"Princess Kate" Australian tour

[Cinderella]

Subtitled: Duchess of Cambridge aka "Princess of the United Kingdom" since the birth of Prince George.

To my utter delight it's been reported that Princess Kate will be wearing more tiaras and royal jewels for the upcoming tour of Australia! If the reports are true I'm SO excited! I've been waiting and dreaming of this. We've only seen two tiara's on her. One on her wedding day and the other was a brief glimpse of her in a car on the way to an event.

katetiara1.jpgkatetiara2.jpg

However, the controversial part of the reports are in the Queen requesting Kate to lower her hemlines citing they are too short. Maybe this request comes after various incidents occurred where of her skirts blew upwards revealing more, or perhaps as further Princess preparation after giving birth to a future King and someday becoming Queen herself? My husband mocked the request by mentioning the world has already seen Kate sunbathing topless and in bikini's while on vacation.

The Rise and Fall of Kate Middleton's Hemlines

Any comments? I can't wait to see what she really wears this tour.

[moonlight]

Why do you think we've only seen her in a tiara twice? I never thought about it before! Interesting!

[Cinderella]

I suspect it had something to do with the timing. There was a global recession and the royal wedding came a few years after that. The country was going through austerity measures and the royal family became sensitive to that and they wanted to give the appearance of austerity. Even though the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer.

The couple became engaged during the UK student protests in November 2010. At the same time that December the Arab Spring launched in December of 2010 and swept across North Africa and the parts of the Middle East. Then the anti-cuts protest happened in London a month before the royal wedding in March 2011. There was a lot of criticism around the cost of the wedding being $40 million and the public money going towards that. Then the England Riots happened after the royal wedding in August 2011 that year so the Royal family got a big shock as they were targeted in their cars. Not only that but across seas the occupy movement was starting in October 2011 in NYC that year, so the waves of the financial foundations rocking was felt all across the world.

[Sheherezade]

I'm not used to seeing any of the royals in tiaras. It seems old fashioned to me. Maybe it's making a comeback?


Angie

[Cinderella]

Well I had to read up on it since you mentioned it.

They used to be worn all the time but as times have become more casual they're worn less. It's was a mark of status for nobility and royalty who could afford them but then non-royalty were becoming wealthy and could afford them as they were auctioned off. Married women wore them more than unmarried women who didn't need to wear ornamentation. Each family decides when they can start wearing them but usually around the age of 18.

Etiquette says they're for wearing to evening events but can be worn in the early afternoon if the event is to go late into the evening. Otherwise we more commonly see them wearing hats to day events. Event they can wear them to are State occasions, White tie, Royal events, and Black tie events occasionally such as state banquets abroad. But if the royalty hosting the event show up without tiaras then the guest should remove them (usually the etiquette for such events is hashed out before hand.)

They don't have to wear them if they don't want to. Sometimes they're wear glittering brooches in their hair instead and sashes. I say more tiara events!

The royal correspondent seemed to imply that the royal jewels are being encouraged to wear instead of or in exchange for lowering the higher hemlines. In other words, "Highlight the beautiful royal heirlooms instead of showing of your legs and sometimes backside when the wind blows." This also falls inline with, "People need to get over your fashion icon status already and pay more attention to the royal causes."