Prince Harry’s tacky move during coronation

COMMENT: Prince Harry cut a subdued figure at his father’s coronation – but one aspect of his appearance is a “new low” for the exiled royal.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. Picture: Odd Andersen / AFP

Sometimes I think we have reached the bottom, the basement of the tasteless and the tacky when it comes to Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

In no particular order we had a reportedly paid-for speech to bankers when the ink was barely dry on their royal divorce weeks after Megxit; their lay-it-all-out, take-no-prisoners Oprah interview; the podcasts, the magazine outings, the six-hours of Netflix wailing and Harry’s 400-pages of anti-Firm dogma.

So you will never guess what I’m about to tell you. We have just hit anotherSussex low.

The day after the coronation, while every exhausted journalist and TV commentator is still trotting out the same few tired lines about “watching history being made” and how ancient and august this all was, what has been happening in Sussex land?

What looks dangerously like a bit of social media spon-con.

Like a Married At First Sight reject who pops up on Instagram to tout the wonders of some whitening device, or a Brownlow WAG busy tagging the designers who loaded them up with freebies, turns out that the fifth in line to the throne was kitted out by Christian Dior for the coronation.

Harry and his Dior suit at yesterday’s coronation. Picture: Odd Andersen / AFP

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Only a scant couple of hours after Their Majesties had been standing on the Buckingham Palace balcony waving to the massive crowd in the rain below; after the coronation’s horses had been tucked back up in their stables and gotten an extra sugar lump for putting on a jolly good show; the famed Parisian fashion house was busy telling the world that they had dressed the world’s most famous royal refuser.

First came an Instagram post saying that the duke was “attired in a formal Dior look specially designed by @MrKimJones for the momentous occasion”.

Then came a post featuring more photos of something called “basting stitches” and said suit being meticulously put together with the sort of care and intricacy normally reserved for the creation of a nuclear device.

Last, and certainly not least, we got a photo of Harry inside the Abbey, a shot where his freezing out by much of the royal family was not painfully apparent, and the breathless description of him being “elegantly clad in his bespoke Dior by @MrKimJones black wool and mohair suit”.

Over on Twitter, at the time of writing, the Dior account’s post about The Suit had been viewed 2.6 million times.

Oh la la indeed.

Wonder how much exactly this sort of exposure is worth to the brand?

He certainly looked spiffy – but was Harry’s Dior suit a spon-con opportunity? Picture: WPA Pool/Getty

And in the ravenous world of celebrity endorsements, I wonder if this suit just might have come with a large pay cheque?

To be fair, the Sussexes’ penchant for Dior goes back a while. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex wore a bespoke Dior gown for their royal tour of Morocco in 2019; a white coat and hat from the house to Her late Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee church service last June and in April, as Harry was doing some stern striding into a London courtroom for his case against the Daily Mail, he was seen wearing their $1650 “bee shirt”.

Still, while it is not known if Harry was paid to wear this coronation suit or simply got a spiffy new suit, gratis, and was happy for them to use his name and image for promotional purposes no matter: We have entered “new low” territory.

Tailoring fit for royalty.

Dior is honored to have dressed Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, for the coronation of King Charles III in a custom design by Kim Jones. Seen arriving at Westminster Abbey, gain an insight into the savoir-faire of his three-piece suit next. pic.twitter.com/rg4r0ER4Ym

— Dior (@Dior) May 6, 2023

Even if he simply agreed to let Dior use the images of a suit he entirely footed the bill for himself, for a royal duke to allow the coronation to be used for marketing purposes is incredibly unseemly.

Coming to some sort of commercial arrangement to be dressed for a big occasion is part and parcel of the 21st century post-Kardashian celebrity industrial complex.

But a coronation is not the Met Gala or The Fast and the Furious 17 premiere.

Harry (top left) inside Westminster Abbey, relegated a few rows back from his brother. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images

You don’t have to be a diehard royal fan to know that yesterday was obviously one of the biggest days of not only Charles’ life but Britain’s in the 21st century. The last time that the UK witnessed anyone being crowned, colour TV was a pipedream, women wearing trousers were outré and homosexuality was a crime punishable by jail time.

This was a watershed moment for Harry’s father and for his homeland, and yet rather than hauling a morning suit out that he already had in his cupboard instead he may have used it to not-so-subtly get into bed with Dior.

Even if he was not sponsored to wear the label, an off-the-rack suit from Dior costs $4900. Estimates for made-to-measure dresses verge towards the six-figure mark. Imagine how much a bespoke suit made by the house’s head of menswear would set a hardworking duke back if he paid full price?

Contrast these Dior posts with the social media radio silence from Alexander McQueen, which created Kate, the Princess of Wales’ stunner of a dress and headpiece, and her daughter Princess Charlotte’s miniature version.

Harry and Jack Brooksbank (R) outside the service. Picture: Getty

So too Bruce Oldfield who conjured up Queen Camilla’s dress, a cheeky confection including tiny embroidered golden Jack Russels on the hem.

There was not a self-promotional post to be seen.

The difference here is that Camilla and Kate are bound by rules, like those that govern pollies, about accepting things for free. Which is to say, whatever you see these two wearing, they have paid for it.

This distinction – that senior HRHs are not meant to keep any of the trove of luxury gifts and the largesse of major brands was reportedly a sticking point for Meghan.

In 2021, the Sun reported that “boxes of designer garments were sent to Kensington Palace for Meghan after she was unveiled as Harry’s girlfriend.”

A source told the paper: “As an actress it was perfectly acceptable to take freebies sent by fashion chains and designer labels. But Meghan had to be told it was not the done thing when you are a member of the royal family.”

Last year, the Times’ royal writer Valentine Low wrote in his book Couriters: “Deliveries were constantly arriving at Kensington Palace. ‘Clothes, jewellery, candles … it was absolutely non-stop,’ said a source. [Meghan’s PA Melissa Touabti] was apparently punctilious in following the household rule that members of the royal family cannot accept freebies from commercial organisations. Her approach did not go down well with Meghan.”

Harry himself attempted to defend all of this in Spare, writing: “She shared all the freebies she received, clothes and perfumes and makeup, with all the women in the office.”

When Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York skedaddled out of the royal fold in the 90s in disgrace after putting toe-sucking back on the lascivious map, she then proceeded to merrily sign on with as many massive companies as would have her. Weight Watchers! Wedgewood! The home shopping channel! With bills to sort out and a title to her name, Fergie’s money-making gambits only grew in variety and the degree of dignity they sacrificed.

What these Dior social media posts suggest is that the Duke of Sussex might be perilously close to following in his errant aunt’s footsteps. Sure, this time it might be a French couture house but it’s a slippery slope to endorsing-a-juicer territory. And if we see Harry with startlingly white teeth all of a sudden, then watch out …

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.