Queen Consort Camilla’s coronation dress will reportedly be stitched by Princess Diana’s favourite celebrity fashion designer.
The 75 year old has apparently picked her long-time fashion collaborator Bruce Oldfield, 72, to make the gown for the ceremony, which will see her wear his creation when she is crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey on May 6 alongside her 74-year-old husband King Charles, who divorced Diana in 1996 before he married Camilla in 2005.
The Sun reported on Thursday (23.02.23) night the royal chose Bruce – who designed some of Diana’s most iconic looks after they grew close in the 1980s – following the pair also developing a “firm” friendship.
An insider told The Sun: “Camilla has a very close friendship with Bruce spanning many years so in many ways it is the natural and obvious choice.
“Camilla trusts Bruce because he has really delivered on dresses for so many important occasions recently for her.”
The newspaper said Bruce refused to confirm or deny the report, and responded to its queries by asking: “What can I say?”
A chance meeting with Princess Di led to Bruce’s decade-long bond and he described her as the “perfect client”.
He said about the late royal, killed in a Paris tunnel car smash aged 36 in August 1997: “When I look back, it was relentless for her. We did dress her up like she was going to a wedding every day.”
Bruce was awarded an OBE in 1990 and has been Camilla’s designer for 10 years.
He has said: “I gave Diana her glamour and Camilla her confidence.”
Bruce’s raft of celebrity clients have included Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Faye Dunaway and Sienna Miller – and he has helped redesign McDonald’s uniforms.
His A-list work and friendships with royals is far from his rough upbringing.
He was born into a broken home and brought up and educated in the care of children’s charity Bernardo’s after his dad, who he never knew, moved to Britain from Jamaica.
Bruce was then placed in the foster care of a seamstress who instilled in him his passion for fashion and he went on to graduate in 1973 from London’s St Martin’s School of Art.
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