What a difference a decade can make. We first knew Camilla Parker Bowles as a frumpy country housewife who rarely wore make-up, didn’t do her hair and was most comfortable wearing jeans and a baggy sweater. This was a woman who liked gardening, hunting and horses — and didn’t care a jot about how she looked.
Then came her wedding to the Prince of Wales on April 9, 2005. She stunned the world by appearing at the entrance to St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in a sweeping, pale-blue silk and gold dress by British designer Robinson Valentine, topped with a diamond-encrusted feather headdress by milliner Philip Treacy.
That day marked the start of her decade-long transformation from dowdy fiftysomething to dazzling Duchess.
As Charles and Camilla celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary next week, Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, charts Camilla’s magnificent makeover.
Scroll down for video
As Charles and Camilla celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary next week, Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, charts Camilla’s magnificent makeover
Ditching frizz for luscious locks
Charles has always loved Camilla’s candyfloss locks. Her blonde hair is thick but very fine, which makes it difficult to style — something that’s obvious from her early days in the public eye. When they first met, it was often frizzy, unkempt and windswept from days spent outdoors.
These days, Camilla has her hair blow-dried almost every day. For a woman of 67, this makes a massive difference to how she looks. Camilla relies on stylist Hugh Green, from Hugh and Stephen hairdressers in Belgravia, who now works for her full-time, to keep her hair looking glossy and neat.
He accompanies her on royal tours, ensuring not a lock is out of place, and has a knack for fixing tiaras and hats, sometimes attaching a piece of fake hair to the crown of her head to keep a heavy headdress in place
Camilla has been visiting high-end London colourist Jo Hansford, who counts Angelina Jolie and Elizabeth Hurley among her clients, for nearly 30 years, but her royal role means she visits more frequently than ever.
Jo uses cream and honey-blonde highlights on the Duchess’s hair that have become paler to cover up her natural greys. ‘When the texture changes, you have to alter the colour in a way nobody notices,’ says Jo.
Camilla’s hair is now cut in a fashionable, shoulder-length bob, with a soft, feathered fringe and Farrah Fawcett-style flicks around her face. This suits her heart-shaped bone structure better than the same-length , shapeless style she used to favour, though to Charles’s untrained eye, it’s not too different to how she looked when they first fell in love.
Camilla’s hair is now cut in a fashionable, shoulder-length bob, with a soft, feathered fringe and Farrah Fawcett-style flicks around her face. She is pictured (left) at a polo match in 2002 and (right) at a visit of Rudyard Kipling's former home last year
A clever hat trick
Camilla has quite broad shoulders and looks better with a hat than without, but her early headgear choices were dubious.
On her initial public forays, she opted for large-brimmed hats with dramatic sprays of feathers, and some, such as her bright blue choice for a 2008 outing to Royal Ascot, were gaudy. She has taken time to get the colour right and now sticks to pastels and creams.
Her go-to milliner is royal favourite Philip Treacy, with whom she has worked since he designed her wedding hat. As well as the feathered fascinator, she wore a natural straw number trimmed with ivory French lace for the civil ceremony earlier that day at Windsor Guildhall, and loved it so much that she has donned it on a number of occasions since.
From shape to brim size, Camilla has learned what suits her, and she’s delighted she can now afford to fill her wardrobe with Treacy’s designs.
Her headgear has become bolder, too. The asymmetrical champagne-coloured hat she donned for a Battle of Britain service in Westminster Abbey in 2012 was a striking choice and took years off her face.
At a ceremony in Amsterdam a year later, she wore a daring powder-blue leaf fascinator that recalled a Grecian goddess. Still, when in the country, she reverts to fur-trimmed tweed designs or berets by London-based Lock & Co Hatters.
Bee venom for that dewy glow.
Years of smoking and an outdoorsy, hands-on life have taken their toll on Camilla’s skin. It’s doubtful she ever put a pot of cream other than Nivea on her face until she was 50, let alone indulged in a facial.
Her olive-toned complexion has always lent a bit of colour to her face but, a decade ago, her skin looked dry and weather-beaten.
Now, she owes her dewy appearance to a rigorous royal skincare regime. In 2010, Camilla revealed she had tried the £165 bee venom facial, described as the best non-surgical facelift money can buy, pioneered by skincare guru Deborah Mitchell.
This involves putting venom, extracted from the sting of Kenyan bees, directly onto the skin, making it appear brighter. Camilla hates the idea of surgery so this, and regular top-ups of a matching £55-a-pot moisturiser, is a perfect alternative.
She quit her ten-cigarettes-a-day habit in 2001, with the help of Charles’s Indian health guru Dr Mosaraf Ali, and the results are finally starting to show in her complexion. Though she has lots of lines around her mouth, the rest of her face has acquired a healthy glow. When she and Charles travel abroad, such as on their recent trip to Mexico, Camilla likes to arrive a week early to acclimatise and begin a pampering ritual that will ensure she looks her best.
Make-up artist Julia Biddlecombe, who did her wedding make-up, often goes with her. With her help, Camilla has moved away from unattractive red lipstick to subtle pink gloss, loose powder and a slick of mascara.
Outfits to show off a trim waist
Camilla’s pampered life as a Duchess has done wonders for her figure. There are rumours she lost a stone prior to her wedding day, although her couturier Roy Allen says she weighs exactly the same now as she did then.
Camilla is paranoid about looking fat, and her recent fashion choices show she is learning to embrace her waist. In Washington last month, she sported a number of outfits with panels in the waist, suggesting a newfound confidence in showing off her figure.
Her oyster coat by British couture designer Bruce Oldfield had silky, circular inserts just above each hipbone, while the floor-skimming beige cape and dress (also by Oldfield) she wore to a gala dinner had a mid-section sash. Some of her coats, too, such as the sombre one she wore to the service of thanksgiving for the 11th Duke of Marlborough earlier this year, have had darts put in to emphasise her waist.
Camilla has terrible problems with her back, so exercise is difficult, but she has taken up yoga and Pilates to strengthen her core. She also enjoys hill-walking and exercising her dogs.
She attributes her good health to regular visits to Ayurvedic spas, which promote alternative holistic therapies derived from ancient Hindu practices, and has been known to visit India by herself for four-day retreats. She stays relaxed by treating herself to regular massages and, whenever possible, goes to bed early after a hot bath.
Prince Charles and Camilla walk from St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on April 9, 2005, following a ceremony blessing their wedding
Charles and Camilla pictured almost ten years after getting married at a reception to launch 'Travels To My Elephant' at Clarence House on March 26
Matching Kate’s style
Over ten years, Camilla has done a crash course in fashion. Her early choices — drab twinsets, long skirts and shapeless blouses — were all wrong for a glamorous royal.
At the start of her marriage, when royal aides were asked what designer the Duchess of Cornwall was wearing, they had no answer. Camilla’s butterfly-like transformation began on her wedding day, and she has become progressively braver since. She relies on her dresser, Jackie Meakin, who also worked for the Queen Mother, to assemble suitable, often spectacular, occasionwear and she has come to love designers such as Bruce Oldfield, Anna Valentine and Vivienne Westwood.
She hates shopping and chooses tailored trousers and jackets from an Italian mail-order catalogue. Her shoes are usually LK Bennett, and she completes the look with a French manicure (having ditched her granny-like pink polish) by Marina Sandoval, a beautician she sees fortnightly.
Most of her outfits now have a V-shaped neck, a bias cut and pleats in the skirt, so they swirl when she moves. She has learned to pull out all the stops for the red carpet, as shown at a film premiere in 2011, when she wore a risqué sequinned dress with a gathered side and calf split. Yet she looked as sophisticated in a cream shirt dress at the Badminton Horse Trials in 2013, and an emerald suit at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2011.
‘She’s getting great fun out of clothes now,’ says couturier Roy Allen. ‘She doesn’t mind what people say if she wears them again and again.’
Camilla does a fantastic job of keeping up with the younger royals, too. She turned up to the Order of the Garter service at Windsor in 2012 in an outfit almost identical to the Duchess of Cambridge’s, and the pair are often spotted at garden parties sporting remarkably similar styles.
Camilla does a fantastic job of keeping up with the younger royals and even turned up to the Order of the Garter service at Windsor in 2012 in an outfit almost identical to the Duchess of Cambridge
No pearls but lots of bling
As a woman who once wore nothing but three-strand pearl chokers — and Camilla still has plenty of these — she has amassed a treasure trove of jewels.
A look back at her early accessories reveals plain, unadorned necklaces and simple earrings. Now, the Duchess is rarely seen without a glittering strand of diamonds decorating her décolletage.
One of her most impressive pieces is a diamond necklace containing 37 rubies — thought to be a personal gift from Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah.
Camilla has worn it on a number of occasions, including to a film premiere earlier this year, and it is said to be worth around £1 million.
On another trip to Saudi Arabia, Camilla received jewels set with sapphires and emeralds, and she has gradually gained the confidence to wear these giant gemstones with pride. Some of her jewellery choices are more avant-garde, such as a pair of Van Cleef & Arpels brooches, in the shape of dragonflies.
Charles and Camilla arrive in Washington, DC, in March. Camilla mixed a classic grey coat with simple heels and cream gloves
沒有留言:
張貼留言