Haute Couture and the Royals: A Love Affair of the Ages
Be it Kate Middleton and Elie Saab, Queen Rania and Givenchy or Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and Chanel, royals have long embraced the world of couture – and for very good reason
Romeo and Juliet, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Ross and Rachel – some love affairs boast an enduring legacy. Such is the case with the royals and haute couture, an exclusive art of dressmaking intrinsically linked to royalty since 1868. This was the year when Charles Frederick Worth, the official dressmaker to Empress Eugénie of France and the ‘father of haute couture,’ founded what is now known as La Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. As a division of the French Ministry of Industry, the federation sets strict criteria that designers must meet to be recognised as a couture house. Today, its members include renowned names such as Elie Saab, Zuhair Murad, Chanel, Ralph & Russo and Dior.
Since its inception, the latter has enjoyed particularly substantial patronage from royal families. Princess Margaret was a devoted admirer, once describing the Dior couture white dress she wore on her 21st birthday as her “favourite dress of all.”
This romantic gown featured a close-fitting bodice with a tight belted waist that flowed into voluminous skirts adorned with golden embroidery. The British royal even hosted two Dior shows at Blenheim Palace in the 1950s and later invited Princess Elizabeth Bagaya of Tooro to model in a charity fashion show.
Princess Diana continued the British royals’ love affair with Dior haute couture when she made her first and only appearance at the 1996 Met Gala in a navy-blue slip dress designed by Dior’s then-creative director John Galliano (the exhibition of the year was a retrospective of Christian Dior’s work), while Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, opted for Dior couture during a visit to Morocco in 2019 and again at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.
In 2023 Her Majesty Queen Camilla debuted an elegant Dior haute couture gown, specially designed for her by Maria Grazia Chiuri and handcrafted in the Dior atelier, for a state visit to France with King Charles, while she also recently wowed the crowds at Royal Ascot 2024 in a blue silk crepe number, also by the house’s current creative director.
It’s hardly surprising that most royals have a favourite haute couture designer. After all, a couturier needs to know how to dress their client’s body, create a piece of clothing by hand from start to finish and seek out the highest quality fabrics, which means brands form highly personal relationships with their clients that often spans decades. Jordan’s Queen Rania favours a number of notable brands like Givenchy, Elie Saab and Tamara Ralph.
Saudi Arabia’s Princess Ameerah al-Taweel has a soft spot for Ralph & Russo and the Netherlands’ Queen Máxima is particularly fond of Valentino. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar, a pioneer of chic modest wear in the Middle East known as the Arab’s world monarch of haute couture, is an ardent collector of Chanel, and also went viral in 2021 thanks to a striking blue cobalt Valentino abaya she wore to the 2021 Fashion Trust Arabia Award show.
With their ultra-feminine, flowing gowns and chic cultural nuances, regional designers have also made their way into an impressive number of regal wardrobes over the years. Catherine, The Princess of Wales, opted for an Elie Saab number from the A/W 2017 couture collection for the wedding of Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa, while in 2023 she also chose the Lebanese designer to dress her for the Buckingham Palace Garden Party, opting for a bespoke mid-length dress with embroidered sheer sleeves, a pussy-bow tie and a skirt comprising of layers of frothy fabric. Queen Rania of Jordan also famously wore one of his gowns for her coronation ceremony in 1999.
Then, of course, we have Zuhair Murad. Known for his delicate details and romantic drama, it’s hardly surprising that Princess Anisha Rosnah chose to change into a glittering gown from the Lebanese designer for the celebratory banquet during her extravagant ten-day wedding to Prince Mateen of Brunei – otherwise known as the wedding to end all weddings.
As younger clientele become seduced by the art of the couturier (the percentage of millennial couture clients worldwide is growing and fast) and designers look for novel ways to keep their collections relevant, time will tell how the new generation of royals will embrace couture (we predict an imminent Princess Charlotte and Dior collaboration in the not-so-distant future). We’re pretty sure, however, the timeless bond between the two is going nowhere fast.
For more on A/W 24 Haute Couture Week…
How To Watch Paris Haute Couture Week in The UAE, KSA and GCC
Haute Couture Week, Day Two: Cascading Pearls And Daring Silhouettes
