WELDER’S DAUGHTER ERIN WOWS ’EM AT THE PALACE

NEVER Mind Sir Mo’s splendiferous top hat, which made him look like a new and rather marvellous character from Alice In Wonderland. The loveliest sight at Buckingham Palace this week was model Erin O’Connor, who was given an MBE for services to fashion and charity.

In her Giles Deacon suit and Stephen Jones fascinator, 6ft-tall Erin was the utter distillation of a kind of old-fashioned British elegance rarely seen today. Nancy

Mitford could have created her, Evelyn Waugh would not have dared, Bertie Wooster would have been terrified.

Erin, 39, looks like a duchess, the bluest of bloods, a creature bred from ermine and pearls.

In fact, she is the daughter of a welder and grew up in the West Midlands. ‘I’ve got a prominent nose and I have days when I’m not infallible to thinking: “God, I wish my boobs were differently shaped,’’ ’ she said in a recent interview.

She looks pretty magnificent from here.