17 November 2013

CHÂTEAU DE CANDÉ part three

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Many of the Duchess of Windsor’s gowns are on display at Candé, including her wedding dress.  Some are originals but the wedding dress is, I think, a replica ~ I can’t remember exactly.  It's very demure and a lovely shade of powder blue.

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A lot of her other dresses would not look out of place if worn today.  Some styles never go out of fashion.  I have seen TV footage of coats just like that pink one being worn by our royals very recently.

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The evening dresses were beautiful.

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The hats were stylish.

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I was especially interested to see the jewellery and I was not disappointed there.  You very rarely see brooches being worn these days, maybe because most people wear anoraks of some kind rather than a formal coat or jacket, including me.

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There was a definite animal theme going on ~ I liked the panther head necklace and flamingo brooch. 

10 comments:

  1. The wedding dress and the jewellry are repro. I was really struck by how much like Princess Margaret's clothes from the same period a lot of the garments were. I suppose they used much the same set of designers, and they back up Wallis's remark that one can never be too rich or too thin. I was impressed that the City of Tours would go to the expense of purchasing these items. I remember when the contents of the Duchess' Paris flat were put up for auction. The jewellry in particular caused a frisson. Sadly Tours couldn't afford any of the real pieces, plus the security required to put it on display just wouldn't have been worth it. They limited themselves to clothes and accessories from the 60s mostly. Mercifully they didn't purchase any of the other textiles. A friend of mine was involved in preparing the curtains for auction. Apparently the Duchess had a number of Pugs, who were allowed to do whatever they pleased, which included peeing all over the bottoms of the curtains.

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    1. Susan, how the other half live, eh!
      It's amazing how often you hear about the upper crust having astonishingly nasty habits, presumably because they could afford the servants to do the clearing up.
      Some of the Duchess's later jewellery was designed by an American called Miriam Haskell, who designed for many of the rich and famous, including Joan Crawford and Gloria Vanderbilt, which says something about her style I think.
      (I know this because I picked up a copy of a book about Mrs Haskell in a charity shop. Her designs are mostly heavy on the bling factor.)

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    2. Remind me to tell you a story about Camilla, told to me by one of her former flatmates, and which I am absolutely not prepared to put on the internet :-)

      Wallis was a big Cartier customer too I seem to remember.

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  2. The wedding dress looks very familiar, though I didn't know it was blue, having only ever seen black and white photos of her wearing it. :-) You're right about the jewellery. I have several pieces of costume jewellery which haven't seen the light of day for years, because they just don't go with the way I dress nowadays.

    Congratulations on the sterling cake effort. That's a fantastic total.

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  3. You've blown me away with that list of cakes! They all sound gorgeous. I haven't baked a cake in years and feel so ashamed... I agree, the clothes look rather dated. I love brooches and loved to wear them on coat and jacket lapels. But the past few years I've rarely remembered to do it -- except for the poppy!

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  4. How I would love to have been given free rein to try on those clothes! I'd have been in seventh heaven...

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  5. While I am normally a great fan of history and things historical, the display left me cold.

    Blessings and Bear hugs!

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  6. Great photos and travelogue. Thanks.

    Cakes? I wish I could get one of each (at least).

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  7. Sounds like an interesting trip. Yes I think all clothes if put away for a while come back in fashion again. I hate throwing clothes out that are in good condition and I love it when they are the height of fashion once more :-)))) Have a good one Diane

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  8. Interesting read, but was not overly impressed with the clothes, thus reflecting my downward spiral in regards to posh clothing since I became a farm girl!

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