When Kate Middleton on June 9, 2011 he got off the Jaguar knew that his image was at stake neo Duchess of Cambridge. A little over a month earlier, on April 29, 2011, he had all eyes on him. She had married at Westminster Abbey to Prince William, son of the heir to the English throne and first in line of succession, passing the wedding dress test with critical and public success thanks to the hand of Sarah Burton per Alexander McQueen.
During that time there had been a meeting with the Obama during which she had played it safe with a dress Reiss rather tight beige. The fundraising dinner organized to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the charity organization ARK represented the couple’s first real engagement after the wedding. That was the litmus test: the famous Kate effect did it exist or not?
Here one becomes the duchess or dies, the beauty must have thought to herself commoner called to live up to everything, to the occasion, to the press, to expectations. He knew that it would be meticulously vivisected: for this reason he chose a long armor of powder pink sequins with Swarovski crystals signed Jenny Packham, a British designer who from that debut would accompany Kate in every important moment of her life.
After the story of the passion of Mary of Denmark for hers burgundy dress, let’s go back to the UK to turn the spotlight on a dress that for the Duchess of Cambridge somehow marked a watershed: what was described as a Cinderella, was now starting to get serious and sparkling outfits like that would become one of many uniforms of his work as a member of the Royal Family. The journey into the great stories of clothes started from London with the Coronation dress of Queen Elizabeth.
We moved to Spain with a focus on Letizia’s white suit chosen for the announcement of her engagement with Felipe, to return to the land of Albion with theElvis dress in Diana and later moving to Sweden from Queen Silvia and Princess Victoria with Nina Ricci’s dress for two until gliding in Sydney to remember the time Meghan wore Oscar de la Renta’s fluffy dress covered with seagulls.
When Jenny Packham was approached for a dress by the Duchess’s staff in 2011, she thought her time had finally come. Kate Middleton wanted to debut with a British brand because he knew how important his role was in promoting his country’s fashion industry. The sequin covered tulle dress was pink, perfect for one English Rose like her. Slightly tight at the waist, with the gait she showed a very wide skirt which, however, fell plumb due to the heaviness of the fabric. The matching clutch was from Prada while the bow sandals by LKBennet and the brand’s earrings Links of London.
Just got out of the Central Saint Martins, in 1988 Jenny Packham he founded his brand in an apartment near Portobello market with her husband Matthew Anderson who of the company is CEO. Known for her bridal collections, the designer creates dresses to make women feel beautiful and confident on special occasions thanks to massive doses of sequins. Jenny Packham had dressed some celebrity ending up on prestigious red carpets but this was not enough for her. Beyond personal satisfaction, the business had been in the balance for a long time. Furthermore, that not being appreciated by the trade press represented a wound that could not heal.
In the autobiography released in March 2021 How to make a dress, the designer writes that during a London Fashion Week a bus full of journalists decided at the last moment to attend a party of another brand rather than one of its shows. To go and hear the shouting band invited to play, the audience that mattered had left the entire front row unguarded.
He therefore decided to migrate, experimenting the catwalks of New York which, in his opinion, were more suited to his fashion proposal. In London they don’t invest in long dresses, he argued, because “we only wear black dresses,” he declared in an interview.
When William and Kate’s engagement was announced, speculations about the dress immediately began. Among the many, the name of Jenny Packham was also mentioned. The Telegraph in two lines he summarized what was thought not only of the brand but also of the future bride. “All good middle-class girls consider a Jenny Packham dress at some point,” they wrote, “but not everyone considers that genre grand enough for Westminster Abbey.”
Now, ten years later, we don’t remember it but poor Kate, before becoming the style queen we all appreciate, had been rather criticized for her outfits. The fact that he came from an albeit excellent middle-class family was a brand that was hard to shake. There were those who reproached her for not immediately turning to a stylist but the one who acted as a counselor for a period came to her rescue, Sara Buys.
Considered very influential in the fashion world, the journalist was the wife of Tom Parker Bowles and according to what she herself has made known around, it would have been his advice to choose Sarah Burton for the wedding dress.
At one of those cocktails in which one shows up with a hat to eat canapé among aristocrats, the old fox may have given another precious piece of advice to Kate. To do how mother-in-law Diana (not his that Camilla would have been), finding a personal Catherine Walker in whose hands to rely on, however, counting on the main quality: discretion.
The designer frustrated by the lack of recognition in her country, in New York actually found America. At the time she had 400 stores in 36 countries, she also dressed women in Russia and the Middle East, her wedding dresses also arrived in Tokyo, Elizabeth Hurley had chosen her for her yes to Arun Nayar e Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Dita Von Teese they wanted it for their red carpets. He also collaborated with the most popular costume designer of those years: Patricia Field.
They had crossed paths on the set of Sex and the City (some Samantha outfits are signed by Jenny Packham) and on that of de The devil wears Prada. On the big and small screen, the brand liked it. The brand had been chosen to dress the Bond-girl Rosamund Pike in Death can wait and had landed up until now Gossip Girl.
No prophet in his hometown, as much as Jenny Packham wanted it on British soil it didn’t fuel. Until early June 2011 when he received the call with a capital C. The designer had been given five days to shape Kate’s style, which had hitherto been considered conservative, overly cautious and too accessible with Zara dresses and LKBennet wedges. Now that she finally had both Diana’s sapphire and Welsh gold wedding ring on her ring finger, the time had come for the Duchess to shine and to do so she summoned one who has never skimped on sequins.
«The Duchess is a dream to dress up»Said the designer blessed with luck after only twenty-three years of waiting. That talking about luck is an understatement, Kate must really like Jenny Packham otherwise she would not have asked her to create tailor-made clothes for all the important events in her life. Pass the banquets with the heads of state, i royal tour and charity events but nothing for Cambridges is more important than children (in addition to love they are the first in line of succession to the throne after William).
Each time the Duchess, as tradition has it, showed herself with the newborns in her arms outside the clinic Lindo Wing del St. Mary’s Hospital, he called Packham to make her clothes that cited those worn by Diana in the same circumstances. The Kate Effect it paid off and the designer found peace where she was looking for it, in her homeland, dressing the most prominent personality in the realm, at least in terms of fashion, right after the queen.
It’s been ten years since that famous ARK gala and many glitter have passed under the bridge since then. Nobody would question Kate’s refined elegance now, also thanks to the dresses that the designer has designed for her. Halfway through this journey, in June 2016, the powder pink dress that appealed so much to the duchess’s wild admirers who still carry that garment in their hearts suddenly returned to the fore.
The occasion was another fundraiser, this time in favor ofEast Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, housed in the Norfolk estate of friends of Kate and William the Marquesses Cholmondeley (for gossip lovers, Rose Hanbury, the hostess, was what the tabloids said was the alleged mistress of the Duke of Cambridge). The loose hair was pulled up this time, leaving the earrings clearly visible chandelier of diamonds borrowed from the queen and the bracelet, also of diamonds, from the treasury of the regina Mary.
Like Catherine Walker for the Princess of Wales, Kate is very fond of not leaking secrets and indiscretions to the press. Jenny Packham is less reserved than Diana’s favorite designer, so much so that she has also published a book full of anecdotes but, when asked about her special client, in addition to saying that there is an extraordinary collaboration relationship, which they understand very well, that dressing her is fantastic, you won’t lose more.
However, connecting the dots with what little we have on the table, we know that the phone call to the atelier arrived five days before June 9 with the order of one of the dresses already in the collection. On May 2 of that same year the episode of Gossip Girl The Princess and the Frog dove Blair is getting engaged to Prince Louis, subject to the approval of his royal family. To prepare her for the event, the young man brings to his beloved a box that contains the suitable dress to make an excellent impression with her mother and, twist, the dress is by Jenny Packham and extraordinarily similar to the one chosen by the Duchess of Cambridge for his debut in royal society.
A case? Could be. Kate was a fan of Gossip Girl? We can’t completely rule it out (who wasn’t really in that period, xoxo). Will we ever have the answers to our questions? We think not but it’s nice to think that modern princesses are inspired by their favorite TV series. It’s all part of a big dream that Kate and Jenny teach us sometimes, can even come true.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
