They can duplicate Pippa’s dress…
…but unless they can also duplicate her figure, I don’t think the dress is gonna work out so well for a lot of people.
Do not attempt unless you’re rail-thin. And have a passle of attendants to deal with the buttons.
She doesn’t look rail-thin to me. That would in my book apply to the gaunt fashion models, but not Pippa. She looks simply feminine-fine, where she should be at her young age.
She walked and carried herself very well. Many young American women walk like truck drivers.
I agree with Tom. She’s perfectly beautiful, not skinny.
She’s not rail thin.
Judging by the definition of muscles to fat on the forearms, I would say 130 pounds given average height and bone density.
I’m just praying I don’t open up a website someday soon and find myself looking at FLOTUS in a duplicate dress.
I notice how all the people saying that she’s not rail thin are men.
She’s 5’9″ and weighs about 120lbs. She seems to be in good health (and it’s really no one elses’ business if she isn’t) and looks absolutely beautiful but she is very thin.
I wonder if some people are so used to hearing women using the term “rail thin” in a perjorative sense that they immediately seek to defend the woman in question. Neo Neocon means it as a compliment, as do I.
To me, an XY grunt, “rail-thin” seems not to connote figurine approval. Rail-thin seems equivalent to gaunt, IMO. I have never heard it used approvingly.
The XXs who cannot wear that dress, like FLOTUS, well….they’re full-figured. And perhaps just a leetle jealous, just as I am over guys with washboard abs?
Pippa is lovely. But as former fashion designer, i didn’t think her dress was at all attractive in the front — but it looked spectacular from the back and show-cased her figure magnificently.
I thought the front was not flattering: the draping neckline and the crisscross bodice had too much going on and detracted from Pippa herself. And the little flutter sleeves were just unsophisticated. Conversely, the simple and elegant cut of the dress from the back and the long line of button detail and slight flare toward the bottom, emphasized her beautiful figure and stature resulting in a simple column look but with unmistakenly feminine curves.
As for all the buttons, I’m inclined to think they are dress details and not functional. The draped neckline in front makes for a very wide neckline so that one could actually pull on the dress. To achieve the close fit — and still allow her to walk (unlike the “mermaid” silhouette neo featured the other day) and bend comfortably to attend to Kate’s train (without leaving stretched pockets of fabric upon standing up) the fabric almost surely has some stretch built into it. Nearly every fabric from cotton and denim to silk can and is woven with as little as 5% nylon to give better fit and “memory.” Likewise, with today’s technology, very finely knit fabric can mimic woven but has stretch properties.
However my best guess without being able to see a closeup pic of fabric, is that it was a woven silk satin with a bit of nylon knit in.
Tom, Ymarsakar, etc.: Pippa is a very very slender woman, as is Kate Middleton, as is their mother. It’s a body type. No hips, for example. Any woman with any sort of hips at all—even if relatively thin otherwise—would not do well in a dress like that: white, clingy, form-fitting.
That’s what I mean by “rail-thin.” I don’t mean gaunt and emaciated. I mean extremely slender.
Oh, and w/ regards to Kate’s dress, I was surprisingly underwhelmed.
I have a feeling she went out of her way to avoid the “Cinderella at the Ball” look of Diana’s dress to make her own imprint.
But she is known for having a keen fashion sense and being on all the Best-Dressed lists. Her dress was very ordinary and I just don’t think it did anything for her. It was almost casual as was the veil. This contrasted sharply with the jeweled tiara which I think got more commentary than the dress.
I was also disappointed that she just wore her hair down. Don’t get me wrong — she has beautiful thick shiny wavy hair that along with her perfect smile makes her so attractive. But she regularly varies her hairstyles (and for a young women, can carry off the kookiest of hats with aplomb!) in her daily dress (as seen in countless photos published). I thought it looked very ordinary on such an extraordinary occasion.
(Glad I didn’t stay up –or get up– at 4:00 – 5:00 AM — just to watch the wedding)
Ironically Diana’s wedding had a much more spectacular aura from the carriages to the fashion and decor — and look how that turned out.
William and Kate appear so comfortable and sure with each other — unlike the virtual strangers the then 19-yr. old Diana and 33 yr. old Charles appeared to be at the time of their marriage as well as the ensuing years.
I sure hope these two are the real love match they appear to be and have a lovely, long, wonderful life together.
I like hips. Not too wide not too narrow, though at my age its merely ‘art appreciation’.
Isn’t there something funny about wanting to be a look alike at your own wedding? I wouldn’t want to be compared to Kate or Pippa on the big day and found to come up short. And I wouldn’t want people to think that I had no style of my own–even if that meant that I didn’t look as elegant.
csimon, I’m glad Kate didn’t try to out fairy tale Diana. The world can use a dose of the real world these days. Kate showed that that didn’t have to be drab.
The back view is indeed spectacular and begs the question: is she wearing panties? Looks all natural from here.
Funny you should mention….
She looks very nice (Hmmm! I still have an unmarried son… but never mind) but the thing that strikes me in the whole package is the arms. She is thin and petite everywhere with curves in all the right places, but she seems to have a bit of East German weight lifter built in. Maybe it’s just the dress….
Pippa’s slender, but certainly not emaciated. I have no idea what her dietary and exercise regimens are, but, her rather well-developed arms notwithstanding, I’d be willing to venture a guess she doesn’t work that hard on either. I think she’s just one of those naturally thin women who happened to look great in the dress she wore to her sister’s wedding. Good on her.
No hips? If those aren’t hips they’ll do for a substitute. Nice glutes, too.
Sorry expat, but I thought Kate’s look was rather drab considering the occasion. As I said, I think she purposely did NOT want to recreate Diana’d look preferring to showcase her own “look.” But in comparison to the style and chicness she has come to be known for and for which she is admired, I thought her wedding look was underwhelming. Generally a young woman’s wedding day is her “princess” day — royalty or not. Even with the gifted tiara, I just don’t think the dress was “all that and a bag of chips” (as my niece is fond of saying). As for a dose of reality — what about a wedding dress indicates “a dose of the real world?” (Do you mean like a faultering global economy? Or is it supposed to represent wars going on? Or the threat of terrorism?) Note: I’m just poking a little fun at that notion, by the way. No unfriendly intentions toward you).
I do hope that Kate’s and William’s reality on that day was that she felt absolutely beautiful and special and that was the way her groom saw her as well. The wedding was but a half-hour or so in the scheme of their lives and will be a happy memory, but hopefully it will be just an instant, a brief moment, in a long and happy life together.
Interesting XY-XX response differences here.
The men are admiring, the femmes are….well, catty, as they are wont to be. And certainly are not heeding the male responses. None of us boys want to see glutei that spread way out when sat upon.
csimon,
I guess my idea of the real world is somewhere between Cinderella and Vivienne Westwood or Madonna. There is a lot of room in between for us to choose from.
Tom,
I think Kate and Pippa did great and look great. No cattiness from me on that score.
Expat- Oops, never took you for XX!
But my point remains valid, I think. Do you?
Tom: who’s catty? I think Pippa looked great, and said so in my original post back at the time of the wedding:
My point in the present post is about Pippa’s dress itself and the article I linked to, which indicates that the dress is being widely copied. And I’m saying it would not be flattering for most women, but only slender ones. Such as Pippa.
Yes, Pippa’s dress was wowza, most definitely. And you’d have to have a Pippa figure to pull it off. Kate’s dress didn’t do it for me. I think Grace Kelly’s dress was a lot better. Grace Kelly had that wonderful high neckline, and beautiful wide satin sash at the waist, those two details made a big difference, kind of made it made it look demure and kind of sexy at the same time. Something Grace Kelly excelled at without peer it is true. So a comparison may be harsh. Still, it was a lovely wedding, and I wish all the young people well.
She’s 5′9″ and weighs about 120lbs.
That’s pretty thin for 5’9″. But it is her arms that give it away. Not huge, but shapely. I suspect that if she was in a bikini I would not be able to visually count her ribs, unless she contorted one way another.
Is Pippa seeing anyone? sadly, I don’t think I could put up with her inlaws…
Clearly men and women have different definitions for “rail thin” and “no hips”. I say she’s very pretty, the dress showed her off well, and millions of eyes saw here and a whole bunch of men took notice.
Interesting. I never noticed the buttons before now.
You will not see that dress at a Lane Bryant, for sure.
(I am not slim-figured, and I do shop at Lane Bryant.)
Having said that, it will be (just as her sister’s wedding dress) HEAVILY imitated. Just watch for the next few months at bridal salons across this nation…
“All the girls go by dressed up for each other, and the boys do the boogie-woogie on the corner of the street.” – Van Morrison (Wild Night)
Fashion is definitely a XX thing. No matter what your age ladies, the boys are interested in what’s between the sheets. My sweetie is 60 and between the sheets she still looks fine to me even if the ‘wild nights’ are a bit more infrequent than 20 years ago. 😉
I know how to do buttons!
Kate’s dress was nice but safe and dull. The reception dress had more pizazz.