Royal family turns out in flawless fashion for the
Queen’s funeral
From pillbox hats to pearls and sharp tailoring, the
dress code was one of resplendent solemnity
Jess
Cartner-Morley
@JessC_M
Mon 19 Sep
2022 15.24 BST
There was
not a hair out of place, nor a shoe unpolished. Not one speck of lint on a
jacket was to be seen. For the grandest, most gorgeous of occasions the dress
code was resplendent solemnity, in pearls and pillbox hats, high heels and
sharp tailoring.
For the
royal family this was, as the archbishop of Canterbury noted, a portrait of
grief under the brightest spotlight. The Queen Consort, the Princess of Wales
and the Duchess of Sussex found a little privacy under wide-brimmed hats, or
veils, or both. And while Britain was looking at the royal family, the rest of
the world was looking at Britain.
Kate in
profile
The
Princess of Wales in the ceremonial procession. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA
The frilled
white collars of the clergy and the rich scarlet and gold military uniforms
contrasted with the simplicity of the black-clad mourners, a reminder that the
death of the Queen has put not just the current Windsors but the whole notion
of Britishness under the spotlight.
It has been
a busy 10 days for milliner Stephen Jones, who following the death of the Queen
turned his central London store over to selling black hats only in anticipation
of funeral orders.
“Everyone
wanted to be appropriately dressed, not fashionably dressed,” said Jones. “Hats
were a symbol of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, because she herself always wore
them.” The most popular styles have been discreet black hats, in neutral
textures.
The arcane
rules which decreed that as a non-working royal Prince Harry could not wear
military uniform, despite having seen more active service than most of the
family, are the kind of thing that makes the monarchy look petty and
nonsensical in the eyes of its critics.
At
Britain’s last state funeral, that of Winston Churchill in 1965, mourners came
in top hats and mink coats, while Lady Churchill was dramatically submerged
beneath yards of black lace.
Modernity
has done for the full-length veil, with a “birdcage” length which covers the
top half of the face preferred this time by Kate and Camilla. Other modern
touches included Carrie Johnson’s nod to sustainability in a rented Karen
Millen coat dress.
The
Johnsons
Boris and
Carrie Johnson, who wore a rented Karen Millen coat dress. Photograph: Peter
Byrne/PA
Kate and
Meghan were dressed in almost mirror-image harmony, a quiet riposte – or at
least, no comment – to salacious interest in the fissure between the Sussexes
and the new Waleses. Both women wore saucer shaped hats – Kate’s softened with
a small veil, Meghan’s with a wave in the brim.
Both chose
clean-lined, unfussy tailoring by female British designers, with Meghan in
Stella McCartney and Kate rewearing a favourite Alexander McQueen coat dress. Only
Kate’s showstopper four-row pearl choker and matching bracelet from the late
Queen’s collection, which rather overshadowed Meghan’s simple pearl drop
earrings, hinted at the discrepancy between their positions.
Outside the
circle of close mourners there were touches of individual glamour. Jacinda
Ardern wore a kākahu, a traditional Māori cloak made from feathers, which is a
symbol of ritual and prestige in New Zealand.
Princess
Charlotte’s old-fashioned black hat was reminiscent of the boater worn by
Madeline Fogg, the 1940s schoolgirl protaganist of Ludwig Bemelmans’ children’s
books, while the diamond horseshoe brooch on her coat made sweet reference to a
love of horses she shared with her great-grandmother.
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