In March 2002 Charlotte Todd was a textiles student at the University of the West of England in Bristol. His teacher, St. When she asked if she could send a sample from her diploma fashion collection to appear in a charity fashion show at the University of St. Andrews, she never knew what would come of it.
The tube skirt she chose to borrow took her a week to hand-knit with silk threads. It had cost him £30 to do so, plus postage to send it to Scotland. It has been added to the collection of clothes loaned by students from all over the UK.
At that time St. Andrews freshman and volunteer model Kate Middleton chose to wear Todd’s design in the runway show out of all the available options. The sheer skirt turned into a stylized dress with a black bandeau bra and panties; Kate’s hair was curled into tight spirals and braided with strips of fabric.
The pictures were the subject of local news at the time. But they were shared around the world and seen by millions eight years later as Prince William introduced his new fiancée, the future Princess of Wales.
Now Netflix has released the first image of actress Meg Bellamy recreating this look. Crown. The second episode of the sixth series, broadcast on December 16, will feature Kate and William from their university days; This includes the moment he watched Kate wear that dress from the front row and fell in love with it from every angle.
So what happened to the original dress and its designer, Todd?
Originally, the dress was put in the back of Todd’s wardrobe and left there. Todd completed his education and started working in the gift shop at the Bristol Aquarium. But when Kate and William announced their engagement on October 20, 2010, reporters began contacting Todd for more information about the dress that sparked the royal relationship.
“The dress is part of fashion history, it’s the moment when William could first fall in love with Kate and that makes me really proud,” she said in November 2010. “This image has been used a lot over the years. I always wonder if she’s embarrassed by it or if she just enjoys it. I’m reluctant to part with the dress.”
Todd swore he would never sell it. “He’s probably the only person I’d give it to [Middleton]said. “Maybe in exchange for a wedding invitation.”
When a newspaper offered him £1,000 for the clothes, Todd refused. It was only after the engagement that she realized the importance and potential value of the piece that had been gathering dust in her wardrobe.
“The first thing I got into my office was a call from Charlotte’s brother saying we had bought this dress that Kate Middleton wore to the University of St Andrews,” said London-based auctioneer Kerry Taylor. Telegram. “I quickly realized that the press interest in this topic would be enormous.”
Charlotte, who worked at the aquarium and was now married, asked her brother to make a few calls and sent the dress to Taylor in a small box. “It was this little black braided filigree column; if you were really hoping to catch the eye of a prince, this was the dress to do it.”
On auction day in March 2011, Taylor says the frenzy was unlike anything he’d experienced in his more than 40 years as an auctioneer. Taylor sold pieces belonging to Princess Diana, Jerry Hall and Elizabeth Taylor, but the crowd of paparazzi and reporters waiting to see who bought Kate’s dress was even bigger.
When Taylor sold the dress for £78,000 to a buyer bidding over the phone, she had to sweep her manager into a locked room for security reasons.
“Everyone thought it was William on the other end of the phone,” he laughs. “It wasn’t like that. He was a private collector from Jersey.”
Taylor says the entire experience was extraordinary but made special because “Charlotte was such a lovely person.”
They met after their first phone conversation before the auction. “He was a sweet young student and this money was life changing for him. He planned to use the money for a house deposit, just like any normal person who becomes the center of attention might do.
After the hammer came down, Todd spoke to the press.
“I’m completely speechless and feeling very emotional,” she said. “I really didn’t think I would make this much money. I plan to put some of the money as a deposit to buy a house, but maybe I can also use some of it to change my career.”
Of course, on April 28, 2011 – the day before the royal wedding – Todd announced that he would launch a fashion brand. Her first collection under the Fashion Babylon brand included 12 updated versions of Middleton’s knit tube dress in six different colors; this time a thicker mesh was used to make the item less transparent. The dresses were to be sold for £49.50 each.
“The collection’s motto is boho charm and a touch of royal sophistication,” Todd’s press release at the time stated. He claimed that the dresses would “keep you cool on summer days and warm in the evenings.” It can be used as day or beach wear, or it can be a statement piece for a warm summer evening.
Todd spoke to the British Vogue Ahead of the royal wedding, she suggests she might also want to design the wedding dress.
“Of course I would love to make the dress myself, but I really think I would crack under the pressure,” she told the magazine before accepting. “McQueen’s Sarah Burton would do this brilliantly; I hope it is. Kate has already shown that she wears what she wants. Most of all, I hope she wears something she truly loves.”
Unfortunately, the commission eventually went to McQueen’s house. Todd’s big moment has passed and he’s done with his fashion work.
Of course, the question that may haunt Todd is: what would her £30 dress be worth today if she had held out another decade and waited for the Princess to become “queen in waiting”?
“Right now it’s in the hundreds of thousands,” Taylor says. “At least. These days the Royal family is incredibly protective of any piece of clothing or personal item that comes onto the open market, which means anything found there is rare and therefore more valuable than ever before.”
“Let’s not forget Princess Diana’s woolen sweater. [the famous sheep knit] It recently sold for over a million dollars.” Is Kate craze at its peak today? “The sky is the limit.”