Yes, the British media is still obsessing over the blurry, low-res photo of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The photo – which did not show Archie and Lili’s faces – was included in a set of six photos for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Christmas card. The British media cannot decide what upsets them the most about the photo, but I tend to believe that the level of nitpicking obsession would not be as high as it is if Prince William and Kate had already released their Christmas card. What’s the hold up?? In any case, the Daily Mail wants everyone to know that the Sussexes are horrible for dressing Prince Archie in jeans (terribly unroyal) and dressing Princess Lili in knee socks (terribly royal!).
From Princes George and Louis to a young Prince Harry and Prince William, young royal boys are often spotted wearing shorts – rather than trousers – when accompanying their parents on official duties. Yet Prince Archie, five, was dressed much more relaxed in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Christmas card, with the King’s grandson sporting a pair of blue jeans and a green jacket. Likely thanks to his parents, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, no longer being working royals, and the casual nature of the snap, Archie was dressed in a pair of trousers, rather than shorts.
His cousins, Princes George, now 11, and Louis, six, would often be photographed sporting adorable shorts and knee-high socks when they were younger. Prince Louis, for instance, opted for that ensemble when he attended Sandringham in 2022 for Christmas Day alongside his family members.
Speaking to PEOPLE magazine previously, Editor-in-Chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward explained: ‘It is considered very suburban for a little boy to be in long trousers when he is just a little boy. It is shorts until you’re 8 and then “woo, you’re in long trousers”. They suddenly feel very grown up,’ added the royal expert.
Previously, etiquette expert William Hanson told Femail that Kate put her son exclusively in shorts as it’s an aristocratic way to dress. He claimed that shorts on young boys are, in fact, a silent British class marker and trousers are deemed ‘suburban’, which no self-respecting royal would want to be considered. ‘Catherine has to dress her own children and find a balance between royal tradition and heritage and more proletariat customs, such as the “suburban” habit of making young boys wear trousers,’ he explained. ‘Although I don’t really think that the sartorial rule of shorts for young boys would be a new one for Catherine. I would suspect that her own mother and mother’s friends knew this – as more well-heeled middle class mothers do – and dressed their own boys accordingly.’
Yes, they’re trying to make it into yet another class thing, as in Middle-Class Kate is clever and upwardly mobile for dressing her sons like Little Lord Fauntleroy while Meghan is terribly low-class for letting her five-year-old son wear (gasp) jeans. Nevermind that American boys would never wear those posh-British-boy getups. Meanwhile, the Mail makes it sound like Meghan is purposefully copying Princess Charlotte’s style for Lili.
Princess Lilibet appeared to be taking inspiration from her older cousin Princess Charlotte in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new holiday card. The season’s greetings from the Archewell Foundation featured a new photograph of the couple’s rarely-seen children Prince Archie, five, and Lilibet. It made for the first time the public have seen Lilibet in two years, since a photo was last released for her first birthday in 2022.
Now aged three, a very grown-up Lilibet was seen with her mother’s long flowing hair, and also sported a very familiar dress. Though the photo was taken from a distance, Lilibet could be seen lovingly running towards her father Prince Harry, and was wearing a sweet spotted dress in baby blue with white socks.
It’s a style that is beloved by Princess Charlotte, nine, who has often been seen in a very similar take on the patterned dress, with a similar cut. However, it’s not known if the cousins have ever met. In 2018, Charlotte was seen wearing a light-blue dress with a floral pattern and white collar as she visited St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington to visit her baby brother Prince Louis.
You mean to tell me that two girls, thousands of miles apart, both wore patterned dresses? I’m flabbergasted! Honestly, the knee-high socks on Lili surprised me a little bit because I do associate that with how Kate dresses her kids, but it’s also just… how a lot of girls dress. Like, that’s legitimately a popular style for little girls.
Christmas card courtesy of Archewell, additional photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, SussexRoyal social media.
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – **FILE PHOTOS** Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, here on archive photos, will celebrate his 40th birthday together with his wife Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and their children Archie and Lilly Mountbatten Windsor, probably in their villa in Montecito, California. Pictured: Prince Harry BACKGRID USA 14 SEPTEMBER 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex attending the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Mountain Square Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Whistler, Canada When: 14 Feb 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
-
- One Year to Go event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Mountain Square Featuring: Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex Where: Whistler, Canada When: 14 Feb 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
-
- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex attending the second day of the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Mountain Square Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Whistler, Canada When: 15 Feb 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
-
- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attending the final day of the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 and go curling at the Vancouver Curling Club at Hillcrest Community Centre Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 16 Feb 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
Do people forget that Harry is British and he is the father of these children? Maybe he bought the dress for his little girl because he saw those dresses on baby girls while he was living there. The tabloids stay weird as always. Now, imagine what they would to these two precious babies if they stayed in UK and the media had full access to them because “we pay, you pose”.
Lili had on knee socks at the July 4th parade, where she is in Harry’s arms in the photo
The British media REALLY doesn’t get American mannerisms at all, it’s so weird. Like no young American boy is wearing that fussy stuff. Are the readers of these British rags truly that gullible?
The funny thing is, had Meghan and Harry remained in England as working royals, I seriously doubt if they would have dressed Archie in short pants. Honestly. “It’s a class thing.” So stupidly British.
Even funnier: Kate didn’t dress Louis in short pants either! For the 2023 Christmas Walk Louis wore blue-green-Tartan trousers. Shockingly suburbian!
The funny thing, too, is how they don’t get that Americans would find British upper class markers laughable. And there’s no upper crust sporting the same class markers to look down on Americans for laughing. There’s just Americans laughing. At British royals. That’s it. That’s how it works in the United States.
Lili’s socks are fine, I can see her being accustomed to them if she wears a uniform for private school, for instance. Very Catholic school basic.
But everyone, just imagine. Imagine GROWING UP in this nonsense. Harry must feel so free. As in, “Yeah, my kid can wear whatever the hell they want and there’s no one around to sniff and pass ‘discreet’ memos along about how unacceptable it is, etc. etc.” The FREEDOM that man must feel!
That’s a really good point about how the outfit is reminiscent of Catholic school basic because Meghan went to a Catholic school herself. That’s probably where she got the inspo from.
I swear I’ve seen picks of Meghan when she was little in cute little socks and a dress or maybe I’m imagining it. And also we’ve seen Meghan wear Jena shirts from the brand DOEN. Look up the dresses for girls on that site. It’s an LA brand that focuses on nostalgia for the California of decades past.
https://www.shopdoen.com/collections/kids
Edit-jean shorts, sorry. Just saying there are a lot of brands even in Cali with those types of dresses.
There are numerous pictures of Prince Harry and his family at the 2023 4th of July parade where he is carrying his daughter who is dressed in a similar outfit to this card if not an identical one. Example is this here: https://ca.pinterest.com/pin/26529085298949517/
It seems like light blue is the Sussexes’ go to color for small madam Sussex. In Lili birthday video she is wearing a similar outfit minus the long socks. The BSM are reaching.
I personally don’t think Lily is that tall as she appears to be in on this card. I believe all the pictures were distorted on purpose just to make everyone appear weird. That way, trying to correct it and print would be copyright infringement that can result in a lawsuit. The BM can’t stand any of this LOL.
No we are not, but when I was at school many years ago boys were not allowed to wear long trousers until they were 11. Yes, I know it is daft. Mind you, girls were not allowed to wear trousers at all.
@sunnuyside up – the boys had to wear shorts even in the winter?
Shorts (short pants) until 8 is INSANE. I’ve never understood that in England.
Secondly, Americans are more practical about dressing kids (even rich kids) – jeans and corduroy are super durable, kids grow quickly so nothing fussy/expensive, and frankly whatever you can do to get them clothed in time for school works.
Also, weather varies widely in America. If little boys were wearing shorts outfits in the Northeast when it’s 10 degrees out in January, people would think the parents needed their heads examined. Shorts are for warm weather, pants are for cool weather.
“His cousins, Princes George, now 11, and Louis, six, would often be photographed sporting adorable shorts and knee-high socks when they were younger.”
I have always felt that the Windsors were trying to infantilize the kids by making them wear clothes that are out of date and harken back to “old times”. Really? They look ridiculous.
Especially in cold weather? Why put a child in shorts when there is snow on the grown?!
It’s the cold for me. Seward says the boys get to feel grown up when they’re allowed to wear trousers. And I’m just like no, correction. They’re allowed to feel warm and not freezing when they’re allowed to wear trousers. It gets cold in the winter. What the hell.
Maybe Ingrid watches those old movies with Freddie Bartholomew where he dressed up in the Fauntleroy type outfits. This is so off the wall.
Beyond the age of 2 (if even), that shorts and knee socks combo would never fly for an American boy. And I thought Kate was supposed to bring that wholesome, middle class sensibility to the royal family? How is dressing your sons like little lord Fauntleroy accomplishing that?
Needle scratch here – also a shoutout to Fug Nation – these people are seriously endorsing FORMAL SHORTS. /smh
I don’t like the way they constantly tell us how old they are in every single article.
Honestly, the idea of little boys wearing long trousers as “suburban” will never not be funny to me. British aristos are just weird. 😆
I wore knee socks with dresses for years and I am American. Here it is fairly common to see girls in knee socks or socks just above the ankle. It is a preference thing not a symbol of class. There are photos with William and Harry in jeans as little boys. In America, you often see little boys in jeans. Jeans are associated with being American. Trying to class American’s is a losing cause.
Those gutter rats over there need to give it up. The family is gone and the mother and father will continue to dress their children as they please.
Me too, I also wore knee socks with dresses for years. And I went to parochial school where that was a requirement, but even to functions that were not school related, I dressed like that. So, the BM can go pound sand.
“her own mother and mother’s friends knew this – as more well-heeled middle class mothers do”
And yet still the dig at the middle class Middleton’s. Kate must always be reminded of her place, even as they use her to try to tear down Meghan.
Guys, I am howling at the use of the word “suburban,” to try and insult the Sussexes children ( and Meghan – Apparently, she and Doria should be huddled together creating and laying out ridiculous little lord Fauntleroy cosplay for Archie so they can impress the tabloids in England!) Harry, of course, has no say in this as Archie’s other parent, just Meg and her mother ( and maybe her mother’s friends, apparently, lmfao). I think that really tells us something about how TOB and his wife operate, not the Sussexes.
Nevermind the fact that I expect Archie is probably choosing his clothes for himself at this point, based on what he likes and what is comfortable for California!
How much do you want to bet that the DM tried to use the word “urban” to describe the Sussex children, but it was a bridge to far, so they settled on “suburban”?
If you visit museums with historic portraits of children, one of the things that you’ll notice is little boys looking like girls: they often have long hair and they wear dresses. Boys switched to more masculine clothing around 5-7 years old, which is similar to when the royal boys switch from shorts to trousers. Having watched royal boys in shorts with bare knees in freezing weather… maybe someone should take a break to think about their traditions?
Little girls always had to put up with bare knees, we didn’t wear tights when we were at school, in the late 50s.
The garments I wore with dresses as a child were called leotards. Now they are called tights and are far more sheer than the leotards used to be.
My daughters want to wear the weirdest craziest things in the name of what they consider fashion, not to mention “makeup”, and at home I just let them. They are now 8 and 10, but it started when they were really little.
You have to pick your battles with children over clothes, it’s not a battle you’re going to win often.
They needed to find something to bitch about since Lili wasn’t in jeans being terribly tomboyish.
Weren’t all the Wales in jeans/denim for last year’s Xmas frankenphoto?
I don’t ever recall Charlotte’s high socks.
Yeah, they were in jeans on that true-crime mall photo. They also did jeans photo before that: sitting on a tree. Of course, they did all that after H&M and their children took a photo in jeans when Lili was a baby and the tabloids mocked them for wearing jeans as royals.
Ok the Mail has really really lost their minds…
The way that George was made to dress as he did was horrifying to watch. Actually the clothes for all three of the Wales is dreadful. It may be posh because a lot of money was spent but harking back to the days of old is not an attractive look. No wonder those kids always look miserable.
If my 6 year old grandson showed up for first grade wearing shorts and knee socks he’d be laughed out of the room.
Archie wore jeans in the 2021 Christmas card and Lili wore a little frilly dress. As for denim, The Wales all wore denim in the 2022 card and all the kids wore shorts. And for the 2023 card, All the Wales wore jeans, except for Louis and people weren’t sure those were even his legs.
Pretty sure the Wales were never called suburban for wearing jeans in any of those pics. But what do we expect from Ingrid Seward of the donkey sanctuary fame.
American girls have been wearing these dresses for decades. Children’s store Janie and Jack, any high end department store carry these dresses anytime of the year, at the holidays they’re in velvet.
Designers pay peanuts for the smocking in developing countries and then charge huge bucks, because of “hand Smocking”
No one was wearing high socks before Charlotte, oh I forgot the Catholic School Girls.
Charlotte has never been pictured in long socks. It’s always tights or ankle socks. It’s Windsor boys that wear long socks. Lili as a private citizen growing up in America should feel free to wear whatever she likes.
Ingrid Sewage is trying to push this xenophobic /class BS because Archie and Lili are of royal blood they should dress like other Windsor children. And it’s an attempt to get the Wales children in the conversation. Apparently George, Charlotte and Louis are so oversaturated in the British press even stand alone articles about them don’t get clicks and engagements (and money for the BM).
Ingrid needs to stop just stop. Comparing children is really the worst.
I mean, if you gave all of the derangers truth serum, I think that their dream scenario would be Meghan trying really hard to impress them and attempt to create her own little mini royal court in California. They could spend a whole month rerunning photos of the “aristocratic” Wales children and their “suburban” cousins, with running commentary on Kate vs. Meghan, because you know, how the children are presented is a direct reflection of their mother. Everyone knows this! /s/
But MM has never been even the slightest bit interested in acknowledging such stupid rules rules. She is definitely not looking for Ingrid S.’s seal of approval the way that Kate (and her mother) are.
“Prince Louis, for instance, opted for that ensemble…”
No. No, Louis absolutely did not “opt” for that. No 5 or 6-year-old boy in the entire world would, if given the choice, dress like that. His gauche, grasping, parvenu mother puts him in those clothes because she’s desperate to look aristocratic. Do the genuine, established aristocrats dress their sons like that? Like, say, the Cholmondeleys?
How can a young kid “opt” for anything. The shopping would be done by his parents., especially his mother.
Louis wore long pants for the Christmas walk last year and he was 5-years old then.
I was going here to say that. If the rule is to 8 years old, guess who’s broken it. He also had on regular panda at the Christmas concert.
Ingrid should stop going on about this nonsense. It was bad enough how she wrote about Diana, Harry, and Meghan.
Ingrid should just stop lying – especially with the internet where anyone can fact check her.
Lort. The 🐀 coverage about the annual Sussex Christmas card is turning into Meghan’s red dress part 2.0. The rota are really desperate for any Sussex content. Knee socks for girls goes in and out of fashion. I wore them when I was little many trips around the sun ago.
Yep! I’m old enough that when I was in elementary school (not a religious school), girls were not allowed to wear pants. So it was skirts and knee socks. And no one should be forced to have bare legs in cold weather!
Archie and Lilbieth are old enough to make up their own mind what they want to wear. Thanks God that Archie is not dressed up as George at football matches in suit and tie.
Who is writing this stuff? Are they deliberately publishing this rubbish to create outrage against the royal family? They are flaunting openly the “good old” class system. Everybody who does not obey by the rules even in dressing in a certain way is described as”suburban” or “proletariat”. What a snob! If the BRF wants to appear relatable this is not the way to do it.
I just wrote something similar. Poor George has to dress up in a copy of his Dad’s outfit when he goes to games.
The Cambridge 2018 Xmas card showed the entire family in “suburban” 👖 even little Louis.
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/cambridge-family-surprises-jeans-adorable-125252475.html
Typical hypocrisy!
Louis looks so darn cute in that picture.
These people are exhausting. I haven’t even changed out of my pjs yet, and I’m exhausted. Perhaps I should return to bed for a bit…
Exhausting.
Will his parents expect Archie to dress up in a suit to go to games like George does? I doubt it.
In other words, Meghan is classless. This is crazy and for the record Charlotte has never been seen in knee high socks. She’s only worn tights/stockings or ankle socks. So no Meghan is not dressing Lili like a British girl.
Kids wearing clothes…..how terribly American and gauche. Pffffttttt!!!!
I laughed so hard when I read this. What does she put in her morning tea? I love, love, love, when these gossip rag people from across the pond try to write using American references. ‘Suburban’ as an insult. ‘Denim’ as low class. ‘Class’ as anything any American would ever use.
Seriously? This is what they’re talking about? What a slow news day in Britain when there’s so much legit news to discuss: the war in Ukraine, Putin granting Bashar asylum, Gisele Pelicot, even Prince Andrew being manipulated again by a spy. 🤦🏾♀️no wonder ppl don’t trust the news anymore.
The DM doesn’t know how to report on anything more important.
The whole family looks like they’re dressed for “winter” in Southern California. (coulda been as cold as 68F when these pics were taken! Brrr)
As for trousers–the British media think jeans look (sub)urban? Hehe, guess they don’t realize Archie is pretty dressed up, for an American boy his age! Ime these days, most elementary school-age boys refuse to wear “hard pants” (jeans) because they’re used to wearing soft track pants or shorts every day. Jeans are a dressy look for the Christmas card photoshoot.
If the BM realized it’s no longer the 1990s, they’d get the vapors.
Jeans are hard pants! Omg. The sensory meltdowns due to the rigid jeans of childhood. Ugh the worst.
That said – out of the 80’s and 90’s – there are some really soft comfy jeans for kids. But not all. Ugh. Jeans can either be incredibly comfortable or like a straight jacket for your legs.
And this is why Harry said “nope” to showing us his children very often. Everything is picked apart relentlessly. I feel sorry for the Wales kids in a way, but I don’t want the Sussex kids to be fodder to make them look better.
MsIam, that’s what I thought, too. The bm are determined to us the Sussex children to contrast to the Wales children even if they’re not in the same country. Pretty pathetic. It won’t work, but that won’t stop them.
I have no idea how this article will hit in the UK, but in the US? If people bother to read it at all, they’ll be wondering what in the world they’re talking about. So, so strange.
I will be really surprised if Harry and Meghan show their children’s faces at all under the age of 18. I think this is going to be their hard rule.
It has to be unhealthy to fixate so constantly on what the Mail has to say about them….
You know what else Kate does and probably got from her mama ? She shows her ass to the world. Yup , flashes us left , right and center. I am forever grateful that Meghan knows to keep her ass on lockdown because Meghan, unlike kate has class and does not flash her ass
The silly thing is that boys in shorts look is relatively new in the UK. It started around the 1920s, so it’s not some long-standing practice of aristocracy. And if I recall correctly, it began in deference to the shortages of cloth in WW I. It was a practical solution, not a style choice, and it would be silly to consider it a long-standing tradition of royalty.
Sewage has hit a new low going after the Sussex kids. Go after Meghan and Harry if needs must, but demeaning their kids’ wardrobes against the Wales kids in her snotty, class and race-based diatribes is just unconscionable.
It’s weird Meghan dresses herself all American, and same with her son, but when it comes to Lili she has her cosplaying British young girls, in dress style out of all the hundreds of pics her dad and sis sold to the Mail, I’ve never seen her dress like that as a child but for some reason she’s doing it to her daughter, the one who was actually born in the US? Anyway, I hope they keep their kids protected from the world and the next time we see them,they’re graduating from high school.
Smocked dresses, sun dresses, knee high socks and ankle socks are all quintessential American girl clothes for little girls. Just because swaths of the country have no taste doesn’t meant it isnt American. And there are photos of little Meghan in 80s sundresses that did have smocking and rick rack
There is nothing inherently British about a floral dress and some socks. Also, we have seen Lili wearing a t-shirt and a pair of leggings . Is that British? Hell, after the 4th of July pics, Caribbean ladies were commenting on how they used to wear the same patterned socks, nostalgia. Lili is also wearing a crossbody bag, maybe she likes fashion.
Actually, there are photos of Meghan as a little girl with Doria where she’s wearing cute little dresses and socks. I’m an American and my sister and I were dressed similarly as little girls decades before Charlotte was born. It still amazes me that people think that Meghan, who starred in Suits where everyone dressed well, was very fashionable herself before she ever met Harry and only lived in the UK for 18 months, would look there for inspiration of any kind for herself or her children. The UK is not the center of the universe and after her horrific experience there it’s more likely she’s trying to forget as much of it as possible.
Also, everyone is so laser focused on Meghan that they forget Harry and his possible influence on how his kids dress. Not to mention, they may be wearing clothing gifted to them from friends and family from around the world.
@nica are you kidding? The shorts to signify upper class big boys/little boys isn’t a thing here, at least not since WWII era . Also, most little girls like dresses, regardless of nationality. Charlotte is too old now to dress like how Lilibet is, so it’s more an age thing. Look at high end American kids brands. Lots of frilly dresses and knee socks. Also both kids are a little dressed up.
I must admit I had a good laugh at the Mails and experts take on shorts versus long trousers. Having been born in the UK I remember looking enviously at the boys wearing long trousers whilst I was in shorts. Only in the UK can the issue of shorts/ long trousers become a class issue as per Ingrid Seward.
The whole agenda of the tabloids and “experts” is to compare H&M and their children with the UK family, luckily Archie and Lillibet will have the freedom to dress how they wish away from outdated British upper class conventions.
You just know that Ingrid was dying to use the word “urban,” not suburban.