by In March 2002, Charlotte Todd was a textiles student at the University of the West of England, Bristol. When her tutor asked her if she could send a sample of her undergraduate fashion collection for consideration in an upcoming charity fashion show at the University of St. Andrews, she could never have known what was in store. about to happen.
The pencil skirt she chose to borrow took a week to hand-knit with silk threads. It had cost her £30 to make it plus shipping to send it to Scotland. She was added to a number of sets loaned by students across the UK.
Of all the options available, Kate Middleton, then a freshman at St. Andrews and a volunteer model, chose to wear Todd’s creation in the show. The sheer skirt became a dress, paired with a black bandeau bra and panties, Kate’s hair was curled into tight spirals and braided with strips of fabric.
The images made local news at the time. But they were shared globally and viewed by millions of people eight years later, when Prince William introduced his new fiancée, the future Princess of Wales.
Now, Netflix has released its first image of actress Meg Bellamy recreating the look in The crown. The second part of the sixth season, released on December 16, will show Kate and William in the college era, including the moment he saw Kate wear that dress from the front row and, by all accounts, fell in love.
But what happened after the original dress and its designer, Todd?
Initially, the dress was put in the back of Todd’s closet and left there. Todd finished his studies and began working in the Bristol Aquarium gift shop. But when Kate and William announced their engagement on October 20, 2010, reporters began contacting Todd to ask more about the dress that sparked the royal relationship.
“The dress is part of fashion history, the moment when William was able to fall in love with Kate for the first time, and that makes me very proud,” she said in November 2010. “That image has been used a lot over the years.” years. I always wonder if he’s embarrassed or if he likes it. “I refuse to get rid of the dress.”
Todd swore he would never sell it. “The only person he would probably give it to is her. [Middleton]” she said. “Maybe in exchange for a wedding invitation.”
When a newspaper offered him £1,000 for the garment, Todd refused. But eventually, with the engagement, he realized the importance and potential value of the piece that was collecting dust in his wardrobe.
“My office first received a call from Charlotte’s brother, telling me that we had this dress that Kate Middleton wore to the University of St Andrews,” says Kerry Taylor, the London-based auctioneer. The Telegraph. “I realized right away that the press’s interest in this topic was going to be enormous.”
Charlotte, who worked at the aquarium and was now married, asked her brother to make some calls and sent the dress to Taylor in a small box. “It was this little filigree column woven in black; actually, if you were hoping to catch the attention of a prince, this was the dress to do it.”
On the day of the auction itself, in March 2011, Taylor says the frenzy was like nothing she had experienced in her more than 40 years as an auctioneer. Taylor has sold pieces owned by Princess Diana, Jerry Hall and Elizabeth Taylor, but the crowd of paparazzi and reporters waiting to see who had bought Kate’s dress was even larger.
When Taylor sold the dress for £78,000 to a buyer who was bidding over the phone, she had to lock her agent in a locked room for security.
“Everyone thought it was William on the other end of the phone,” he laughs. “It was not. He was a private collector from Jersey.”
The whole experience was extraordinary, but special, Taylor says, because “Charlotte was a lovely person.”
After their initial phone conversations before the auction, they met. “She was a sweet young student and for her this money changed her life. “She planned to use the money for a deposit on a house, just like any normal person in the spotlight would.”
After the hammer fell, Todd spoke to the press.
“I’m totally speechless and I feel very excited,” she said. “I really didn’t think I would reach that amount. “I’m planning to put some of the money towards a deposit on a house, but maybe I can use some of it to change my career.”
Sure enough, on April 28, 2011, the day before the royal wedding, Todd announced that he would be launching a fashion brand. His debut collection, under the Fashion Babylon brand, featured 12 updated versions of Middleton’s woven sheath dress in six colors, this time using a thicker fabric to make the garment less see-through. The dresses would sell for £49.50 a piece.
“The key words of the collection are boho glam with a touch of royal sophistication,” Todd’s press release offered at the time. Dresses, he suggested, “will keep you cool during the summer days and warm during the nights. It can serve as a daytime or beach item or be a statement piece for a hot summer night.”
Todd spoke to the British Fashion before the royal wedding, suggesting that she would have liked to design the wedding dress as well.
“Obviously I would love to make the dress myself, but I really think I would break under the pressure,” she told the magazine at the time before admitting it. “McQueen’s Sarah Burton would do it brilliantly, though; I hope it’s her. However, Kate has already proven that she wears what she wants. More than anything, I hope she wears something she really likes.”
Unfortunately, the commission eventually went to McQueen’s house. Todd’s big moment passed and she wrapped up her fashion business.
The question that might haunt Todd, of course, is if she had held on for another decade and waited until the princess was a “queen in waiting”, how much might her £30 dress be worth today?
“Now it would be hundreds of thousands,” Taylor says. “At least. Nowadays, the royal family is incredibly protective of any article of clothing or personal possession that comes on the market, meaning that anything that is available is rare and therefore increasingly valuable.”
“Let’s not forget that Princess Diana’s wool sweater [the famous sheep knit] sold for over a million dollars recently.” With Kate mania at the peak it is today? “The sky is the limit.”
