The Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte offer a new take on mother-daughter style at Wimbledon
If you call to mind an image of the Princess of Wales, what do you see? Most likely, it’s Catherine looking polished and sleek in a ladylike dress with the nude heels which have been a signature throughout her royal life. And how about Princess Charlotte? Surely, it’s the eight-year-old in one of the timeless floral frocks she’s been wearing since she was a baby.
At Wimbledon on Sunday, mother and daughter both wore examples of the looks with which they’re most associated as they watched the Wimbledon Men’s Singles final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
The Princess of Wales chose Roland Mouret’s £750 short-sleeve stretch-cady midi dress in green. She accessorised her new dress with understated accessories; Gianvito Rossi heels and a chain strap ‘Natasha’ clutch bag by Emmy London.
For her first appearance at a Wimbledon final, Princess Charlotte was dressed in a pretty floral dress by Friki, a Spanish childrenswear brand based in Madrid and established in 1954. She also wore the white Mary Jane shoes by Papouelli which were first seen at May’s Coronation and also at Trooping the Colour in June.
The colour of Catherine’s Mouret dress might be described as ‘lawn tennis green’. The Princess often matches her Wimbledon outfit to an element of the championship. In 2023 alone, we have seen her in ‘umpire-chic’ on the second day of competition and on Saturday, at the Women’s Singles finals, she channelled the neon shade of tennis balls in a lime green blazer-dress by Self Portrait.
Sunday’s grass green design emulates the Emilia Wickstead dress which Catherine wore to the Ladies final in 2021, when she presented Ashleigh Barty with the Venus Rosewater dish – although on that occasion, the Princess took the tribute a step further, adding bright white heels as an apparent nod to the lines painted onto the grass courts.
Princess Charlotte’s floral dresses are often sourced from British brands like Trotters and Rachel Riley but she (and her brothers) have also worn numerous pieces from small Spanish childrenswear labels, too.
One of the first outfits she was ever photographed in was a knitted bonnet and cardigan by Irulea and she has also worn dresses by M&H, both Spanish brands. It’s thought that the Waleses’ nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, buys clothes for her royal charges on her trips home to Palencia in northern Spain.
The Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte might not have been doing matchy-matchy mother-daughter style in the way they have in the past, but each played to their sartorial strengths for the tennis outing, opting for outfits which conform to the royal style mantra coined by the late Queen Elizabeth: ‘I have to be seen to be believed’. There will have been no missing the Princess in grass green and her daughter in delicate florals in the Royal Box.
There was one element of Sunday’s outfit which was an unusual faux-pas for the Princess of Wales. There is usually not a crease to be seen on her outfits, even when she’s been sitting down. However, her dress appeared somewhat wrinkled when she arrived at the All England club. Mouret’s dresses are made from stretch-cady which is renowned for its non-crease properties. This one may simply have been having a bad day.
Roland Mouret shot to fame in the noughties when he created the ‘Galaxy’ dress. The design was loved by celebrities from Cameron Diaz to Victoria Beckham and Halle Berry and was hailed as a style which would be flattering to all figures. Mouret’s business was bought out of administration in December 2021 by Han Chong, the founder of Self Portrait, a label which also specialises in occasionwear and flattering dresses but at slightly more affordable prices that Mouret.
It’s notable that Catherine has been wearing lots of Self Portrait lately, as well Roland Mouret. She now owns at least five ‘two for one’ dresses by Self Portrait while in December 2022, she chose a Mouret trouser suit in Boston and in May the same year, she wore an elegant black and white column gown to the Top Gun Maverick premiere. Han Chong will surely be delighted that the Princess of Wales is such a fan of his empire’s designs.
