New Queen uses one of Princess Diana’s favourite designers because he ‘gets Camilla’
She was once the most despised woman in the UK - but behind the scenes there has been a huge campaign leading to the incredible moment Camilla will be crowned Queen.
The Queen has enlisted close friend Bruce Oldfield to stitch the gown of her life when she is crowned on Saturday alongside King Charles, in an apparent nod to the late Princess Diana.
Camilla has opted for an elegant yet understated Coronation dress that will define her like no other before.
The controversial decision to opt for one of Diana’s favourite designers has raised eyebrows but the couturier is said to “get Camilla”, with whom he has been working for months to fashion a statement dress.
She will top the essentially British designer’s frock with the Queen Mary Crown, shunning the beguiling yet controversial Koh-i-Noor diamond – the first consort since the 18th century to do so.
The Koh-i-Noor was the centrepiece of the crown, commissioned by Queen Mary, the consort of King George V, for the 1911 coronation and has now been mounted with the sentimental Cullinan III, IV and V diamond – from the late Queen’s personal collection.
Royal sources say the decision by both King Charles and Camilla to shirk the diamond was largely driven by fear of protests.
The diamond was taken from India by Nader Shah, an Iranian ruler, in 1739, and changed hands several times before being presented to Queen Victoria in 1849 after the British East India Company’s annexation of Punjab.
Royal author and writer Robert Jobson insisted, “Camilla wanted to avoid controversy and, in a cost living crisis, the King did not want to be seen as making a huge expense that will be criticised”.
Mr Jobson, who has just released the book Our King: Charles III: The Man, added, “The diamond is perceived to have been stolen from Indians who want it back and the last thing the palace and Camilla want is organised attacks and demonstrations on the day the king is crowned.”
Last minute touches are being put to the Queen’s dress that will remain under wraps until the day and worn under a formal robe.
Unlike Queen Elizabeth II’s gown, it is not adorned with emblems of Great Britain like the Tudor Rose, the Thistle of Scotland, the Shamrock of Ireland and flowers of the Commonwealth countries.
“The Coronation will be her moment as well as King Charles’s, and the dress will be the subject of absolute fascination; simple, no emblems and elegant,” royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said.
Mr Oldfield, 72, crafted her a turquoise gown for Sri Lanka in 2013, a white number at the State Opening of parliament in 2015 and 2016, and a black leaf print dress for her first state visit to Berlin with Charles III as monarch.
Vogue Australia said the royals tend to use preferred designers for large public engagements.
“You can see this with (the Princess of Wales) Kate, who is spotted regularly in Alexander McQueen, Emilia Wickstead and Jenny Packham, and with Diana, who often wore Bruce Oldfield, especially in the early stages of her royal career,” a spokeswoman said.
LONG JOURNEY TO QUEEN CAMILLA
The crowning of Queen Camilla will end a 10-year intensive behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign by her husband King Charles III to force the palace and public to accept the title bestowing.
The official program and palace missives, including invitations to the Coronation, makes clear Camilla’s title and dispels any ambiguity.
“Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III & Queen Camilla” the official palace paperwork declares.
Palace courtiers have been at pains to point out to media that while Queen Consort was the appropriate title to use ahead of the coronation, the actual event will change that.
The royal website will be updated the minute the coronation crown is placed on King Charles’ head with the dropping of the “consort” ahead of Camilla’s title, in keeping with tradition.
“The coronation is an appropriate time to start using ‘Queen Camilla’ in an official capacity. All former queen consorts have been known as ‘Queen’ plus their first name,” palace insiders have told the media.
It has been a long journey to get to this point, with public speculation beginning in November 2010 on an American current affairs program.
The then Prince Charles, while giving an interview to NBC’s Dateline program largely on his environmental views, let slip his wife of then five years might be able to use the queen title.
Kings’ wives were historically crowned Queen Consort or even Princess Consort but it was a convention rather than law.
“That’s well … We’ll see, won’t we. That could be,” the then Prince Charles said when asked a perfunctory question by the American host whether the duchess automatically became a queen if he has the king.
The slip made screaming headlines in the British newspapers.
The BBC at the time reported Prince Charles could have “stuck to the script” and made her Princess Consort but rather gave a “bumbling answer which confirmed what people suspected, that he wants Camilla crowned alongside him as Queen Consort”.
Now the palace will go one step further.
After their 2005 wedding, Camilla had made clear she was content with the Princess Consort title for when her husband became monarch, which was what the palace publicised in a bid to win public favour for their marriage. There could only ever be one queen in the public’s mind was the royal position, certainly while Queen Elizabeth was alive, but Charles was having none of that and felt his wife deserved her rightful official place at his side when the time came. In February 2022, Queen Elizabth gave her blessing, declaring it her “sincere wish” Camilla be bestowed the title.
FROM DIVISIVE TO UNIFYING
For two decades Camilla was always “the other woman”. The despised “wicked stepmother” of princes William and Harry. The divorcee wife of Prince Charles who, when crowned king, would never become Queen.
Yet for all those years she was seen as a divisive figure, she has in the end become a unifying one.
The royal family are now set to promote her to the top of the House of Windsor hierarchy after 25 years of dutiful support to the heir.
As she prepares to be crowned Queen beside King Charles on May 6, Camilla, a former receptionist at a decorating firm, has been given equal billing at the biggest royal event in 70 years.
“Camilla has put herself in good graces and come out of the shadows, winning the approval of the public who have got to understand her,” said respected royal writer Ingrid Sewell.
“Some Diana fans still won’t support her – but she is seen as a beacon of continuity for
Charles and has grown in standing and in the affections of the British people, particularly the younger generations.
“She is the King’s wife, and she will become Queen by marriage when he is crowned, no questions asked,” she said.
“The press has not been calling her Queen Consort for some time; the Consort dropped off earlier this year.
“Camilla’s cracked it.”
Indeed the shift in her image was not lost on Queen Elizabeth, who announced at the start of her 2022 Platinum Jubilee festivities that it was her “sincere wish” that Camilla be known as Queen Consort once Charles was King.
This was a change from the previous arrangement, announced at the time of Charles and Camilla’s 2005 wedding, that the former Mrs Parker Bowles would be known as Princess Consort – a title never previously conferred on the wife of a sovereign.
(The title changed again in April this year: after the coronation she will simply be “Queen Camilla”.)
The matter had been “hotly” debated for some time, writer Penny Junor said at the time of the Queen’s 2022 announcement.
It was “the perfect moment” for the Queen to make known her wishes. “It’s her Platinum Jubilee, the country is focused on the monarchy – on her, and on her successor,” she said. “She is making us look towards her successor.”
Sexual violence against women, literacy and osteoporosis (from which both her mother and grandmother died) are among the causes championed by the 90 charities for which Camilla is patron or president, winning her extra respect along the way.
“Camilla never had a proper job until she became Duchess of Cornwall – that’s when her life changed, and she embraced it,” said royal photographer for The Sun, Arthur Edwards.
“Until then, she was a countrywoman who rode in hunts and occasionally came to London for a haircut.
“We see her more now. She is invariably kind, warm, and helps photographers.
“In fact she’s so popular, Charles is always waiting behind for her to finish talking to the crowds.
“She’s won over the nation because she’s so visibly loyal and supportive of the King.
“At the opening of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, they tried altering the seating arrangements but she said ‘No, I’m going to sit next to my husband’,” he recalled.
“Since Charles became King, the crowds have been huge. In the northern town of Bolton, weeks ago, crowds were 30 deep. I hadn’t seen crowds that big since the Queen’s last tour of Australia in 2011.
“Charles and Camilla are an item, they have the support of the nation.
“I once asked what makes her happy; she said ‘I love my grandchildren … and, of course, I love my husband’,” he said.
Indeed, Camilla’s five grandchildren have been given prominent roles in the coronation at Westminster Abbey.
Lola, 15, and Freddy, 13 (children of Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles), and Eliza, 15, and twins, Louis and Gus, 13 (children of Camilla’s daughter Laura Lopes), will hold the canopy over their grandma’s head as she is anointed with holy oil.
It’s a big break with tradition: this most sacred part of the service is traditionally reserved for duchesses.
Prince George, nine, as second in line to the throne, is also expected to play a prominent role in the historic event with his parents, Prince William and Kate Middleton, “mulling over” what role he will play to avoid tense scrutiny. During the past two coronations, young heirs have observed proceedings from the congregation.
As Buckingham Palace emphasised from the outset, the ceremony “will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry”.
Time has been kind to Camilla and awarded her the breathing space to infiltrate the inner royal circle and become accepted by doubting princes William and Harry. In his memoir Spare, the latter spoke of his fear she would be cruel to him like the “wicked stepmother” in the fairytale Cinderella.
Born Camilla Shand, and raised in smart Kensington and East Sussex, she enjoyed an upper-class upbringing. She left Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington with one O level before the customary year at finishing school in Switzerland. She returned to London and was a debutante in 1965.
She fell for serial womaniser army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, and later romanced Charles in return for Parker Bowles’s affair with Princess Anne.
Two divorces later, Camilla and Charles married in 2005, with the Queen playfully remarking “My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.”
In recent years, The Firm’s dramas have played out like a long-running television drama with
affairs, divorces and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s various claims against the Royals.
While Harry and Meghan have exposed the private lives of senior royals, somehow the revelations have made them more relatable.
For her part, Camilla has gone – according to Prince Harry in Spare – from being the royal mistress who broke up Charles’s marriage, to being the woman who helped to make him happy at last.
“Camilla was aloof back in the day. But she’s seen differently now (and) she’s made a huge difference to Charles’s moods over the years,” said Edwards.
“He’s a workaholic and she’s is very tolerant and understanding. She stops the pompous thing with Charles. When they get into the car together they can get into fits of uncontrollable laughter; they both see the absurd,” he said.
“When they’re up at Balmoral on holiday, he’ll still be working but she’ll drag him for a walk after lunch.
“They’re the same age, unlike he and Diana; he liked the outdoors and (Diana) liked Harrods, he loved opera and Shakespeare, (Diana) had Elton John and Supertramp tapes in her car.
“Camilla makes Charles very happy. It used to be that she was a hated public figure, but I’ve not heard a bad word about her from the public.”
Joe Little of Majesty magazine said Camilla had “slowly but very clearly ... proved her worth”.
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“She’s gone from not quite obscurity to the second highest in the land, so it’s quite an upward trajectory in a relatively short period of time,” he said.
“It’s amazing what a difference 20 years makes.”
- Additional reporting by Press Association.
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