For Princess Beatrice, this was the ultimate ‘something borrowed’.
Fashion is so often used to make a statement and this gown, personally loaned by the Queen, sends a huge message of her support to a much-loved granddaughter on her wedding day.
The Queen Mary tiara – worn by the Queen when she married Prince Philip in 1947 and loaned to her only daughter Princess Anne on hers – also signifies the warmth of feeling.
Beatrice’s decision to get married in a second-hand gown is interesting and, I must say, pleasantly surprising and touching.
A very traditional design, it is beautifully crafted from peau de soie taffeta and features a geometric, chequered bodice encrusted with diamanté.
There have been amendments to the original, of course, to allow for Beatrice’s height and the modesty of a Royal bride in church. Angela Kelly, the Queen’s personal dresser, and Stewart Parvin, Her Majesty’s favourite dressmaker, remodelled and refitted the dress to Beatrice’s size and tastes.
A longer sleeve, for example, might have been more fashionable but then Beatrice has never been in thrall to fashion labels and the puffed organza sleeves show her playful style. A sleek trim of ivory Duchess satin at the bottom of the gown allows for added length.
The dress was designed by Sir Norman Hartnell and worn by Her Majesty at the 1962 film premiere of Lawrence Of Arabia at London’s Leicester Square Odeon where the Queen met leading man Peter O’Toole.
Hartnell had an astonishing rise to fame from creating uniforms for Selfridges ‘lift girls’ in the early 1920s to designing for royalty.
Besides designing two of the most important dresses of the 20th Century – the Queen’s wedding dress and the outfit for her 1953 Coronation – he is also credited with turning London into a fashion hub to rival Paris.
A patriotic choice for Beatrice, then, as well as a personal one. It also plays to the trend for vintage dresses and sustainable fashion. The bride doesn’t traditionally give a speech at her wedding but with this beautiful, romantic gown created 26 years before she was born, Beatrice spoke volumes.
Dress was lent by the Queen
By Emily Andrews, Max Aitchison, Michael Powell and Scarlet Howes for the Mail on Sunday
The Queen lent Princess Beatrice the tiara that she wore at her own wedding and a vintage gown first worn to a glitzy film premiere almost 60 years ago.
In an astonishing double display of generosity, unmatched for any previous Royal bride, the monarch made every effort to ensure that her granddaughter’s wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi was an occasion for the couple to remember.
The wedding may have lacked pomp and pizzazz but it had intimacy, with 20 guests witnessing the couple exchange their vows.
Edo’s four-year-old son Wolfie served as both best man and page boy, while his niece Coco Yeomans, five, was a bridesmaid alongside her pageboy brother Freddie, three.
The party-loving Yorks ensured a high-spirited reception, featuring speciality cocktails, bespoke catering, an exquisitely decorated Indian-style tent, a bouncy castle and glamping pods for overnight guests. Beatrice was said to be ‘thrilled and super-excited’, telling a friend: ‘It’s been such a whirlwind.’
While the wedding was arranged amid huge secrecy, The Mail on Sunday can today reveal the inside story.
