Camilla Parker Bowles Will Surprisingly Wear a Princess Diana Favorite for Coronation With King Charles
Camilla, Queen Consort (formerly known as Camilla Parker Bowles) will officially be crowned alongside King Charles III on May 6. There’s been so much chatter leading up to the event about whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will attend that there hasn’t been much talk about the actual ceremony or what the monarch and his wife will wear for the coronation.
Well according to multiple reports, Camilla is having her gown worked on in secret. But what we do know about her dress is a bit of a surprise because it has a connection to the late Princess Diana.
Camilla’s coronation gown is being created by Princess Diana’s favorite designer
Probably the most important gown Camilla will ever wear in her life is being designed by the man responsible for creating several iconic dresses for the king’s first wife. The queen consort has tapped Princess Diana’s favorite designer Bruce Oldfield to create her coronation gown.
Oldfield and Diana became good friends in the 1980s. He described the princess as the “perfect client” and told Express: “When I look back, it was relentless for her. We did dress her up like she was going to a wedding every day.”
Oldfield remained Diana’s go-to designer for several years until her relationship with Charles ended in the ’90s. Harper’s Bazaar noted at that point Oldfield believed Diana “wanted a new look to fit her new life. The clothes became Gianni Versace and John Galliano: shorter, hipper, and tighter, as she was freed from the constraints of the ever-present royal courtier eye.”
Camilla then began using Oldfield to create her attire and he has done so ever since. He designed the queen consort’s pale turquoise lace dress for the Sri Lanka tour in 2013, as well as the gown she wore to the State Opening of Parliament in 2015, and the sparkling blue gown she donned to the James Bond No Time To Die movie premiere in 2021.
The designer has said: “I gave Diana her glamour and Camilla her confidence.”
The memorable dresses he created for Diana
If you’re wondering what gowns Oldfield made for Princess Diana some of those memorable dresses included the black velvet number she wore for an official portrait by Lord Snowdon at the gala opening of Les Miserables in 1985, the shimmering bright red gown she showed up on the carpet in for the Hot Shots premiere in 1989, and the metallic showstopper Diana wore to premiere of the James Bond film A View To a Kill in 1985.
A change was made to what King Charles will wear
As for what King Charles will be wearing for his coronation, well we know we won’t see him in silk stockings and breeches. Charles will instead wear his military uniform following the advice of his aides that the standard attire previously worn is outdated.
“They think having a 74-year-old king arriving in stockings and breeches in 2023 looks too dated. They are probably right,” a palace insider told The Sun. “Though some of the more long-winded elements of the coronation will be moved aside or modernized, the king was happy to wear the breeches and stockings. But in discussion with senior aides they are saying he should not wear them, so [he] will arrive in a military uniform instead.”
