.........
After reading the article regarding Catherine's attire at Christmas, I didn't realise that had to change to so much on Christmas day. £'Kate will need a casual outfit for breakfast, a smart outfit - and a hat - for the morning church service, a dress for lunch, a cocktail dress for early evening drinks and a full-length dress for the evening meal.'
Is that true protocol? I know the hat is obvious, but what about the rest? Could someone with royal insight tell me?
Please don't laugh at me, but from my own experience,this is fairly standard attire for what I call 'formal country house party occasions'. It's what I have to wear when we go for weekends with people. Most such weekends involve dressing for dinner - and in fact, most country house parties at the weekend are in fact built around parties, either at the house where you are staying or in the neighbourhood. Of course it is not 'Christmas' every weekend, but the Sunday of a country house party weekend usually almost always involves a visit to church......... so in other words, the Royal Christmas schedule is just following 'standard country house practice' [When the previous Lord Lichfield (royal relative) used to entertain at Shrugborough, although he was something of a right-on trendy London photographer etc etc, even his house parties were quite formal 'tweedy' affairs. The staff were always dressed very formally for dinner etc and so it would just not have been 'on' to appear in jeans, even if clean and of the 'Designer' variety.] [And by the way, you do NOT need new clothes the whole time; I tend to wear the same outfits over and over again, changing the hat I wear for church etc etc. Several long dresses, a couple of evening skirts and silk tops, a couple of 'country suits', a good coat, an ancient Burberry trenchcoat, a couple of ancient Hermes Scarves, a few cashmere sweaters bought in Sales from the Cashmere Centre, a couple of country jackets, my pearl necklace and a family heirloom diamond necklace that I am lucky enough to have and I am all set with clothes that can be worn year after year after year after year after year. you get the idea I am sure]
The 'casual outfit' for breakfast usually means 'no jeans' and I am sure that this is the rule for royal occasions too. Obviously you don't go shooting on Christmas Day or on Sundays, but as a general rule, you find that ladies are allowed to stay in bed and are then served breakfast in bed [yippee, but make sure that you are wearing a decent nightdress!!] whilst the guns are downstairs having a substantial breakfast [devilled kidneys, kedgeree etc] before going out on a shoot. By custom, the ladies then go out and join the guns for a shooting picnic.
[All this 'dressing up' is actually a relic of the 'grand old days' when the aristocracy did not work and there was nothing much to do except entertain and in order to occupy all that time, constant outfit-changing was a way of passing the time....of course, in those days, everyone had a lot of staff.....]
[This thread is NOT about me of course, but for the record, I don't like pheasant or grouse shooting or deer stalking too much and would not shoot game myself, although I am (if I may say so) a pretty competent shot when it comes to clays. Mostly, women do not tend to shoot alongside the men at traditional and royal shoots - instead they help by holding gundogs, loading for their menfolk, picking up etc]
Hope some of this is of interest
Alex
[PS; at a more appropriate time I will recount the sad tale of when I went away for a house party at the weekend and I thought that I had lost my evening dress..........a most bizarre thing had actually happened to me....]
Sophie looks very good as usual. Thanks for sharing!
). She would be eating up all the attention, and would add heaps of cheer to the Christmas Day.
