I hope you all had a holiday weekend (or non-holiday weekend) as cozy and chic as the one the Windsors had.
Yes, I said chic! This might be the first time in the short history of this blog where I can honestly apply the word to pretty much all of the British royal family at once, at their annual march to Christmas service at Sandringham.
The Queen got things rolling in her jolly red coat and hat with snuggly fur trim. Change the fur to white and add a black belt with a gold buckle, and we'd really be in business. That fur trim did mean she went without a brooch, but other family members were ready and willing to pick up the slack in that department. You can read all about her brooch pick
for her traditional Christmas speech over at the Jewel Vault, of course.
Here's one brooch stepping in, a diamond moth from the Duchess of Cornwall. She pinned it on this chic charcoal and black outfit - one of my favorites from Camilla's current wardrobe. She looks great in these coats with clean lines and selectively placed trim, and should buy them in bulk.
Lady Sarah Chatto also helped out in the brooch department, in a diamond
and pearl star brooch that belonged to her mother, Princess Margaret. It's a lookalike to the
Queen's Jardine Star Brooch, but that style is really quite common (the Princess Royal has one too).
She and Princess Beatrice represented the black coat team, a look which is not particularly interesting but is also hard to get wrong. It did make me glad for Princess Eugenie's shot of teal, though.
Princess Anne - who I like to imagine was having a stern conversation with her umbrella here, just daring it to defy her and attempt a windy getaway - sported a feather in her cap and a chicly cut light green coat.
And it was green for the Duchess of Cambridge as well, as her parade of new coats rolls on. I love the empire waist variation (when one has one's own coat museum, one can afford to switch it up), and of course I appreciate that she made a rare brooch appearance. The acorn motif brooch has been seen once before, in 2012, and is thought to be in her personal collection.
All that said, there was one family member that really swept the chic competition. I may need to make a quick addendum to my Best of 2015
honorable mentions...
Hello, Sophie! The
added faux fur collar elevates the Countess of Wessex's Suzannah coat by about a million points for pure Christmas perfection.
On that chic note, the holiday hiatus is back in effect! We'll return with our annual coverage of the first tiara events of the year, the New Year's receptions in Denmark and Japan.
Photos: via Getty Images
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