Oh Catherine! When you get it right, you are perfection! The hair is wonderful, the dress is becoming, and the emeralds are delicious. You look incredible. As for Eugenie, well, to me she looks rather like a swallow - which is a good look for a small mosquito eating bird, but not for a Princess.

You always nail it, GG. I agree with all your comments and want to add that the updo (with all that hair under control) is perfection with the dress and luscious green earrings.

Look at the difference in the other photo with her hair down. I rest my case ...

Someone should combine the two pictures - this whole look with the Nizam necklace. That would be sublime!

I love Kate in emeralds. They bring out her eyes, as sapphires did Diana's.

My brain can't comprehend the Nizam necklace working with last night's emeralds. The Nizam is such a dense, swirly (I call it 'encrusted-looking') and somewhat dull-looking (is it the metal that makes it seem quite dull?) piece, whereas the emerald pieces are very modern, linear and quite brilliant by comparison.

But, then again, some folks would say that mixing eras of household furnishings is chic and so why not mix these joolz too?

You're probably right. I just got excited by the sparkles and wanted to add MORE.

You said it all. No need to comment and no need to read further. I am about to turn on my TV for the Nobel price giving ceremony.

I love this, she looks fantastic. Here's the updo that everyone's been clamoring for, and it's with one of my favorite dresses. I know some will think this neckline calls for a necklace, but I like the giant earrings with a bare neck. That's how I would wear it. You know, to all the galas I attend.

Eugenie looks great too! I kind of wish it was all one color, like a rich purple or bright blue, but I think the cut is flattering on her. Thumbs up from me!

A necklace would have been too much. I always remember my very elegant grandmama who always told me important the jewelry rule: big earrings and a bracelet mean no necklace; if you wear small earrings, then a necklace is OK, but skip the bracelet and instead add a nice ring. Basically, just balance the bling focus to one statement piece, otherwise you look overdone and flashy. Don't brag about it, be subtle.

I think she sort of modified that from the Coco Chanel rule that after you have dressed for the evening, look in the mirror and remove one accessory. Then you're ready.

Your grandmother gave very sound advice and you can´t beat Coco Chanel .

Agreed completely. That's how I wear jewelry....larger earrings and a bracelet or two, and small earrings if I'm wearing a necklace. But then again, I'm just plain weird about necklaces and much prefer earrings and bracelets. I think Kate's the same way :)

Me too!!!

I had the same thought RE: color of Eugenie's dress. The angles are very flattering, but the color on this reads as lengthened day wear to me. would LOVE it in a richer color as you suggest. Come to think of it, red looks fab on her as well.

Agreed. Eugenie's dress feels like a day dress pretending to be evening wear and failing at it. The dressier length doesn't balance out the more casual feel of the color-blocking and the colors themselves.

As for Kate, I don't think I've ever seen her look better. Gorgeous dress, amazing hair (updo! wahooo!), and killer jewelry. She looks like a a chic, elegant, modern princess.

I totally agree. I fussed the last time Kate wore this dress sans necklace, but with those fabulously huge earrings, I think it's fine. It wouldn't really be her style to wear that much bling anyway.

I also like Eugenie's dress. It's got a sort of super modern, Jetson's vibe to it with the angular color blocking going on.

Eugenie's dress seems to be channeling the vintage Valentino gown worn by Julia Roberts when she won her Oscar. I like the unconventional colors and patterning for evening, and with Eugenie's coloring. Even if a bit zaftig, she looks good.

The DoC's updo is her best yet!

Hair and jewels get A++++ from me - this is what I've been waiting for - the hairdresser she took on this trip got it right for every occasion. Cute ponytails, half up hair, and now this, the winner to showcase the beautiful neckline of the dress and those earrings. Those earrings!! So glad to see her rocking the diamonds and emeralds! And just glad it's not lace, even though it is a repeat. It's the hair style she should have worn when she wore the Queen's beautiful necklace.
Eugenie's dress gets a low grade - I can see what she's getting at but I don't think it works.

No lace gets her way up high in my book!

I love some of her lace dresses, but we are on lace overload here!

Yeah, I've been doing the "no lace" celebration here too!

I really think PEug is just wearing a dress that she has in her wardrobe. She is not a royal guest of honour at this function. I am sure it looked better in the flesh. She is not tall and willowy so is never going to photograph super well - from a sartorial perspective - unless someone goes to a lot of effort. Which they clearly did not here.

Yes, but WHY is it in her wardrobe to start with me asks?

You hit the nail on the head!

Princess Eugenie appears to need a new undergarment or two.

WOW!

Catherine must have been scrolling through our posts, because this is almost exactly what we've asked for. If you wear a beautiful gown with fab jewels, please have an updo; which she did!!! And those earrings are to die for! Not a huge fan of emeralds (don't really like green), but these are beautiful. Not sure if I like the design or not.

I think that gown is one of my faves of hers (and this is a good option for her best of the year), and it was fun to scroll through various sites and see the different colors that got picked up in pictures. Some looked black, some blue, some even a teal shade.

Good to see Eugenie there, but I'm not liking her dress. The tan shade is throwing it off for me. Maybe if it was just black and white, with the white replacing the tan on the sides...

I love the emeralds but I did not care for them paired with this dress. I love the dress and the emeralds just not together.

I agree abou the updo and everything, but her posture... sigh.

Oh, the posture, right? Pull those shoulders BACK! The pics of her at this event on www.dailymail.co/uk really show just how rounded her shoulders are.

Delightful outing for the beautiful Packham dress. Lovely updo. Over the top earrings. Personally think they are hideous, but glad to see her wearing big real jewellery.
PEug would look lovely if she was wearing a proper bra and refrained from doing the model/teapot pose.

Well that was easy - what you said for both ladies!
mind you, the updo had a mind of its own, and started to wander, perhaps a wee bit more "starch" or hairpins another time?

I sort of don't mind a slight loosening of an updo - it is slightly boho and a little more natural. I cannot imagine going home to bed with a head encased in QSil laquer!

Only good thing about going to bed with QSil lacquer hair is it will still look the same when you wake up! :-)

Oh god - that is the most hideous image I now have in my mind.

Always glad to help!!!

hehe - true, would break before hitting the pillow...
I don't mind a soft updo either, but once it starts to slide, little bits of hair stick our and the whole look goes loop sided. Anyway anyow - that wasn't until later, it served its purpose well enough, and who am I to quibble after sighing over the missing up in her do's for a long time...

When I was younger I often had very long hair which I would occasionally put up in a chignon or similar with so many hairpins and some hairspray. I had a large amount of very straight hair. Would look fab for the first hour or so then gradually, one after the other, the huge hairpins would start "boinging" out as the hair exercised a will of its own to escape to its natural state. LOL

My husband prefers me to leave my hair down. I still pull it up, but I have very heavy, thick and slippery hair. It has to be just the right length to be able to twist it up and then I have chinese eyes that water from the pulling. Softer updos are all I can, usually involving braiding to keep some control.
At my wedding, my hairdresser created two "birds nests" at the back, otherwise there was too much hair. She used soooo many hairpins and so much hairspray I could not recognise my own hair.

Sounds - er - lovely, Milou. LOL

hehe
rest assured - there were no birds in the nests
I'll see if I can find a picture once :-)

I will look forward to that :)

I think that's why Catherine went for the demo-chignon at the wedding - she wanted to recognise herself on the day (if that makes sense)

it does - I think you are right. It must have been a bit daunting

Hairdressers often use the wrong kind of hairpins for updos. I've seen this happen in my area. Long hair is heavy and requires long hair pins and long bobby pins.

The law of diminishing returns begins to kick in if you use the wrong kind of pins because so many pins are needed ('cause they're not capable of doing the job you're asking them to do - i.e. using short pins when the long ones are needed) and the pins begin to work against you by adding so much extra weight to the 'do.

One gal ("S") I know was a bridesmaid in her cousin's wedding. Cousin insisted each attendant have her hair done by Hairdresser X. "S" is great at putting her own hair up and does a lovely job (using no more than a dozen pins - half of them long pins) but she complied with Cousin. X polluted her hair with pins, the 'do dragged terribly, it hurt all day, looked awful, etc. "S" took her hair down and counted the short bobby pins used in her do: 84. I kid you not!

I'm ALL about the long pins doing the big work and have recently converted to using 'corkscrew' hair pins (refresh for pic). Two of those puppies will hold my entire do, they don't damage the hair and they're extremely comfy!!!

http://www.cachebeauty.com/...

uhhh - interesting - where are these to be found?
My hair is the kind, where even braiding is difficult, although still the best way of keeping control

Honestly - those puppies work! They won't poke out of the 'do like straight pins will. I bought mine at a drugstore but I've seen them at Wal-Mart and even the hair supplies section at my (large) grocery store. Here's what the package looks like (note: two of these pins will do most of the work and you can add a couple of straight pins if needed):

http://pics.drugstore.com/p...

Interesting! I saw corkscrews with "diamonds" mounted on them when shopping for a tiara today (more on that up/down thread) and couldn't figure out what they were for. HA!!! Now I know.

Yep - they look like instruments of torture but they're really effective and painless.

One of the best ways to anchor your updo is to use a covered hair elastic and make sure a few strategic pins grab that elastic. You'll use fewer pins and the bun/chignon won't shift. My eldest daughter taught me that trick and it really works.

ETA: I don't think I explained the elastic properly. You can pony tail most of your hair (reserve the "crown/front" hair for fixing later, if desired), braid it and then make your bun/updo. Just make sure some pins go through the elastic 'anchor'.

Those spin pins are miracle workers! IMO, they're on the short list for Best Hair Inventions, right after flat irons and thermal straightening:)

Haha, I agree that the earrings are ugly, as much as I love an emerald. I'm also not a big fan of the dress, even though I know it's a lot of people's favorite. The cut of the shoulders is so unflattering! (It was funny watching Royal Reporter on Twitter trying to decide what color it really was though)