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New patterns of emulation: Kate, Pippa and Cheryl

Until very recently, it was imperative for monarchs and heirs-apparent to select their wives from other reigning dynasties, or at least from among the aristocracy. In 525, the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian, was an early exception to this rule, but he had to create new legislation in order to marry Theodora, certainly an actress and possibly a former courtesan. Sometimes, the chosen brides of reigning monarchs became fashion leaders and celebrities in their own right, as with Marie Antoinette and later Alexandra, long-suffering wife of Edward VII of England. However, Marie Antoinette’s celebrity status and her sartorial excesses precipitated her downfall. Similarly, the most stylish consort ever selected by an heir to the English throne, the notorious Wallis Simpson, was also the cause of his abdication. Much more recently, Princess Diana seemed to become increasingly ‘fashionable’ as her troubles within the Royal Family increased; after her divorce, she was free to champion European couture, to wear a Galliano slip dress to a ball in New York, and to comfort Elton John at the funeral of designer Gianni Versace. Many of these established rules of Royal marriage have been relaxed – Prince Charles, unlike his great-uncle Edward, could marry a divorced woman without having to renounce his claim to the throne. But difficulties around class remain solidly entrenched in England, and have been embedded in the coverage of the 2011 Royal Wedding. Perhaps, too, there are still lurking Puritan sensibilities around perceived ‘vanity’, which, particularly in these recessionary times, have also seeped into the construction of the latest conscript into the royal ranks. Kate Middleton, the newest Royal bride, is not exactly a paid-up member of the proletariat. But during her protracted courtship with Prince William, much was made of her comparatively modest social background and her family’s perceived pretensions. Her middle-class parents started their own business and, with the profits, sent their children first to boarding schools and then on to those universities traditionally attended by public-school pupils. Journalists described in detail Mrs. Middleton’s pushiness and ambition, her early years as an air hostess, her gum-chewing at a Sandhurst parade, and her inappropriate mode of address upon meeting the Queen. Kate has had to tread carefully, and this has affected her chosen mode of self-presentation. But she knows the true potency of dress; during the publicity preceding the wedding, it was revealed that Kate first came to the Prince’s notice when she – as it were – revealed herself through the medium of a student fashion show. She chose to model a very short and totally transparent shift dress which revealed her figure just as efficiently as if she had taken to the catwalk in a bikini.