ROYAL ENGAGEMENT SPECIAL FASHION EDITION! Engagement Weekend part 1

Hey, everybody. I'm Debs Kelley. Welcome back to another fashion edition. This kicks off engagement weekend on my channel here. We are going to be going through the engagement interviews, but first we're going to take a look at the engagement announcement outfits and engagement picture outfits across several royal ladies. Let's begin with Princess Diana and Prince Charles at the time, now King Charles. Back when they got engaged, she was known as Lady Diana. They not only did an engagement announcement and interview in one set of outfits, but also sat for portraits. Let's take a look at the gown she wore for the portraits first. She chose this beautiful green ball gown with plenty of jewelry and glam. I actually really like this. The green was a really, really nice choice for this. It's not too on the nose being too bridal or anything like that, which is nice. And the color really suits her well. Green really sends the vibe of new beginnings and spring wonder, so it's a nice messaging in terms of a color perspective for this as well. And it seems to fit her really nicely. Obviously, she's seated in this, but it just looks like a really well-fitting, nice, and beautiful gown to choose. It's not as intense as a lot of 80s looks out there that I have seen on her or anybody, really. For the interview, she wore this blue skirt suit. I imagine it comes as a set. I think I heard somewhere that she and her mom just went to Harrods to pick it up, to pick something out, so I'm not even sure if it's a designer or anything like that. I don't think it is. I think it's just a pretty standard outfit. I will say the tights look to be not the best choice. Perhaps they were a bit too whitish. They almost look bluish, but I don't know if that's just the camera or what, but maybe the tights weren't a great choice. But the rest of it actually looks quite nice and polished for this choice. It's not that frumpy or anything like that. The skirt length is fine. It's nice and modest. Scalloped edge of the blazer top and the scarf tie create a nice focal point by her face, which is really, really smart for this occasion, doing an interview, announcing an engagement. You definitely want to bring the eyes up to the face and let them stay there. So having the interest all right here creates a nice framing. It'll look nice on camera having the scalloped edge bringing a little bit of interest, but not too much. Of course, blue is always associated as the something blue. It does give a little bit of a bridal theme to it, and the slight peplum effect that you can see to this blazer top is quite flattering for her figure, although it could have been done maybe a little bit better. I think this was pretty standard for peplums in the 80s, but I'm not sure. I wasn't here yet. And she looked quite polished, and as a couple, they looked cohesive because his suit matched hers nicely with his sort of slate blue tie. It went along with her color scheme as well. And of course, those blues match the ring. But you guys really need to fill me in on what this skirt suit was like back then. Was it a stylish choice? Was it a good choice? Or did it come across as frumpy? I don't know. It looks quite professional and polished to me, but I'm trying to keep in mind the context of the 80s fashions. Now, on to a less flashy look here. We have Fergie and Prince Andrew, the Duke and Duchess of York. They had a much more subdued pair of outfits, these two. Definitely less flashy. Simple belted coat accentuated her figure nicely. I like her choice of hairstyle for this. It added a softness, but still had it up and away from her face. And the purple looks lovely for her. For me, my first impression of this picture is that they come across really quite relatable for a royal couple. And notice she has a pink stone for her engagement ring. We're going to come back to that in just a moment. But what did you guys think of this announcement when it came out? Next, let's take a look at Sophie and Prince Edward, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. She also opted for a skirt suit, but I absolutely love this one, like so much better than the 80s one. This one has this embellishment. It looks almost like there are beads or perhaps little stones embellished along the lapel and pockets. It suits her waist really, really nicely. Tucks in nice there, defining her figure. So it is a really, really flattering look. I really like her hairstyle even for this. I mean, it is, I think this was the 90s, so it definitely reads as 90s to me, but it just looks polished and clean and sleek and lovely. And it's definitely well suited to this sort of an occasion, making an announcement. I'm not sure if they did an interview or not, as similar to like Prince Charles and Diana did, but regardless, it would have been a fine choice for an interview, having something that's nice and framing, but not too distracting. Although she could have chosen like a brighter color or maybe even just something a little softer that would read a little bit more bridal, because this is just a sort of slate gray, which is totally fine. It looks lovely, like it fits her fabulously. The little bit of white underneath peeking through gives it a little bit of brightness and pop and keeps it really crisp and fresh. So I don't care that it's not giving bridal, it's giving beautiful and that's what really matters. So it was a really excellent choice. But this, I mean, I'm really not sure what this is. Was this a thing? It looks like something from like a spoof. I don't know. I love them. I think that they are fabulous. I really, really do. I respect and adore Sophie and Prince Edward. I think they are wonderful, but this is just kind of a funny picture. Next, let's go back in time even further to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's engagement. Now, they had actually been engaged for a full year or thereabouts before they announced their engagement to the public because they wanted to wait until Elizabeth had turned 21. She was Princess Elizabeth at the time. I think their engagement picture is so cute. I love their pose the most because they're just looking at each other and you can tell they're both smiling sweetly. It's just an adorable, sweet picture and, I mean, their love story, despite it being imperfect according to many people, seems beautiful and I absolutely love it. This dress she chose was very flattering to her figure. It gave her a feminine, sweet, romantic vibe that was just right for the occasion. At the time, these larger structured shoulder pads and longer sleeves were very, very popular and the shoes even, which is very iconic for the times, but just looked lovely. Now, let's move on to one of everybody's favorite couples in the royal family sphere and that is Zara and Mike Tindall. And this couple, I could not find any official portraits or announcement of their engagement, so if you guys know about it, please let me know in the comments. But all I could find was this. This kept popping up when I was trying to search for their engagement announcement or photos. This picture just kept coming up, so I put it in here even though it's obviously not an official engagement picture or anything like that. They are a low-key couple in terms of these sorts of things. They don't go over the top with announcements and official stuff like that, so maybe they didn't really put out an official portrait. I don't know. You guys have got to help me out on this one. I thought this was so cute and demonstrates perfectly the vibe that they send as a couple, so I thought I'd put it in here anyway. There's nothing special to it, their outfits or anything. It just is one of those pictures that is speaking for them, showing you exactly what they're about and who they are. They look fun, they look happy, they're outdoors, they're just in casual wear, and it demonstrates perfectly how they seem to be one of the most fun couples. And I'm sure they do have gorgeous engagement photos somewhere. For now, this was just too cute to not put in. Princess Eugenie wore this floral patterned dress for her engagement announcement, and the first thing I noticed was that she has a pink stone for her engagement ring as well, just like her mother's. So I don't love this dress, but I also don't hate it. It's a fine choice. We've seen her in it quite a little bit. She must like it, it must be comfortable to wear. I have two things with it that I think I would have made it more complimentary to her if they had been adjusted. If the sleeves were a little longer, it would be much more flattering for her. They're cap sleeves, and they're at a bit of a funky angle, so I feel like it would be much better if they were just a little bit longer, like down to here, or even almost like this length of sleeve would just look a little bit nicer for her for this picture especially, in particular turned to the side like this, because the sleeve is just kind of distracting. Notice I see their faces, but then I drift right to that sleeve, and then I just stay there. My eye wants to stay at the sleeve because it's at a funky angle, but also it's just showing a lot of arm, which is totally fine. It's just for an engagement picture, you definitely want the eye to stay at your faces, or between you and your fiancé, or at the rings, at the hands. You don't necessarily want it drifting off to the side to your arm, because it's not relevant to the engagement announcement. The only other thing I would say about this dress is that because she does have a slightly shorter neck, I do too, I have the same struggles here. If you have a high collar like she does in this dress, it's actually much more flattering to have your hair up in a bun, up in a way to give you a little bit of elongation out of that tall collar. It's also a darker color, so that would help a lot, but having your hair down like this, it really closes her in a little bit and makes her neck look even shorter, so it also could have been helped if it was just simply like a v-neck, or it just opened up here, you know, even if it was tall along the sides, but then opened up into a v-neck, that would have helped it along as well, but she looks beautiful regardless. Now this was a really beautiful choice for Princess Beatrice, and I immediately noticed she wore a floral dress for her engagement photos, similar to Princess Eugenie, so that was kind of a sweet sisterly thing to do, to both wear floral dresses for those engagement announcements. I feel like they got engaged within a year or two of each other, correct me if I'm wrong, but this dress on Beatrice is maybe not everybody's favorite. The pattern is big and maybe a little loud for some, but I actually don't mind it at all. It was a really flattering choice in terms of silhouette, and I quite like the pink florals on here. I think that they give a girly and romantic vibe, but I also can see a less contrasting pattern being a little bit better choice. Like for example, what she wore to Royal Ascot, it was all these florals and fun textures and lace and whatnot, but it was all a little bit closer in color. It was all sort of in the blushy creams, light pinks and whatnot. It didn't have this bold teal background, so I totally get what people say when they say that this was a little bit of a busy choice for the pattern, but I still think it was fine. As for the pose, I was a little distracted by her hand in this picture here. I was trying to figure out if she was like holding on to his collar or what was happening, but that's okay because it draws your eye to the ring and then you just rest looking at the ring because the hand is in a little bit of an interesting or different position, so you're kind of wondering what's going on with the hand, but then it ends up you just stare at the ring, so that's totally fine for engagement pictures just like how we were talking about with Princess Eugenie's, not necessarily drawing your eye to the ring or to the couple so much. This one draws your eye straight to the ring, and this other picture of them is just so pretty. I couldn't not include it in this. I have nothing to say about it except that it is beautiful. Okay, now on to the weirdest announcement, which was Harry and the Meg. We all have discussed the strange pose that she did when they came out to do their engagement announcement pictures where she kind of leaned away from him and leaned back in this really awkward position, and then of course we all got a good shot of her ginormous shoes that were kind of banged up and not looking great, so it was not a fabulous start for the couple. It could have been more polished. It could have been a little bit better thought out. The wrap style of coat is just not the most flattering for her. They force visual weight upon your midsection due to their tie closure, which the tie belt which she tends to tie in a really, really messy fashion. They remind me more of like bathrobes or dressing gowns than coats, but these wrap coats are always going to put a lot of weight up by the shoulder. A lot of these flaps and folds across the top just kind of don't look very polished or well put together, and then you have the belt on top of it, and you also are never going to have an even line along the hem at the bottom because of the way it wraps and folds close. So overall, it's just a much less polished option for her and a harder one to achieve a nice silhouette in, so it wasn't the greatest choice for her to do on this day for this most important occasion. So they didn't really match or coordinate at all. The only thing is that he has a white shirt and her coat is white, but even her coat is slightly off-white, so they still don't match, and instead of a green dress, she could have perhaps worn a blue dress to match his suit. I don't know, just saying. It would have given a little bit more couple vibes if they had coordinated in some way because they just had the weird posing was out of hand. They had a little bit of an incongruous look together that day, and it just overall could have been more polished and also better organized. It did seem a little rushed and strange. I remember there was articles where people were confused that they weren't able to ask any questions of the couple. They were just waved from across the pond, but the press call thought that everybody, that Harry and Meghan at least, were going to come and like talk to them. So you guys fill me in on that, but her engagement photo shoot with Prince Harry was insane. I have a video that covered it pretty in-depth on my channel. I will link it at the end of today's video for you all, but I just, I thought it was a really poor choice. It was so expensive. I think it was over $50,000 or something like that. It was a sheer top with this like feathered ball gown skirt, and they did not go well together, the vibes. He was wearing just a normal suit, much like the one that he was wearing at the engagement announcement, and she was wearing this ball gown. Now, if he had been in a tux, it would have had a lot more harmony to it, but he wasn't. He was just in a suit, and then she was in this over-the-top ball gown, so it just didn't have any synchronicity, which ultimately meant she looked out of place because she was overdressed, and if you're overdressed, you're gonna look out of place. It's just how it works. Posing was really strange, and the true icing on the cake was that they put out a statement that their engagement photos, they wanted to be accessible and relatable at $50,000 per dress. Finally, we have the prince and princess of Wales as we now know them in this beautiful blue dress Catherine wore for this engagement announcement and interview. She wore this, and he wore a tie that has blue and purple, it looks like, so his tie is sort of textured and has that blue that ties in with her outfit really nicely, which I liked. Her dress matched the ring perfectly, so it was very on theme, and that kept it looking very harmonious. One could argue that it was a little bit of a nod to Diana's blue suit that she wore for this same occasion in her life, but I don't know that I would agree with that simply because it's so different. Catherine's is much darker, different texture, much different style because obviously she's wearing a dress, so I'm not sure I would necessarily agree. However, having blue with that rich blue stone ring does make sense, and if it was a bit of a nod, this was the right way to do it because it wasn't copying it, it was making it your own by choosing the same color, but your own silhouette, your own style, that makes it more paying homage than copying. I really like that she chose a dress because it gives a much more romantic feel to the occasion, and of course, as we said, blue always reads a little bit bridal, or it suits bridal occasions just fine. The neck and the silhouette of the It's not my favorite, but she has the figure to pull it off and have it not be a problem. I don't think it looks bad or anything like that. They're just not my personal favorite. The v-neck is really nice. It opens up her silhouette and her face quite a lot, which is a really nice option, again, for something like this. You definitely want a nice neckline, a bit of a focal point with a necklace or something like that when you're going to be doing an interview. So I think that for the engagement announcement and interview, it was a wonderful choice. Then we have this photo, which I think was an engagement picture that they released. I really like this one. It's got these muted tones. He's in sort of like an oatmeal color, and she's in a cream color, and the background is nice and white and bright. The light coming in through the window is so soft, and they just look delightfully happy. And of course, like we were talking about, the focal point of the picture is just them as a couple with the ring right there. It's a really excellent choice for an engagement photo, if it was, because it just lets their happy faces be the focus of the picture, because the muted tones and everything just sort of melt away, and that's all you focus right there in the little heart shape of their smiles down to the ring and her arm there. It literally creates a heart shape. So it's super cute and perfect. And if you've ever done engagement pictures, what did you wear for it? Leave it in the comments. I'd love to hear. Thank you guys so much for joining me for today's special fashion edition for engagement weekend, and I will see you next time. Bye!