Come Friday, we’ll be given a modern fairytale princess standard. Toss a stone, and you’ll hit a person tuning in. It’s evident that Kate Middleton didn’t just gain currency for British royalty appeal; she reassured it for this day and age. But before she marries her Prince Charming in the bridal gown of the century to reign full steam ahead, let’s take a step back to see how far she’s come.
In 1982, Middleton was born the eldest of three children to a flight attendant and dispatcher of British Airways.
Her humble beginnings met at its fork at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, where she became flatmate, then girlfriend to Prince William of Wales in 2003.
Her status as undeclared girlfriend to William brought widespread media coverage of her daily outings. Which means we got to see her naturally go about school…
…and work (briefly as an accessory buyer to Jigsaw).
Her personal style wasn’t always trendsetting nor revolutionary. In fact, it was just erratically classic highstreet. She comfortably shifted between clean basics and feminine frills.
Nothing terribly worth a double take.
A break-up and get-back later however, Middleton slowly began dressing the part. Perhaps it wasn’t an intervention as drastic as Diana’s (where the Royal family hired Vogue to tutor her fashion sense), but it’s clear she had a little help.
Middleton began favouring wrap and torso-cinched dresses…
And treated everyday public outings as if it were the Aintree Grand National!
All in time for her official royal engagement photograph – by the time the entire world was watching, she was already able to make her outfits iconic.
I like to mark Middleton’s start as a style icon the day she stepped out wearing this coat to toss a pancake.
Because she managed to sell out the £650 Burberry trench online in sizes four, six, eight and 10 within a day of its debut, proving a royally positive effect on sales, and an influence on the buying public.
In fact, there are a number of items currently on the sales surge thanks to Middleton. They include riding boots…
Issa London dresses…
and tailored coats amongst other things.
Princess Diana was renowned as the first to step out in jeans, bikinis and gowns that bent conservative traditional styles for British royalty. Considering Middleton’s influential power now, I’m quite excited to see what she’ll have up her sleeves once she becomes Princess William of Wales. For now, I’m just curious to see if she’ll kick the ball-gown out of Princess wedding dresses (gee, thanks Diana).
Do you think Kate Middleton will eventually revolutionize what we know of British Royal style?
[Photo Credits: time, umbrella-d, stylist, vogue, people, hellomagazine, marieclaire, harpersbazaar, stylelist, usmagazine, hotornot, adrienneloves, hotpinklist, socialmediathinker]
