Saturday 27 June 2009

To Ride The Ghost Train

Some weeks ago, I came across pictures of the wedding of the Duc de Vendome (one of the pretenders to the Throne of France) to Philomena de Tornos in May. Have you ever seen anything like that?

Here we have Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Castro wife of Prince Carlo of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Castro, a claimant to the headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, née Camilla Crociani.

Apparently, the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies does not enforce peer marriage. I mean, what does that pefectly turned-out chap THINK bringing such an armpiece? "Honey, does this classy pink outfit make me look fat?" There are two possible replies: "No, but it makes you look like a cheap hooker, so things balance out." or "Wow! A talking lampshade!" But we can safely assume that it was not that what Prince Carlo said. Pity, really.

Not that the other, really noble, females there look all that much better. Even the utterly lovely Mathilde of Belgium wore a dress she might have acquired at C&A. But then, maybe she anticipated what to expect and tried not to embarrass the hosts.

To summarize: The few who try to look "chique" and have at least bothered to cover their hair, got it all wrong, from awful hats via wrong skirtlengths down to really... well, REMARKABLE shoes, not to speak of the horrible colours, colour mixes and patterns. The others presumably try to go for the "unconventional" or "cool", and they are looking like the archetypical patron of a German small-town health food shop at a day-care-center gardenparty. For heaven's sake, not even TROUSERS are beyond the pale at that freak show.

Interestingly, the only woman who does look chique (yet dignified) and appropriate to the occasion, is the Duchess of Württemberg. "Chique" is not something you'd expect from the wife of a German noble, about the most provincial breed on earth. The fact that she is not German herself, but a Princess d'Orleans doesn't make all that much of a difference regarding the other titled French abominabilities present. Look here. I shunned the next 177 pictures. Maybe there is what we would expect from a French upper class wedding. (Yeah, certainly!)

Once, those people served a purpose as role models for the other classes. Now they are sucking up to the cheap, the awful, the shallow, the low.

Notabene that all men are turned out, more or less traditionally, in morning suits. To match their armpieces, many of them would have had to wear clown costumes, mauve dungarees, Norwegian sweaters or at least morning suits two sizes too small. Look at the root of any faddish and infantile trend and you'll find women.

Edited to add:
Linking to individual pictures doesn't seem to work. Those who REALLY want to embark on the ghost train will have to go to the main page and take it from there.