedding dress?
CNN has dubbed her a "style icon in the making", while some of our local designers, rather embarrassingly, put their wedding gown ideas forward to the Sunday papers.
I suspect the closest we may get, fashionwise, to the future queen is via designer Emilia Wickstead, a New Zealand-born designer with a boutique near Middleton's neighbourhood of Chelsea.
Wickstead has dressed Samantha Cameron, and her customers are largely the type of well-off, Sloaney girls who would hang out in similar haunts to Middleton. Though it's more likely Middleton will continue to champion her label of choice, Issa.
I don't think Middleton can be hailed as a style icon yet - she dresses far too sensibly and maturely for such a title.
She has a penchant for fascinators and hats that age her by about 40 years, and, as the Guardian noted last week, is the type of girl who matches her engagement dress to her engagement ring. What modern-day 28-year-old is that matchy-matchy?
Middleton's style is classic British and perfectly royal in the way that it is so discreet that it's almost entirely forgettable (as Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld said, "She is chic in a way the position needs"). She is also very pretty, with the glossy locks of the types of celebrities that the British so love (her hair has already earned her comparisons to Cheryl Cole). But in a country where singer Pixie Lott is also labelled a "style icon", perhaps a demure young women who dresses conservatively is just what's needed.
I predict Middleton will, very soon and very discreetly, hire a stylist to help guide her through the stresses of being the "new Diana" if she hasn't already.
The Princess of Wales is still hailed as a style icon, but when she was first thrust onto the world stage, Diana was mumsy and famously awkward. But she was only 19, and still discovering her true self. The world watched as her style flourished. Middleton is 28, an age where most women have settled into their style but are still young enough to be a little adventurous, which Middleton is not.
However, perhaps not focusing on fashion is what will make her stand apart from her fabled mother-in-law.
