Royals ditch sapphires for sunglasses as couple goes smart casual
For Queen Camilla and King Charles, it was casual Friday, royal-style, from the moment they touched down in Sydney until Wednesday’s departure. The crowns, tiaras and elaborate hats stayed in Britain, but the sunglasses were out, sending the stylish signal that it’s still cool to rule.
Their majesties created the new dress code of sausage sizzle semi-formal while tending to barbecues in Parramatta Park on Tuesday, with sunglasses that matched their relatively relaxed attire, all while protecting their eyes from spitting snags.
The King’s flesh-coloured Moscot sunglasses, a brand popular with Hollywood royalty Johnny Depp and Ryan Gosling, matched his pale suit and zebra-patterned tie from British accessories brand Fox & Chave.
King Charles and Queen Camilla master sausage sizzle semi-formal at Parramatta Park in co-ordinated sunglasses.Credit: Getty Images
Blue sunglasses from French eyewear brand Izipizi matched Queen Camilla’s blue silk cotton dress with light embroidery by designer Fiona Clare as she tentatively wielded tongs.
Even when the sunglasses came off, the dresses were lighter, the suits more relaxed and the appearance as chill as a couple in their 70s can pull off, without looking like their more fashion-conscious Continental counterparts.
The overall impression was relaxed. Like stubble on Prince William and jeans on Princess Catherine, it was charming.
Even Queen Camilla’s jewellery prioritised sentimentality over sparkle, with brooch diplomacy extending as far as the Diamond Wattle Spray and a pearl shell piece that once belonged to the Queen Mother.
This was not a fashion parade for the colonies: the Queen stuck to dresses from trusted British designers Anna Valentine and Fiona Clare.
While Catherine, Princess Beatrice and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, drive clicks and customers to labels such as Alexander McQueen, Zimmermann and Beulah London, Queen Camilla clearly prefers to shop her own wardrobe.
“People really seem to have responded to the pale blue dress with a white print that the Queen wore,” says image consultant and stylist Christina Robért. In Canberra, Queen Camilla wore a new summery dress from Clare, with jewellery from Kiki McDonough and Van Cleef & Arpels. “It had a sense of fun and the shade of pale blue works for her,” says Robért. “The pattern has a sense of fun which is what we need from her because her vibe can be very, very stuffy.”
Like her mother-in-law, the late Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Camilla’s outfit choices refused to bow down, curtsy or even nod respectably to trends. At times, being a royal is the ultimate in stealth wealth dressing but Robért thinks the Queen could increase the fun factor beyond French sunglasses.
Queen Camilla carrying her sunglasses in a new dress from UK designer Fiona Clare with King Charles at the National Botanic Gardens in Canberra; the King in Moscot sunglasses and the Queen with her Izipizi sunglasses and Fiona Clare dress at the Sydney Opera House; and at the War Memorial in Canberra, Queen Camilla in a dress by Anna Valentine.Credit: Getty Images
“Queen Elizabeth injected a lot of fun into her dressing with colour which was part of her brand, and it made it seem as though she didn’t take herself too seriously and people were drawn to that.”
In trying colour, Robért suggests Camilla steer clear of the sapphire blue Anna Valentine dress she wore on arrival in Australia and in the official portraits for the royal tour released by Buckingham Palace in July. “She was a little bit lost in that one.”
Colour coding becomes more important with age, according to personal stylist Lucia Caine, who interpreted the vivid blue arrival dress as a carefully timed display of majesty. Caine prefers cool colours for older women.
“There’s a quiet confidence to the pale blues and greens that [the Queen] wore, which is also about diplomacy,” Caine says. “Her outfits make it clear that she is there to support the King and the causes being discussed.”
From sunglasses to colour co-ordination, it was clear that the monarchs’ wardrobes were planned together. It’s a different picture to the late Princess Diana, who regularly upstaged then-Prince Charles with her fashion-forward choices.
“It is clear from her outfits that [Queen] Camilla is more comfortable in that supportive role,” Caine says. “Everything she wears is semi-fitted with a light structure that doesn’t contrast with his choices. It’s very demure and understated.
“Even [King] Charles is wearing lighter, charcoal greys. They are being quite soft together.”
Another difference between the Queen and Diana is her preference for Chanel shoes.
On a visit to Sydney in 1996 for the opening of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Diana refused to wear Chanel shoes because of the interlocking Cs, which could represent Charles and Camilla, according to stylist-turned-designer Jayson Brunsdon.
The Queen was at ease wearing Chanel’s suede satin cap pumps in beige and black throughout the tour.
“She looked so comfortable in them that it looks like they were made for her,” says Robért. “And they probably were.”
After 19 years of marriage, King Charles and Queen Camilla, like the Cs of the Chanel logo, are a perfect match.
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