The Black Dress Debate: How Kate Middleton Sticks to a Royal Rule Princess Diana Loved to Break
The Black Dress Debate: How Kate Middleton Sticks to a Royal Rule Princess Diana Loved to Break
The current Princess of Wales has been known to channel her late mother-in-law through her wardrobe, but still mostly adheres to a style guideline that Diana often sidestepped
Kate Middleton often channels her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, when it comes to fashion — but there’s one style rule Diana broke frequently that Kate still for the most part strictly follows.
Fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes said, per Hello!, that Diana loved little black dresses, but that the former Princess of Wales wasn’t supposed to wear black unless she was in mourning or at a funeral.
“She was very shy,” Rhodes said of Diana. “She would come into my shop in Mayfair and go through the rails. Sometimes she picked something in black, which the royals weren’t allowed to wear except at funerals, so we would make it in her size in a different color.”
While Diana was ever one to go her own way, when it comes to dressing as a member of the royal family, her daughter-in-law Kate “appears to keep to the rules more than her husband’s mother,” the Daily Mirror writes, adding that, when it comes to the color black, the current Princess of Wales mostly only wears the hue “when it mourning and at funerals.” Hello! adds that Princess Kate “has a wardrobe full of rainbow-hued clothing and chic neutrals” and, when it comes to not wearing black except at funerals, she almost “always adheres to the unspoken rule.”