Here are some photos of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall last night in London. They attended the British Asian Trust gala/reception at the Natural History Museum. The event seems pretty well-attended with local British celebrities like Leona Lewis, Simon Cowell, Sanjeev Bhaskar and more.
Camilla wore this Bruce Oldfield gown which… I didn’t like very much at first glance, mostly because I thought the design was a tacky black-lace-on-navy-satin. But after looking more closely at the dress, you can tell it’s actually two shades of blue, one a midnight blue lace overlay, then a lighter blue for the sateen-looking base. I think the midnight blue overlay has black beading, which is throwing it all off. All in all, this is not a great look for Camilla though. It ages her, it looks incredibly dated and ‘80s, and it does nothing for her figure. It actually makes her look much heavier. I honestly think I could style Camilla so she would look age-appropriate but not so dowdy, you know? Something nice: I really like Camilla’s diamonds at this event. The necklace is fabulous and she’s wearing a truly beautiful pair of dangling diamond earrings. You can see more photos from the event here.
Meanwhile, there’s been a lot of talk this week about Charles’ very profitable hobby: painting. Charles has been painting for decades, and his own works decorate many of his homes. He also sells many of his works at auctions, with the profits going to various charities or The Prince’s Trust. In the past 19 years, his paintings have fetched more than $2.8 million in total. Some people did not know about Charles’ artistic hobby before now, but I watched a documentary about that estate he saved (in Scotland, I think) and how he turned the estate into an artists’ colony for new and emerging talents. In the newly-renovated estate, Charles decorated with some of his own watercolors, and the young artists were actually quite impressed with them. Oh, and Charles passed down his hobby to his youngest: Harry is a painter too, and he loves to paint scenes from his African travels.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
I don’t hate it (I love the shade of blue on the top part of the gown) but yeah, it’s not the best thing she’s ever worn. That said, the diamonds are fab, and it’s nice to see her out and looking well, considering her health. This might not be a popular opinion, but I think they make a cute couple.
Yeah, I never followed all the stories over the years because I was only 7 when Diana died… and now it’s just so much to shift through that I don’t have the interest. But honestly – I think they make a perfectly fine couple. They seem to actually like each other, and they both seem to at least work regularly, so that’s nice. I never got the Diana obsession – I know my mom and grandmother always seemed to think Diana was some sort of saint. At the end of the day, she was just another human – and so is Camilla. People make mistakes. It’s how you deal with them and move on from them that matters.
I loved Diana. She and Charles were never a good match. Charles should have happiness and Camilla is his happiness. She looks lovely and they’re happy.
Oh well I would love to join Harry for a painting session as I am an artists model….now
Looks like an old battleship at full sail.
Exactly I was just going to say it looks like a truck with a bit of lace thrown onto it…
Rottweiler !
Thank you, SNOWANGEL!
More like a crow who’s dressed herself in her shiny treasures she’s picked up.
I find many of these descriptions very unkind. She has never been a great beauty but beautiful to Charles. That is what I most loved about their love story. That the future king was attracted to a woman who looked like a regular woman. She isn’t half his age, she isn’t a size zero, she doesn’t look like a model. She looks like many of my friends or my daughter’s mothers . She often looks frumpy but so does the queen. Many women of a certain age tend to look like what they are “older women”. We are so brainwashed to think that we can look like a Sofia Loren, Susan Sarandon, Ann-Margret or have a body like Helen Mirren or Cheryl Tiegs or Goldie Hawn or Jane Fonda. These women are the exception. She always looks happy and lovely and i celebrate her long and loving relationship. Diana wasn’t a saint and also had many affairs.
Amen, crtb, to your eloquent comment. Dissing Camilla is so glib and not terribly interesting.
Co-sign. It’s too bad they didn’t marry when they were both young and not ending up detouring through other relationships. Everyone would have been happier IMO. They seem compatible and they WORK, unlike some.
co-sign
I don’t like her or find her attractive, but I think she looks nice in that color. Yes, the dress makes her look matronly. But her hair looks fine and the jewels are nice and overall, I’ve seen her look worse. That’s high praise coming from me.
I agree with everything you said. I thought she was frumpy 20 years ago tho.
I think her 80’s hairstyle does her in. She would look so much better with the wings gone and a whole restyle. I think she’s had her teeth redone so that’s an improvement.
I don’t think she looks matronly. She looks her age. How old is she anyway.
I’m too youmg to remeber Diana, but from what I have seen, I quite like Camilla. She’s a hars working royal ( even if that’s an oximoron) and her and Charles seem to be in love. So good for them.
I didn’t mean “matronly” as an insult. She is of a certain age and looks it. Nothing wrong with that. Although that didn’t come out very nice, either.
You have every right to like her. Many people do. I don’t want to get into a huge thing where half of the people think she’s the devil and Diana was an angel, and half the opposite. Nobody’s perfect. I just think she was really mean and selfish about her relationship with Charles when Diana was very young and vulnerable. I can’t get too excited for someone who behaved the way she did. Of course, most of the responsibility lies with him.
And the other half thinks that both of them have/had their failings and won’t deify or demonize either one.
No of course, you have every right to think that. I’m not all that familiar with the entire story anyway. I always thought that kind of behaviour was pretty standard in their circles anyway. Was it?
I think Camilla could have backed off a bit. She seemed to be lurking wherever Charles was. That doesn’t absolve him of his responsibility, but she did seem to want to keep some hold on him (or at least that’s the impression I got from reading The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown). She seemed as possessive of him as Diana is often described as being. That facet of Camilla’s personality in wanting to hold on to Charles while also holding on to her own husband is a puzzle to me, but she never gives interviews so I guess she’ll always remain an enigma.
Whenever I read a book about these three I wind up sympathetic to both Diana and Charles on their various childhood and grown-up issues and the troubles they had in their marriage both in private and in the spotlight, but not Camilla. No portrait of her in a biography ever seems to be flattering when the infidelity issue is raised, not even when her ex-husband was cheating on her. And people often note that Diana wouldn’t have been interested in Charles if he hadn’t Prince of Wales, but that seems to have been the case for Camilla too. Maybe she’s so quiet in public, no one will ever really know what was inside of Camilla’s head until she dies and some diaries become public. (Though I probably wouldn’t open my mouth either, since I don’t think I’d know how to come up with an explanation for needing that Charles that badly at the expense of some other lady).
In the rush to blame Camilla for the troubles in the Wales’s marriage, particularly the idea that she was always hanging around and thus didn’t give them any space to develop a relationship, everybody, including Diana, coveniently forgets the other mistress aka Lady Kanga Tyron. She was equally possesive of Charles, never let him be AND went out of her way to befriend Diana whilst carrying on with Charles. To extent that there was once a rumour that Charles fathered one of her kids.
Camilla is the mistress who won in the end, who Diana was obsessed with thus locking her in the public narrative of the story, but let’s not forget Kanga who was used and cruelly cast aside when she was of no use to any of the other 3 parties.
I want to know more about Kanga. Thanks in advance!
Perplexed: Kanga was the nickname of Lady Dale Tyron, an Australian socialite who had almost as long standing an affair with Charles as Camilla. Kanga’s affair with Charles started in 1972, a few months after he started dating Camilla. The Kanga affair lasted through to the mid/late 80s. It was a proper love triangle that has been conveniently scrubbed from records.
Both ladies married their respective husbands within 6mths of each other after Charles shipped off with the royal navy.
And after their respective marriages, both ladies stepped back from Charles to have the required heir for their husbands.
Kanga was the first to rekindle her affair with Charles post-birth because she had her child months before Camilla had her child. Both husbands acquiesced to the affair Charles was having with their wives.
Camilla finally unseated her when Kanga stepped back to have her second child. Apparently Kanga suffered from really bad PPD and took some time to return to the circle.
By 1979, both women were running Charles or vice versa. Never forgetting the other ladies he was having flings with. And both ladies (and QM + Lady Ruth Fermoy) helped search for a bride for Charles, even though the burden of this has been laid at the feet of Camilla alone. Diana knew about both ladies by the time she walked down that aisle.
Immediately after the wedding, Camilla did step back, but Kanga did not. We know this because Kanga started telling stories to the press. Kanga kept up a steady stream of insider commentary, usually to Nigel Dempster of DM. She also decided to start a fashion label and used fashion as a way to get closer to Diana. It’s quite funny to see Diana in Kanga’s clothes which she wore quite often. Rumour has it that Kanga and Diana united during the 80s to get rid of Camilla and that Diana approved of Kanga and her relationship with Charles. Being seen in Kanga’s clothes and going to lunch with her in public places was seen as her public signal to that end. History has revised this period such that it was Camilla who was the 3rd person in the Wales’s marriage, but Kanga was very much in pole position, not Camilla. Camilla probably kept a hand in, but really it was Kanga.
Camilla eventually won the day because she was more discreet about the relationship than Kanga. Through the 80s, both ladies were always described as ‘friends’ rather than mistresses, but Kanga would talk to DM and sometimes to early morning news shows. And the death of any relationship with the royals is being indiscreet and that’s what eventually killed Kanga’s relationship with Charles.
At some point in the early 90s, Dale had a fall at home that left her in a wheelchair, and from then onwards, any news about her was that she was suffering from various physical ailments, addictions and or a possible mental breakdown.
Either way, she never saw Charles again, and died a sad lonely death in November 1997, 3mths after Diana.
After her death, both her family and the royals (Charles’s office) has done all they can to scrub this affair from public view. They’ve re-written history such that it promotes Camilla and no one else. The new history makes a brief mention of one or two girlfriends like Lady Jane Wellesley or Sabrina Guinness and maybe Lady Sarah Spencer if pushed, but it never ever mentions Kanga. EVAH. Too messy. Her wiki page says she was a socialite, had a fashion business, married well, had some kids and then had severe health problems leading to early death. Nothing about Charles.
There is a documentary about her on youtube called ‘Charles’s other mistress’ if you want the gory details.
Not crazy about the dress, but I love the way she rocks the mega-bling (take a lesson, Kate). Big jewelry doesn’t frighten Camilla!
I think so much jewellery is quite tacky. Even if it ‘s real and on a royal.
So much jewelry – necklace, diamonds and her engagement ring?
And I wouldn’t mind some tacky diamonds like that.
At one point she said something about how Charles likes her all blinged out.
Re the shawl – it was evening in winter and it was cold.
I seriously enjoy Charles’s bejewelled woman fetish.
Note to self: must find husband who regularly gifts serious jewels. Just because.
It is just earrings and a necklace but they’re quite big and sparkly. But then again I hate necklaces and think they ruin every outfit.
Haha LOCKE LAMORA, your comment reminded me of Elizabeth Taylor’s sly quip. When someone tried on Liz’s huge diamond ring from Richard Burton, she asked, “Doesn’t seem so tacky now, does it?!” I think Camilla rocks the entire set!
Niki: that was Princess Margaret.
Apparently they were out to lunch (or lunch function) and Margaret very loudly declared that ET’s krupp diamond ring was simply vulgar. Then turned around and asked to try it on. Once on PM’s finger, ET quipped, ‘not so vulgar now!’ 🙂
Thanks, LAK!! I had no idea it was Princess Margaret! You are a treasure trove!
The necklace/earrings are from a set that Charles bought for her. That’s made up of a old tiara. I don’t know if it’s fair to call Kate out for not buying (or for William for buying) those big statement pieces. If they bought something that expensive they’d get raked over the coals for it.
http://queensjewelvault.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-duchess-of-cornwalls-pear-drop.html
Charles has gifted Kate statement pieces that she wears all the time – bracelet and earrings.
She received a few statement pieces for her wedding and as far as we know wore them once, publicly – her acorn wedding earrings and her ruby parure.
Further, she frequently purchases very tiny but super expensive neck pendants eg that £49K cartier pendant she bought for the Olympics – sidebar don’t shop on the highstreet if you are putting down £49K for a necklace pendant.
She simply doesn’t wear her statement jewellery correctly.
And William *is* cheap AND isn’t a jewellery person – see his refusal to have a wedding ring. Probably doesn’t notice what Kate has except for the ring of doom.
Wait. KM has a ruby parure? I thought that was just CP Mary. She has that one ruby necklace that was a wedding gift right?
All I’ve ever seen is a few earrings that are just nice and the one bracelet from Charles she wears to evening events. Even her wedding earrings-while nice aren’t what I would call a statement piece like these earrings from Camilla. Just going through the pieces that Kate has, I feel like she’s wearing her few statement pieces when she should-at evening events. It’s just she has way less of them.
http://hrhduchesskate.blogspot.com/p/jewellery.html
Scal: that ruby necklace is thought to be part of a parure. Not as fancy as CP Mary’s parure.
For the collective amount of money Kate spends on her tiny earrings and or necklace pendants, she could have some serious statement jewels.
She has about 8-10 separate pieces (necklaces pendants and earrings) in the £3-£4K each. Fewer of those and sh could purchase serious jewels from an antique dealer.
And don’t get me started on what a waste of money/jewels that £49K pendant is. She could purchase serious jewels with that amount at modern or antique jewellers. Instead she buys that nondescript pendant that’s mostly metal.
The wedding earrings were from her parents. I’m not sure the ruby necklace is part of a parure. We’ve seen the necklace, were told it was a private gift (not necessarily Charles), and which looks like something a 10 year old would buy at Claire’s. The expensive tanzanite set (necklace and earrings), I don’t know where that is from.
The few pieces of jewellery said to have been gifted by William, apart from the ring of doom and possibly Diana’s sapphire earrings, are cheap as chips – some drop earrings and a celtic metal brooch.
I guess I need to go shopping at Claire’s because I liked that ruby necklace. I assume we’re talking about the one she wore with the strapless velvet gown early in their marriage right?
Yes, the knock-off of the famous Diana dress complete with black frill around the top. That necklace to me looks like something a tween would pick out with the tiny flower motif. I’m not sure it is ruby, as it might be garnet to match her birthstone.
Who cares about the dress?! The diamonds are giving me life!
😃
Diamonds! Gimme dose!
RIght?! Oh my god, I am in love with them. Those are gorgeous pieces.
I like it, and the bling is gorgeous. But I have a soft spot for Camilla and I find that she dresses age appropriate. They look happy together, and I am glad to hear that Charles restored an estate and transformed it into an artists’ colony. Donating the proceeds from his paintings is the right gesture too.
Is that Dumfries House? I know he bought and restored that house but didn’t know he had turned it into an artists’ colony. He hired local people to staff it, some of whom were unemployed and one of them marvels as he was 23 and unemployed when he was hired to work in the kitchen and now he’s under butler I think. He was interviewed as part of the story on the place and was gobsmacked at how things worked out.
Yeah it’s amazing how things keep working out for Charles. In other words “mummy” bails out his sorry ass (again). Though, she did the same for Burrell (and I was genuinely angry about that as opposed to anything involving Charles) however ultimately it was self- serving in that she and others didn’t want Burrell on that witness stand (or box in UK) spilling all the Royal secrets.
Bluhare
He housed the Royal Drawing School at Dumfries House: http://royaldrawingschool.org. Also a craft and ancient skills school, I think.
What do you mean,b ails out his sorry ass? She bailed him out with a loan to pay off Diana – bet he wished he had gone for annual alimony now!
And what’s this with Burrell?
There were charges against him that he had taken some of Diana’s personal items without permission. Mid-way through the trial, the Queen made it known he’d told her he’d done it (therefore with permission) and the charges were dropped.
Citresse, not sure what Paul Burrell or the Queen bailing out Charles has to do with Dumfries House — which she didn’t fund. From what I understand he got some backers and risked some Princes Trust money on it, since paid off.
Thanks for the info, Sixer! Craft and ancient skills school sounds really interesting. I picture monks hanging around illuminating manuscripts. Or maybe some brawny men outside forging metal. Definitely brawny men outside forging metal. 🙂
bluhare
I would guess one of Charles’ “backers” always directly or indirectly involve HM.
spidey
All that divorce settlement (Diana) money ultimately went to her children (Diana’s death) so Charles in that respect didn’t really lose especially if William put that money back in a family trust so really it just took a little detour on the way back to Charles.
If you ever watch documentary Winner takes it all or something to that effect (it was a doc about Camilla and Charles ending up together officially) you’ll be reminded how life can be so terribly unfair not only considering what happened to Diana but others. Who would have believed Kanga would go the way she did?
Charles took a huge risk on Dumfries House, and even in 2013 it was not turning a profit. He borrowed £20 million from the Prince’s trust. I’ve not heard of HM bailing out Charles probably because he has all that income from the Duchy of Cornwall, nor was anything mentioned about her in connection with this. That being said, none of the investors in the consortium he founded to purchase and restore it were named, so she could have been one. What I find more likely is that if it had failed, she may have helped then, but it didn’t and hasn’t.
It’s the wrap. I think if she had just worn the gown it would have been stunning
Agree with you Scal. I think the heavy solid wrap overwhelms the lace, Who can even tell what’s going on under that black tent. It’s covering most of the dress. It might have been better with a light lacy wrap, but then again, who wants to walk around with your elbows bent all night keeping your wrap in position? I made that uncomfortable, joint stiffening mistake once, just once.
But we can’t really see much of her dress, can we? Isn’t she holding some kind of wrap or cape all around it? So of course, those are never figure flattering, because one looks like a big lump. I LOVE her diamonds. Rock that glitter; let us live vicariously!
This, and these photos were taken in darkness. It’s tough to see the dress at all.
Makeup and hair looks fine, wish she would have ditched the shawl.
She’s 68 years old. She’s earned the right to be dowdy/matronly. I think she looks pretty decent.
Right? Jeez come on. How long does one have to wear form fitting clothes. To the coffin?
I like it. I’m officially over women of a certain age – matrons – having to pretend in all circumstances they’re hot young things. After a while, most women will fail at that. Wear what feels good and is appropriate to the situation. There’s nothing wrong with looking matronly when you’re nearing 70.
The only thing with her, for me, is that her posture always indicates/looks like her boobs are tumbling to her waist. Like she’s bracing herself constantly for them to “fall out”…..
I think she should have had a breast reduction years ago because I suspect we see the effect of them pulling her forward for years. Doesn’t she have back problems too? That could contribute there as well.
She has osteoporosis and her spine is curving. Her mother and grandmother had it too and apparently her mother died a very painful death from it. Camilla is patron of the Osteoporosis Association in the UK and has raised a ton of money for them.
+1 Betsy. Camilla always looks well turned out to me, “matron” is a good look for her. And even if she is no beauty queen, she gives off pleasant and kind vibes. And definitely seems more approachable than the Queen or Charles.
News flash; she IS a matron and that is what matrons look like.
That’s the kind of dress Kate Middleton loves wearing!
She looks nice and the jewellery is fab. I have a soft spot for Camilla. She comes across as v down to earth and approachable and she has done great work with one of her charities supporting rape victims- she’s impressed everyone involved by getting super involved and coming up with great suggestions.
By the way anyone seen Tracy Ullman’s new BBC show? She does a superb impression of her.
I love Tracy’s impression of Camilla.
Lace must be big right now in UK or she’s taking fashion pointers from Kate. Are we going to start seeing Camilla in mini-skirts, skinny jeans and wedges? The DM would love that.
I didn’t like that she and Charles were dallying all throughout his marriage to Princess Di, who was pretty darned fragile. Don’t like either of them. Now Harry, that’s another story.
Do you like that Diana was dallying with married men BEFORE he got back with Camilla? She admitted on tape to being the first to stray.
She didn’t admit to being to first to stray! She shrewdly admitted o her affair with James Hewitt, portraying herself as a wounded animal hounded by vicious enemies at the Palace.
Agree, wolfie. I don’t remember her admitting to being the first to stray either. She was too busy painting Charles in that role. Although there was the protection officer who was dismissed for getting too close to her and then killed in a motorcycle accident. Rumors were rife that they had an affair, but Diana never confirmed that. Had she, that might have cemented the First to Stray title. Assuming Charles told the truth about being faithful until the marriage irretrievably broke down. Of course, there’s probably lots of debate as to when that was.
Personally, I think all of that really should not have been any of our business. It was personal, and nothing to do with their public role. And that’s how I prefer to remember Diana, and how well she handled that and her charisma with people she met. She has no peer in my lifetime, that’s for sure.
Di was about as fragile as a steel girder. Unhinged at times, yes, but she was a master of manipulation. I’m 63 and lived through the whole Chuck and Di era and have no preference for either Diana or Camilla. Charles married Diana mostly because of family pressure and the duty to procreate. Diana had a mad passion for him and changed herself to suit his needs, i.e. she maintained she loved the country life, loved horses, loved shooting and holidays at Balmoral, when in fact she hated it all. Once she married him the real Di came out and she fell apart when The Firm tried to make her toe the line – like Kate, she knew what she was marrying into, she’d been close to the royal family all her life. Charles certainly relied on Camilla’s guidance to help him understand what was happening with Diana.
Fortunately Diana’s steeliness endured and she became the hard-working and charismatic person we remember her as, who added so much to the image of the royal family and broke through a lot of the walls around them, humanized them and reached the people in a new way.
In fact Charles should have married Camilla way back when they were dating, but he was enjoying his footloose and fancy-free days then so she married Tom Parker-Bowles, who was quite the catch. But their deep friendship always endured and that’s the one thing Charles and Diana never had, a solid friendship to see them through the tough times.
I would quibble though with how much Di knew she was getting into.
Yeah –she felt passion for him and I’m sure hid her real self to some degree. But their courtship was really SO.SHORT. It was only a matter of a few months, and within those few months they were hardly ever together and never for a sustained amount of time. My take on it was that she, being a literal teenager at the time, went along for the ride and wanted to bag the big prize (if one can call Chuck that). I don’t think she knew what she was getting into, she really did want to believe it was a fairy tale, and she got the ultimate rude awakening.
I don’t think she really knew either, at least in terms of the kind of hold that Camilla specifically might be able to secure on her husband. Since she was only 19 I could see her thinking she had youth and beauty and the desirability that comes with that kind of youth on her side, and was probably shocked that Camilla had something in her that Charles wanted. Even if she knew the friendship they had was on the deeper side, she probably thought her youth and emerging beauty at 20 could sway him from the older less attractive lady in her 30s. She probably might have even thought Camilla was old and that she had the advantage by virtue of her being younger, which doesn’t seem like unusual thinking when you see some of the stuff spouted off by younger actresses in magazines. The rest of the public was stunned by Charles’s preference for Camilla, despite the fact that the media had made some of Diana’s flaws apparent, so I don’t think it would be out of the realm of possibility that she’d be stunned either.
She’s holding the shawl at a very unflattering angle, but yeah she’s usually in something better suited.
Get used to her dripping in diamonds, if Charles outlives her (which I think he will), she’ll be dripping until the day she dies.
What is with the clutch? She’s holding it in front of herself in every picture
Have seen her in better but the colour and bling looks great on her.
Whoever Camilla’s stylist is, they are doing a great job. She always looks appropriate and fashionable. I was, and will always be, a Princess Diana fan, but let’s face it — Camilla was, and is, who Prince Charles wanted. He got his Happily Ever After. Diana did not.
She looks nice. Those diamonds are fabulous. As always, though, she needs a better bra.
She looks fine to me.
Leave the dress, take the diamonds.
Leave the gun, take the cannoli. 😊
I’d like to see Harry’s paintings. I’m glad there’s an artistic side to him.
omg Simon Cowell at that event!
wtf was he thinking? and will he ever be invited again after that.
Cowell has a weird body. His torso looks really stunted and he always insists on wearing shirts unbuttoned to nearly his navel revealing a hairy chest. And he seems to always wear pants about three inches too long and he always seems to wear really pointy shoes.
I love how she’s not afraid of big, flashy jewellery and she’s great at showing them off – probably the only one in the BRF who really does that.
I’d love to be dripping in diamonds. Good for her. I like the detail of the top of her gown. She could look a lot “smarter” though if she modernized a little. She’s a little in the past, fashion-wise.
The dress looks fine to me. She’s never going to be Susan Sarandon, and probably doesn’t want to be.
@ Tourmaline, it has been said that Diana was in love with the Prince of Wales and she got Prince Charles .
Is it just me or is Charles looking a little filled in the face lately? I don’t think it’s weight gain.