Beatrice makes a statement with her gran gesture
FOR Princess Beatrice, this was the ultimate ‘something borrowed’.
Fashion is so often used to make a statement and this gown, personally loaned by the Queen, sends a huge message of her support to a much-loved granddaughter on her wedding day.
The Queen Mary tiara – worn by the Queen when she married Prince Philip in 1947 and loaned to her only daughter Princess Anne on hers – also signifies the warmth of feeling.
Beatrice’s decision to get married in a second-hand gown is interesting and, I must say, pleasantly surprising and touching.
A very traditional design, it is beautifully crafted from peau de soie taffeta and features a geometric, chequered bodice encrusted with diamanté.
There have been amendments to the original, of course, to allow for Beatrice’s height and the modesty of a Royal bride in church. Angela Kelly, the Queen’s personal dresser, and Stewart Parvin, Her Majesty’s favourite dressmaker, remodelled and refitted the dress to Beatrice’s size and tastes.
A longer sleeve, for example, might have been more fashionable but then Beatrice has never been in thrall to fashion labels and the puffed organza sleeves show her playful style. A sleek trim of ivory Duchess satin at the bottom of the gown allows for added length.
The dress was designed by Sir Norman Hartnell and worn by Her Majesty at the 1962 film premiere of Lawrence
Of Arabia at London’s Leicester Square Odeon where the Queen met leading man Peter O’Toole.
Hartnell had an astonishing rise to fame from creating uniforms for Selfridges ‘lift girls’ in the early 1920s to designing for royalty.
Besides designing two of the most important dresses of the 20th Century – the Queen’s wedding dress and the outfit for her 1953 Coronation – he is also credited with turning London into a fashion hub to rival Paris.
A patriotic choice for Beatrice, then, as well as a personal one. It also plays to the trend for vintage dresses and sustainable fashion. The bride doesn’t traditionally give a speech at her wedding but with this beautiful, romantic gown created 26 years before she was born, Beatrice spoke volumes.
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