PRINCE OF WALES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 129, 2 June 1936, Page 11

PRINCE OF WALES

A LEADER OF FASHION THE RECORD OF THREE KINGS IN THE TRADITION

As Prince of Wales, King Edward VIII came to occupy a place which was unrivalled in the realm of fashion. He was, above all, the innovator, the leader in men's clothes, the man upon whom the tailors and the manufacturers kept a keen eye. When he appeared in a straw "boater" the result was magical; "boaters" in hundreds of thousands poured from the factories. He was described as "the man with four hundred suits," for every Royal tour, every new appointment, and every naval or military promotion called for changes and additions to his great wardrobe. His valet has been a man possessed of encyclopaedic knowledge of the correct wear for every occasion and has had not one but several collections of clothes to administer, because the King kept; a stock of clothes at each of his several houses. And from these clothes he matched his mood. He rocked the dress trade when he appeared in white waistcoat with dinner-jacket and again when he attended a function in dinnerjacket but full evening dress trousers without the customary braid. He struck a new note when he wore a double-breasted dinner-jacket. And on the golf course his changes of attire were endless. His golfing suits of large grey checks and stockings of diamond pattern brought orders pouring across the Atlantic, for what the Prince of Wales wore was always what many Americans wished to wear. His blue shirt and canary-yellow pullover are still remembered. He wore them first at Le Touquet and they made an immediate conquest. The striped flannel suits and white buckskin shoes with tan straps worn on his Argentine tour were as much publicised in the United States as the tour itself.

KNEW HIS POWERS. The King as Prince was able to lead fashion partly because he was completely aware that precedent was at his mercy and partly because he had a genuine interest in clothes. That refusal to be bound by habit which since his accession has resulted in the abandonment of the customary special train was reinforced by a liking for the

novel and the imagination to exploit it. But these steps were not taken without careful consideration, and at different times his tailors have been called into earnest consultation on many of those slight changes which make a, style and which afterwards become famous—the belted overcoat was one. And in following this course the Prince of Wales was really continuing the strict traditions .of his rank, though few may realise it. For well over a century the Prince of Wales, when a young man, has usually had a marked influence on the style of men's clothes. George IV, when he made his entry to society and swept Mary Robinson ("the sweet and artless Perdita") off her feet brought with him a new shoe buckle which was a huge success among the bucks. It was an inch long and fully five inches broad, reaching almost to the

ground on either side of his foot, we are assured. And at his first Court ball he appeared in the staggering garb of a coat of pink silk, with white cuffs, a waistcoat of white silk embroidered with various coloured foils and adorned with a profusion of pink paste, a hat ornamented with two rows of steel beads—five thousand of them had been patiently affixed by the sewing-women—with a Button ana loop of the same metal, and cocked an "a new military style." Moreover, his hair was pressed and very fully frizzed, with two small curls at the bottom. This young man, who was a friend of Fox and Sheridan, could hardly fail to love the dashing and Say ' EDWARD VII. King Edward VII, wlien Prince of Wales, has been described as an arbiter of masculine elegance in Europe and in addition he scrupulously supervised the attire of his friends requiring of them that sobriety and perfection which would have delighted D'Orsay. When first he met Gambetta! the Prime Minister of France Prinze Edward was distrustful-could there be any good in a man so untidy £to dress? When Haldane arrived at Marienbad in a hat the worse for wear he was solemnly teased about it Tnd told that he must have inherited ft from Goethe. And the most solemn advice that the Prince gave to, a friend departing for an important post wa not to wear too high a collai. He displayed, too, a ready invention. One in Paris, just as he was leaving foi Se opera, news came of the deatho a distant but princely relative. Th party was dismayed; what j could Jot done? But the Price had the solu Jinn "We will put on black studs S'go h.-1 d. Th.> Kus sian Ambassador sought his advic about going to the races during t period of mourning and was gravel ?old that he could go to Newmarket yes, because it meant a bowler ha but not to the Derby, because -.J th tall hat. The expression of gnei 11 clothing was, in this princely mind ■ fefinefpast the understanding of man, [ess skilled in dressing as a fine art

STUDY OF DECORATIONS. This punctiliousness was naturally extended to the matter of decoratum He devoted attentive study to the auesSon and if he encountered an unSowr. order he would not be satisfied until it had been, .den ° n £ evening, catching sight of he: French Ambassador, the great Paul »"« "Tell your valet to.be Lre caTeful He meant to give you nf the order had recently oeen changed by the Spanish Court and said hat he ha y d taken to obtain the new pattern-the lunc «on was at the Spanish Embassy Inv rmssible " cried the Prince. I should haveknown about it." When he disnext day that M right the Prince summoned the Spanish , Ambassador and reproached him foi not having reported the change Of course such a man brought sartonal invention to England. He even brought it to France. Once he had captured the French by the easy good humour with which he parried the hostile demonstrations on his first visit he had them imitating him. His Kronstadt hats and open frock coats became the fashion. There is a story that one day when he dressed in a hurry he absent-mindedly left the bottom button of his waistcoat- undone and thUs pioneered a new practice. Another day he went out with his trousers turned up at the foot and trouser "cuffs" became general. Even his style of handshake, with the upper arm held close to the body, was imitated. It was one more symbol of the position of fashionable leadership which belongs to Britain's Prince of Wales.