Kate designs her own dress: It's ivory satin and lace with pearl buttons a 10ft train and a 'nod' to Lady Diana
By Rebecca EnglishLast updated at 9:56 AM on 18th April 2011
Kate Middleton has vowed to reveal nothing about her wedding dress until the moment she enters Westminster Abbey on Friday week.
But the Daily Mail can disclose that she has actually designed it herself.
The 29-year-old, who briefly worked for the High Street chain Jigsaw, has a keen interest in fashion.
Dropping a hint? Kate Middleton in a Sophie Cranston coat at a wedding in January
And as soon as her engagement was announced she took it upon herself to start creating her dream frock before she went to an established dressmaker to put her ideas into practice.
According to one impeccably-placed source, Kate has taken inspiration from her History of Art degree – particularly the Renaissance period, as she studied in Florence during her gap year.
She has also included what is described as a ‘nod’ to the iconic Emanuel wedding dress worn by Lady Diana Spencer, but has avoided including any of its ‘flounce’.
Yesterday Sophie Cranston, of the low-key label Libelula, was tipped as the creator of the wedding dress.
The bride-to-be stepped out in one of Miss Cranston’s vintage-inspired coats at a wedding in January, causing speculation that she might be in the running.
Miss Cranston, 34, won the Designer of Year award at London’s Graduate Fashion Week in 1999 and has already worked for Alexander McQueen and Alice Temperley. She founded her own label, which means dragonfly in Spanish, in 2002 and offers a bespoke bridal collection.
Working out of a small studio in south London, she has already dressed stars including Emma Watson and Jerry Hall.
Although Miss Cranston’s name was leaked on to the internet yesterday, St James’s Palace refused to enter into speculation.
Elegant: Two designs from the Libelula bespoke bridal collection
The gown in question is under lock and key at Clarence House. The Mail has been told it is ivory satin and lace, with a pearl button detail and a 10ft train.
One friend in the know said: ‘All we have been told is that the dressmaker is fairly unknown and from a relatively small design house. But make no mistake, whoever’s name emerges on the day, this is very much Catherine’s dress.’
Although he has been kept in the dark about the gown, William has agreed with Kate that she can auction it for charity after the big day, with the proceeds going to a range of charities including the Prince’s Trust.
Revealed: Sophie Cranston, founder of Spanish design house Libélula
As for shoes, Kate was recently seen in the VIP shopping area of Selfridges London store along with her mother, Carole, and sister, Pippa, surrounded by a heap of stilettoes by designer brand Gina.
If Kate has been hands on about her dress design then spare a thought for couturier Lindka Cierach, who was commissioned by the mother of the bride to provide her own outfit.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Carole Middleton has stunned Mrs Cierach, who made the Duchess of York’s wedding dress, by rejecting her design at the 11th hour.
The two women were said to have fallen out three weeks ago after Mrs Middleton, 54, demanded that the designer send the unfinished dress and matching tailored jacket to her home in Berkshire to show her friends.
A friend of Mrs Middleton said she had ‘found something she liked better’.
■ Buckingham Palace declined to comment yesterday on suggestions that William and Kate will become the Duke and Duchess of Strathearn. The title, which refers to an area of Perthshire and once belonged to Queen Victoria’s father, has not been in use since 1943.
Tradition dictates that senior members of the Royal Family have a Scottish as well as an English title to cement the union of the two nations. As well as being Duke of Cornwall, Prince Charles is also Duke of Rothesay.
BALMORAL'S 'BANNED' TEATOWELS
By Colin Fernandez
According to a memo from the official in charge of the Royal Household, commemorative tea towels bearing William and Kate’s images should be banned.
Which made it all the more puzzling that two such items should be found on sale yesterday in the official gift shop at Balmoral.
The cotton towels, selling for £6 and bearing the Royal Warrant, are made in China although ‘designed in the UK’.
One gaudy blue-and-white design features William and Kate with cheesy smiles – likened by one observer to ‘gumshields’.
The other depicts Kate wearing a hat, high heels and a mini-skirt with Balmoral and a red telephone box in the background.
A more tasteful offering on sale is the official tea towel, part of the Royal Collection selling at £7.95.
Made in the UK, the white-and-blue cloth features the intertwined initials ‘W’ and ‘C’ with a coronet.
All three towels are produced by Ulster Weavers and bear the warrant ‘By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen, Suppliers of Kitchen Textiles’.
The Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel, ruled in his memo last year that tea towels and T-shirts should not go on sale bearing William and Kate’s images. Buckingham Palace declined to comment yesterday.
Cheesy: One of the designs
Which made it all the more puzzling that two such items should be found on sale yesterday in the official gift shop at Balmoral.
The cotton towels, selling for £6 and bearing the Royal Warrant, are made in China although ‘designed in the UK’.
One gaudy blue-and-white design features William and Kate with cheesy smiles – likened by one observer to ‘gumshields’.
The other depicts Kate wearing a hat, high heels and a mini-skirt with Balmoral and a red telephone box in the background.
A more tasteful offering on sale is the official tea towel, part of the Royal Collection selling at £7.95.
Made in the UK, the white-and-blue cloth features the intertwined initials ‘W’ and ‘C’ with a coronet.
All three towels are produced by Ulster Weavers and bear the warrant ‘By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen, Suppliers of Kitchen Textiles’.
The Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel, ruled in his memo last year that tea towels and T-shirts should not go on sale bearing William and Kate’s images. Buckingham Palace declined to comment yesterday.
