Who is the Aussie stylist behind Zara Tindall’s right royal fashion winners?
Zara Tindall won Ascot in the fashion stakes. And it’s all down to her Australian fashion secret weapon. Perhaps Kanye and Bianca should take a punt on her?
Opinion
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Zara Tindall is on top fashion form – and it’s down to her Aussie secret weapon.
Leaving the late-Queen’s hat colour a distant memory, Zara “won Ascot”, this week, when the Olympian horsewoman appeared in a series of fabulous fashions on the field.
On Thursday, she sported a beautiful baby blue Rebecca Vallance dress and jaunty boater hat and on Tuesday, raced away from the pack in a buttercup-yellow Laura Green shirt-dress and another boater, which proved a real photo finish.
On Wednesday, she mixed it up with a pretty pink floral dress by Anna Mason and sculptural hat. It was lovely, but if I was her, I’d stick to the boaters, which suit her, and her sunny attitude, brilliantly.
Zara, 43, is known to be genuine and down-to-earth and was snapped warmly hugging her cousin, Prince William and adjusting his jacket.
The pair – who were born 13 months apart – have always been close and she and husband Mike are referred to as “the glue” which keeps the Windsors together, no matter how hard the rest of them try to come unstuck.
Zara’s Ascotastic appearance followed hot on the designer heels of her Eliza Doolittle moment, when she appeared in a white shirt dress, also by Laura Green, with another boater, at a Buckingham Palace garden party, in May.
She and Mike rocked up to support a solo-William and again, she made the headlines.
No wonder she repeated the style for Ascot – it got uniform praise, so if I was her, I’d be tempted to wear a version of it for the rest of my life. Forget trends – if it flatters, that’s all that matters, is my motto.
So, what’s the style secret of the silver-medal-winning Olympian?
Her gold-standard Aussie dresser, Annie Miall, that’s what. Annie, who worked in HR and coaching, switched to personal styling almost a decade ago and now offers “discreet and non-judgemental” styling services in London, for businesswomen, entrepreneurs, TV personalities, sportswomen and actresses.
She has worked with Zara for years, dressing her in labels including Aussie brands Rebecca Vallance, Zimmermann and Scanlan Theodore, as well as UK designer Laura Green and fashion editors’ secret Me + Em. Clearly, their partnership – Annie has an Instagram page full of pictures of Zara – is enjoying a winning streak.
And talking of streaks, but not winning, while Annie’s services come at a cost — $1700 for a consultation and styling session, with a suggested wardrobe budget of around $4000 upwards – perhaps we could persuade her to offer some pro-bono sessions to Kanye and Bianca Censori.
At the same time Zara was being all My Fair Lady at Ascot, the duo debuted their My Nude Lady look – one in an all-white fencing/beekeeping outfit and the other in a translucent flesh-toned G-string body-suit, at the menswear shows in Paris. You can guess which of them enjoyed the comfort of a full gusset. To be fair, it would only take Annie a minute to suggest, “start with pants and build from there.”
And while I’m aware there are fashion horses for all courses, in a week of frocks and shocks, I know which one I’m punting on.
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