BAFTA President Prince William skipped this year’s BAFTAs, the annual celebration of British and international films. William was in Mustique with his wife and children. What was interesting about that is the British media didn’t have much of a heads-up on the Waleses skipping the event, and they had been hyping the Princess of Wales’s glamorous “return” to the BAFTA red carpet for weeks prior. They had to eat their words and pretend that it didn’t really matter, of course no one expected Will and Kate to show up to an awards show. Around the same time, Kensington Palace suddenly made a big stink about how they would no longer confirm details of Kate’s clothing, no more fashion IDs or briefings. There was some pushback on that, and KP sort of relented, but not really. Throughout this year, Kate has also been wearing a lot of old clothes and casual outfits, nothing glamorous and nothing particularly cute or notable. Well, the Daily Mail is fed up with the lack of glamour. The Mail’s Liz Jones wrote a funny screed about Kate’s refusal to be stylish and glamorous. Some highlights:
Kate was glamorous at her wedding, but it’s a different story 14 years later: How different to the image released today when the Prince and Princess of Wales arrived in the Isle of Dull – sorry, Mull – to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary. Scratchy tweed. Button-up shirt. Sensible walking boots. Where, oh where, was the glamour?
A boring Scottish field trip: On their itinerary are visits to a village hall, a ‘community hub’ and, wait for it, a croft where they will ‘help pick produce for the menu’ and ‘see the Hebridean sheep being farmed there’. It’s not quite their sun-kissed honeymoon in the Seychelles, is it? I know the couple fell in love while at university in Scotland, but this all sounds like a drizzly field trip forced upon schoolchildren. Where’s the majesty in looking at sheep? Or visiting a village hall? On Day Two, the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay as they are known when north of the border will meet rangers from the Mull and Iona Ranger Service at the ‘Community Forest’. To which all I can ask is: seriously?
Kate’s weird videos: We know Kate loves nature, having posed next to trees on the family estate. While recovering from cancer, she has understandably found solace in fresh air and beauty – as demonstrated by the video of her and her family frolicking in Norfolk when she completed chemotherapy last September. That footage may have evoked a fantastical, sepia-tinted vision of Enid Blyton-era England rather than a country of long NHS waiting lists and a cost of living crisis.
The no-fashion-IDs statement: In February, it emerged that details of the princess’s clothes and accessories were no longer being released through official channels. She wanted to be known as a work horse, not a clothes horse – and it has gone downhill from there. Wintry, old-fashioned maxi coats. Roll-neck jumpers. And – for a visit to a group of scouts in the Lake District earlier this month – a tweed bomber jacket and skinny jeans topped with a don’t-look-at-me baker boy hat, which even the normally sycophantic Vogue called ‘polarising’. She was doubtless comfy and warm, but hardly inspirational.
Glamour is part of her job: Of course, a serious illness can make you re-evaluate what matters. Perhaps these days Kate feels fashion is frivolous. But, I’m afraid to say, looking fabulous is part of her job. Yes, she can kneel in comfy jeans encouraging children to scribble, or pretend to be interested in sheep, but her real role is to boost morale.
A curious mention of Meghan: If the sort of itinerary planned for the Waleses in the Isle of Dull is all that is in store over the next few decades, no wonder Meghan swerved it. I – like many – watched her Netflix show With Love, Meghan, for the glorious gardens, the stylish clothes, the plentiful platters, the sunshine. Yes, it’s unattainable – doubtless largely fictional – but fun and glam, too.
Kate should go to Paris! I don’t want to see Kate – our beautiful ambassadress – reduced to a dull, dreary, uninspiringly ordinary mother-of-three. So next year, instead of a visit to Scotland for such a personal day in the calendar, why don’t the Waleses enjoy a sojourn in the British embassy in Paris instead? They can bask in the artistic glory of the Louvre before dining on Michelin-star steak frites rather than a globule of haggis.
The problem with “Kate and William should go to Paris for their anniversary” is that Kate clearly made some kind of deal where she will rarely, if ever, travel outside of the UK for work anymore. The other problem is that Kate just isn’t that person – she’s not glamorous or fashionable or interested in aesthetics. She loves her jeggings and her striped sweaters and her Meghan mood-boards. Stop trying to make her into something she’s clearly not! Still, I love the discontent from the Mail – “is this all we’re getting?” Yes. It is. That’s what you signed up for. The British media went all-in on the Waleses, expecting them to step up eventually. The British media can’t admit that they got suckered by a couple too lazy to do anything at all.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
