Edward and Sophie, Earl and Countess of Wessex

[Duke of New Jersey]

It almost looks as if she's smirking or gloating! Not at all in character for her.

I think it looks like she tried to put on a dignified expression but it just didn't come out right.  I wonder why they didn't retake the pic?

-Duke of NJ

[ChristineM]

Long, lank hair doesn't quite work with regal 'style'.   The tiara - the provenance of which I'm sure many of you will be familiar - looks like it has been thrown on at the last moment.   Quite frankly, I think it looks ridiculous, unnecessasry and out of place - literally and metaphorically.

Increasingly I am beginning to understand many posters' admiration for the late Queen Mary.   She had royal style in abundance - everyone else has been second best... at best.   Even our own Queen who I admire, respect and love, doesn't carry it off like her grandmother.

Why doesn't Sophie flick through a few old photo albums and check it out for herself.   She might not pull it off, but she could get a lot closer.

What annoys me is that the 'regal look' is part of the deal - a major element of the job.   They just don't seem to get it.   Diana did - to an extent.   Princess Alexandra too, but she has largely withdrawn from public life.   The Queen is not remotely interested in her jewels.   I'm sure she respects their beauty and their associated history, but one can sense they are not high in her priorities.    But she knows these go with the job and there is nobody on the face of the earth more aware of the responsibility of position and role than H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.   As for Camilla - perhaps she is now too old to even begin to acquire the 'look'.   The signs of early onset of osteoporosis don't help at all in the deportment department.   

We will just have to wait and see whether or not the next generation captures the quality.   I thought Kate Middleton did have the makings of it.

tsaria

   

[Mary R.]

Absolutely! Queen Mary was one of the few who made a dignified and impressive face without looking hauty. I think Sophie didn't quite catch on for this portrait. I have tried to find a more flattering one but have not succeeded. Does anyone have one?

Mary R.

[Arleen_Ristau]

That is absolutely the worst "Royal" picture I have ever seen!  I'm shocked that they would put it on their web site in an official capacity.  Her hair looks AWFUL.....besides the expression on her face.  She looks better with short hair in my opinion. 

I like her.....I feel sorry for her if she thinks this is a good picture.

Arleen

[ChristineM]

Exactly Arleen, if this photograph is the best of the bunch - hate to think what the others were like.   Even her mascara looks smudged.

In fact if this photograph had not been identifited as the Countess of Wessex, I don't think I would have recognised her.

tsaria

[Tdora1]

If Sophie had swept up her hair - that colour and under a t'ra - then a goodly chunk of the AP/Diana sect would start on the same-old Diana-wannabe and Diana-comparison tiresome stale and frankly crumbling-by-now sheepdag. Again.

I always positively associate the Royal family with solid, classy everyday 'dowdiness' too (as they were during my pre-Diana/glamour childhood) - only to me what the tabloids so name I think is a well-reasoned not-giving-in to unflattering transient fashions. Everyday pics of Diana in 1983, for example, looked terribly dated within a couple of years - like a High Street schoolgirl with wildly expensive impulse buys. And as for now, against the current streamlined tastes which are of course the be-and-end-and-best as all styles inevitably are the day they come out. Oh my..

Take the same year (for eg.) and the now Princess Royal's (for eg.) unobstrusive outfits - beautifully cut and of the best stuff - which flattered her figure and tastes; comfortable and suited to the 'job' and how her kit has served her far far better in the personal fashion history stakes, for those reasons alone.

I'm so please I ignored the prevailing fashion of the early 80's (pencil skirts with slits up each thigh on the way out, coupled with newly-in piecrust frilly collars. Ugh Ugh Ugh. Thanks, Pcss of W and The Maggietollah alike for the latter) when making my secondary school skirts and selecting matching toprags. A-line was out of style then but it suited my dumpy adolescent figure as well as it suits my somewhat less dumpy but by now pre-menopausal one. Not to mention the 'slimming' high v-neck shirt...

The Countess of Wessex is battling considerable difficulties since before Louise's birth and if she's not been looking up to par, who can be surprised? I remember my hair falling out by the handful during an especially stressful time   
And although I'm too dumb to be anything other than psychologically bombproof so I don't want to think what these troubles could have done to Sophie on top of the other 'Welcome-to-the-Windsors!' horrors she's been up against.

If we can't be gracious enough to be entirely positive and supportive (and if a Wessex-negative and anyway generally overly-critical and comprehensively-miserable ratbag like me can feel this way....) then please, lets just leave her and her hair and her clobber and all the bits you'd hate to have to dissected to hell and back yourself, the blessed well BE. 

[ChristineM]

"'Welcome to the Windsors' horrors' - well that's a distinctly unkind remark, given that that Sophie Wessex is reputed to be the Queen's favourite.

Of course we all have our bad days.   A number of us girls posters here have endured what Sophie has endured (and much worse).   We are not being critical of Sophie.   We don't know her.   Any criticism is levelled at her appearance as a member of the royal family.   As Arleen said - surely there were other photographs which could have shown this attractive woman in a better light - literally light.   The lighting too is terrible.   Her fashion adviser should be sacked as should her hairdresser.   I think tiaras are very outmoded, but that does not forgive a hairdresser or a photographer producing a picture with a priceless tiara about to slide off a head which does not seem to have been prepared for a major photographic session.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex are in receipt of an annual allowance which, to most of us, represents a small fortune.   Little is expected in return.   Appearing the part is a small expectation.

tsaria

[TampaBay]

This discussion is difficult and complicated becuase we are not judging Sophie as a person but as a princess.  I think the two Marie's (Missy & her mother) summed it up best when they stated, "it is part of a princess's job to please the public's eye". 

You do not need to be beautiful to do this.  Old Emerald & Diamond Drawers, Cookie and Wallis are proof of this.  These women were not beautiful but they had a style all their own.  Sophie needs to find a style, a good stylists and hair dresser then stick with it.

No doubt looking good is much easier if you are Queen Alexandra, Princess Michael of Kent or Diana but there is no excuse for not trying to look you best if you are a princess.

As for being dowdy; there is nothing wrong with dressing dowdy if it is done well.  QEII and Camilla are both excellent examples of dowdy "to the max" done well.

TampaBay

[TampaBay]

Take the same year (for eg.) and the now Princess Royal's (for eg.) unobstrusive outfits - beautifully cut and of the best stuff - which flattered her figure and tastes; comfortable and suited to the 'job' and how her kit has served her far far better in the personal fashion history stakes, for those reasons alone.

Princess Anne is another princess who does dowdy very well.  Anne definitely needs a new hair dresser if she ever had one to begin with but her official portraits especially in her twenties were absolutely perfectly royal and some even wonderful such as the engagement photos.

TampaBay

[ChristineM]

From a contact of many, many years ago, I know Princess Anne hated her hair.   She would have it perfectly arranged and, as she said herself, 'within minutes it would frizz'.   She admitted that for years her hair caused her consternation and tried everything to control it, but with no success.   So far as I know, she has 'done' her own hair for many years now.   She probably has it trimmed by a hairdresser, but even that, I cannot say with certainty.   She is more than capable of tackling it herself.

tsaria

[Grace]

There's no head of hair that can't be tackled and conquered these days.  I think Anne simply can't be bothered making the effort and, with her type of hair, it would need to be a sustained effort also.  The colour is wrong for her as well. 

[Leuchtenberg]

How hard - not at all flattering.

tsaria

She hasn't looked that rough since right after the infamous "Sheik" debacle.

[Mary R.]

I personally like Sophie and can honestly believe that she and the Queen would get on well. The portrait doesn't reflect who she really is; which is unfortunate!

Mary R.

[Lucien]

Prince Edward,Earl of Wessex at the Falklands,yesterday:
http://members3.boardhost.com/Warholm/msg/1182144970.html

Courtesy Marianne,BRMB.

[Taren]

Edward and Sophie are expecting another baby in December.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1273239,00.html