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Parker Bowles, elegant yet feminine for wedding

Camilla Parker Bowles chose a swirl of a dress in silk topped by a matching basket weave coat for her marriage on Saturday to Prince Charles.
PRINCE CHARLES CAMILLA PARKER BOWLES
Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his new bride Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, leave the Guildhall in Windsor, England, after their civil wedding ceremony, Saturday.John D. McHugh / AP
/ Source: The Associated Press

Flirty chiffon, a flash of lace: Camilla Parker Bowles chose a swirl of a dress in cream silk topped by a matching basket weave coat for her marriage Saturday to Prince Charles.

The outfit, crowned with a Philip Treacy straw hat overlaid with ivory French lace and trimmed with a fountain of feathers, was closely styled and elegant, yet very feminine.

Charles’ Clarence House office said designers Robinson Valentine wanted a “crisp clean look with subtle detailing” for the civil ceremony at Windsor’s town hall.

The coat, in oyster silk basket weave, featured subtle herringbone embroidery while the silk chiffon dress, hemmed with vertical rows of appliqued woven disks made in Switzerland, peeped out seductively beneath.

Work on the outfit began Feb. 21 and the final fitting came April 5.

Britain’s new Duchess of Cornwall wore pale beige suede court shoes with almond-colored toes and a 2-inch heel by design house L.K. Bennet.

The purse, a clutch from Launer’s “East/West” collection, was made from embossed calf leather with a half flap closing and lined with suede.

Hugh Green of Hugh and Stephen in London’s Ebury Road kept Parker Bowles’s flicked-back hair style, which Charles is reputed to love. Earlier this week, she had her blond highlights retouched.

Flowers in the marriage room came from Charles’s Highgrove country estate in west England and Raymill House, Camilla’s home nearby. There was a lot of lily of the valley, symbol of the return of happiness.

Robinson Valentine was established in 1986 by Antonia Robinson and Anna Valentine, who met on a pattern-cutting course. In 1990, they launched their first collection from a small studio in Wandsworth, southwest London. They now have a salon in tony Kensington.

Irish-born milliner Philip Treacy, who has worked for the French fashion house Chanel, is known for the daring of his creations, which have included a faux bird cage and a pair of animal horns.

The royal wedding rings by Wartski were made of gold taken by divers from the Clogau St. David’s mine and the River Mawdach in the Kings Forest, Clarence House said.