Regal in Red: the Queen Leads the Royal Family at the Sandringham Christmas Service

First of all, let me say a big Merry Christmas to all of you who are celebrating today!
We're back with our traditional Christmas Day post here at Books, Birkins & Beauty (you can read about last year's Christmas here, 2013 here and 2012 here), for a recap of what the Royals wore in years past!

As usual, the Royals are spending the festive period in Norfolk. The Queen is reportedly hosting at least 29 family members at Sandringham this year (although, unfortunately, no chances of a white Christmas, as the weather has been remarkably mild this year!), while the Cambridges are staying nearby at their newly-refurbished residence at Anmer Hall to celebrate their first Christmas as a family of four.
The whole family gathered for the Christmas Day service at the diminutive 16th century church of St Mary Magdalene, within walking distance of the big house and where Princess Charlotte was christened earlier this year.

 

As was to be expected, there was no sign of either George or Charlotte at church this year, as they're both much too young to sit still through the 45-minute service (Prince William attended for the first time in 1986, when he was 4.5 years old).

 

Senior members of the Royal family made their way to church early this morning for Holy Communion. The Queen wore a bouclé off-white suit and repeated an old favourite, a sumptous mink coat with shawl collar:

 

 

 

Fur proved to be rather popular this year with the Queen, who appeared later, for the main 11 o'clock service, wrapped up warm in a new festive red coat with fur cuffs and collar, and a matching fur-trimmed hat:

 

 

The Duchess of Cambridge was sporting a new outfit, too: she wore a long belted coat by Italian label Sportmax in appropriately Christmassy shades of green, swapping the original belt for a mock-croc one already in her wardrobe and topped off the look with a matching dark green felt hat with flower trim (both pieces I can definitely see recycled to upcoming St Patrick's events). Most exciting of all, though, she wore her acron and oak leaves brooch, thus allowing us a proper look at the piece after its debut in 2012 at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee luncheon:

 

 

The Duchess of Cornwall repeated a well-loved grey coat with Greek key trim and accessorized with pearls and her butterfly brooch:

 

The Countess of Wessex continued the fur theme in a striking pale grey coat with fur collar and geometric hat. I breathed a sigh of relief in seeing her daughter Lady Louise dressed in more age appropriate clothes for once and finally ditching her white thights in favour of less dowdy dark grey ones! You go, Lady Louise! I think there's a real beauty hidden behind those 1930s clothes she usually favours! Also, it was the first time Viscount Severn joined his parents and big sister at church on Christmas Day:

 

 

The Princess Royal was in a pistachio tweed coat and dress with a well-loved feather trimmed hat she most recently wore on 16 June this year at the Ascot races:

 

 

I think both Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie looked very stylish this year:

 

 

At 3 o'clock this afternoon it was time for that veritable British Christmas tradition that is the Queen's Speech (you will find a transcript of the speech here). The Queen selected a white dress she had first worn on a visit to Wales during the 2012 Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK and diamond and aquamarine clips that belonged to the Queen Mother:

 

 

So, which Royal look did you like best this Christmas? Be sure to drop me a comment and let me know! Personally, it's a tough choice between the Countess of Wessex and the Duchess of Cambridge!

Repli-Kate Review: Mulberry Double-Breasted Cerise Coat

Here's the latest in my series of repli-kate reviews! This time we are discussing an excellent alternative to the Duchess' double-breasted coat in cerise by Mulberry.

Mulberry.

 

The coat was part of the A/W 2014 collection and is now sold out, although you can still see it "in action" in this video on Mulberry's YouTube channel. It was made of a double crepe wool/silk blend with "extra lustre" and featured a small Peter Pan collar, slit pockets with a flap detail and flat round black buttons. It retailed originally for £2,500 (or approximately €3,560 or $3,760).

As many may recall, this garment made its first, somewhat controversial, appearance in NYC on 9 December 2014, at a visit to the National September 11th Memorial and Museum. There was debate in the online community at the time as to the appropriateness of wearing such a bright colour to visit a place of remembrance, and I personally feel a more sombre colour might have been more in keeping with the mood of the occasion. But let's not dwell any more on it now - whatever our respective opinions may be, there's no denying this is a gorgeous piece!

 

For the New York appearance, the Duchess accessorized with black opaque tights, her black suede 'Bayswater' clutch, also by Mulberry, black suede Episode 'Angel' pumps, black Cornelia James 'Imogen' gloves in merino wool and Kiki McDonough green amethyst and diamond cushion drop earrings.

 

 

The second time this coat was worn coincided, as you might remember, with Catherine's last appearance before going on maternity leave ahead of the birth of Princess Charlotte. That was on 27 March 2015 and the coat was recycled for a series of engagements in South London, including a visit to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.

 

 

The Duchess once again opted for black suede accessories, repeating the "Bayswater" clutch and selecting her "Power" pumps by Stuart Weitzman. A nod to the warmer spring weather was in the choice of nude thights and pale pink Kiki Classic morganite and diamond cushion drop earrings.

 

 

I was thrilled when Kate's Closet shared on Facebook this brilliant find from BHS:

Described on the website as a "fun, modern and on trend" style, the coat is available in magenta and pale blue and is 88% polyester, 10% viscose and 2% elastane. The main differences with Catherine's Mulberry coat are in the number of buttons (the BHS one has an extra set), the pockets (slit with flap detailing in the Mulberry, simple slits in the BHS) and the stitching (the BHS coat has decorative stitching down the front and back, plus a sort of half-belt stitched detail at the back which is totally absent from the Mulberry original). I do think the BHS coat benefits from this stitched detailing: it adds structure to a garment that would otherwise probably look a bit drab and shapeless were it an exact replica, as the polyester mix fabric is way less forgiving than the original wool/silk crepe.

BHS do not offer delivery outside the UK at the moment, but of course nowadays you can work round such minor inconveniences of with the help of an online handling service of your choice. Personally, I always use Borderlinx and I'm happy to recommend it. For those of you not familiar with the service, they provide you with a P.O. box address in selected countries, were you can have your goodies delivered and then forwarded on to your usual home address. There's no sign up fee, or subscription fee, you just pay for the shipments you require and that's it. A return service is available, too.
Having the coat forwarded to me in Italy costed around £39 (€54/$59), but it was part of a big pre-Christmas shop and therefore coming in a large parcel. I expect shipping costs for the coat on its own to be cheaper (you can find a shipping cost calculator here).

My coat took around a full working week to be delivered to the Borderlinx depot, then two business days to get to my door via fully tracked express courier.
I was slightly worried the fabric was going to be a bit stiff, being dyed such a bright colour, but it actually feels really soft and the coat is made up to a high standard, fully lined in a matching magenta satin-y fabric (which I can guess is also polyester, or some sort of poly mix, although the label doesn't specify) with black piping around the edges. For the record, the lining of the original piece was described on the Mulberry website as midnight blue.
Very true to size: I purchase my usual UK size and it fits perfectly. I know there was some debate as to the lenght, and it does look a bit on the short side on the website photos. My size 12 one is 34 in (or 86 cm) from shoulder to hem, and definitely looks like a reasonable lenght over the knee coat, as opposed to a long jacket, on my 5ft 5 frame.

 

Apologies for the artificial lighting in these pictures! The coat colour is actually much brighter in real life and closer to the images on the BHS website. 

The thing the buggers me most about this repli-kate are the buttons: Kate's are a flat black style in polished horn, whereas the BHS ones are black resin with the holes showing, as detailed below:

 

Mulberry (l) vs. BHS (r).

This was quickly remedied with a quick browse on Etsy, though! For about 10€ (7£/11$), I got myself a set of flat shank buttons in black resin that are a closer match to the originals and plan to swap them as soon as they arrive. I'll share pics when I do!

Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara

As you've probably all heard by now, last night, on 8 December 2015, the Duchess of Cambridge attended the annual Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace in a new tiara for her: Queen Mary's Lover's Knot tiara, made iconic by her mother-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales.

 

I think I can safely say this was a lovely, unexpected surprise for all of us royal watchers and certainly one that brought back a lot of memories!

 

This is only the third tiara for the Duchess, after the Cartier Halo tiara she wore on her wedding day and the Papyrus tiara (the only one she has worn twice so for: at the 2013 Diplomatic Reception and in October this year at the State banquet in honour of Chinese President Xi Jinping):

 

 

Last night's tiara was a choice laden with historical and family significance, given the close association the Lover's Knot tiara has with the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Queen Mary commissioned it in 1913, as she wanted something in a similar design to an early nineteenth-century head ornament that belonged to her grandmother, Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, and had subsequently been inherited by the Duchess's elder daughter (Queen Mary's aunt and godmother), Augusta, Grand-Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

 

 

Queen Mary's grandmother, Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, wearing the original Lover's Knot tiara which she had received as a wedding gift in 1818.

 

 

The Duchess's daughter, Augusta, Grand-Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who inherited the tiara.

 

The original Lover's Knot tiara, as seen above, was sold at Christie's, Geneva, on 14 May 1981.

Queen Mary was fond of the design and commissioned Garrard & Co. to make a similar piece for her. Her tiara was made using diamonds and 12 pearls drops taken from a necklace/tiara given to her on her marriage by '650 Ladies of England'.

 

 

Queen Mary, photographed in 1896 when Duchess of York, wearing (below two others) the Ladies of England necklace, broken up in 1913 to make the Lover's Knot tiara, and the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara in the original setting with pearls.

 

These 12 pearls were supplemented by 13 others originally on the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara (as shown above), 11 taken from various pieces of her mother's jewellery, and a pearl each from the brooches given on her marriage by the town of Richmond and the Women of Hampshire, bringing the total of pearls supplied by the Queen to 38.

 

 

The Richmond brooch: the pearl was used on the Lover's Knot tiara and presumably replaced when the tiara was altered in 1932.

 

 The Women of Hampshire brooch: again, the pearl was used on the Lover's Knot tiara and presumably replaced when the tiara was altered in 1932.

 

 



Nineteen of the pearls were originally mounted upright on the cresting, while the remaining 19 as pendants on the band. The tiara was altered in 1932, to be worn with and without upright pearls. These have now been permanently removed.

 

Queen Mary wearing the tiara in its original setting with upright pearls.

 

The tiara was inherited by Queen Elizabeth on her grandmother's death in 1953. The Queen wore it as a young woman, but stopped in later years.

 

 

Attending a film premiere with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1958.

 

She presented it to Diana, Princess of Wales, upon her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981. Princess Diana wore it often, alternating it with the more lightweight Spencer Family tiara, and it became closely associated with her. She was also famously photographed by Mario Testino wearing it.

 

Thanks to its very close, almost iconic, association to the late Princess of Wales, there were many - myself included - who doubted we'd see the Lover's Knot again for many years, if ever. So it was the loveliest of surprises to see it once again out of the Palace vaults last night!

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's looking forward to seeing this beauty in use for many more years to come, as the Duchess of Cambridge undertakes more white-tie engagements!