Camilla visits the Aldershot Rifles at the Normandy Barracks

[TLLK]

Camilla visits The Rifles at Normandy Barracks | Daily Mail Online

[sandy]

Calling her "resplendent" and "chic" in the DM is a bit much. The PR is kicking in.

[TLLK]

I disagree because I see a smartly dressed sixty year old lady. Her military inspired coat is quite chic IMO and it's something that other royal ladies of her generation would also wear: ie: Queen Silvia or Queen Sonja.

As for the DM's choice of adjectives well...consider the source. :shrug:

[Jennifer]

Camilla is not "thin", she has a full figure. And I don't think she is "pretty." Camilla did get work done on her appearance and this is documented. Her work did not come cheap. Her hair alone is said to cost $$$$.

I disagree, Sandy. I don't think Camilla has a full figure because she is thin. As for her appearance, I think she looks good for age. She doesn't have to be pretty to be great.

[royalanthropologist]

Being full-figured is no barrier to being a royal or even performing royal duties. The people who matter (her husband specifically) seem to be happy with the way Camilla looks. I also find it rather sad that a woman in her 60s is still being judged for her looks. Very very sad and a reflection on the society in which we live.  :no:

[Jennifer]

I believe Camilla follows this wonderful adage: "Make the most of what you have". Someone once told me that she does not photograph very well (and the prurient tabloids make it worse by selecting the very worst images of her to print) but when you see her in person, Camilla is a lot thinner and much prettier than she seems in the pictures. To me that explains a lot. In any case I admire her for not going down the bottox route. It is wonderful that someone in public life is willing to show her age and dress appropriately for it.

I agree, royalanthropologist. The media has not always been fair to Camilla by the way they negatively portrayed her. When you look at the pictures of her, she looks like a decent woman with a good figure. She dresses appropriate for her age and doesn't try to wear clothes that are for much younger women. The fact that she hasn't done botox shows that she is trying to make the most of what she has. I think she is working hard and doing well as a royal. Some of the ultimate Princess Diana fans don't like her at all and will be critical of her for everything.

[sandy]

The Daily Mail uses superlatives about her. Read the headlines. I did not say she was "obsessed" with her media image. But she has a media image nonetheless by her PR team. Like any public figure. It has been reported that she does get treatments and has done so. She would not just leave her home taking little care of her appearance and just putting on any old thing and not combing her hair. She is carefully prepared before she steps out of her home. She does not always have the most flattering clothing for her figure. I think her former husband cares for her as the mother of his children but I think they were over years ago and he misses his second wife who passed on and did move on after Camilla. Camilla was not about looks. She IMO has manipulative skills and the QUeen Mother was said to have called her a 'schemer.' She most likely (unless she is deluded) that her smoking and much time in the sun with no sunscreen hurt her skin badly. She was never a "looker". And for that matter neither was Wallis Simpson (a stylish woman for her time) but she captured the heart of a future King who gave up the throne for her.

[royalanthropologist]

If (and a very big if it is) the QM called Camilla a schemer, then I dread to think the terms she used to describe Camilla's predecessor. They famously did not get along and the QM would not allow her name to be mentioned in her house, let alone acknowledge her at state banquets after the Morton book.  It would also mean that the QM was a hypocrite. Camilla did not help to persuade a king into abdication, exile and social ostracization.

If "the most dangerous woman in Europe" called Camilla a schemer then it was a case of selective amnesia and a lack of self-awareness. I will not bore you @sandy by cataloging all the manipulative and subversive behavior that was once employed by a certain famous British princess in the war against the royal family. It is well documented in literature and even in  letters by the princesses' own family. Camilla may be a schemer and manipulator (as you unfailingly point out at every event she attends) but she has absolutely nothing on that famous princess who was the empress of press and family manipulations.

Meanwhile Camilla is just doing the work of a royal consort by visiting Aldershot. You are right quite right that some of Camilla's sartorial choices are not up to scratch but she is definitely not the first member of the royal family to occasionally get it wrong. Fashion sense can be blamed on someone; but looks and ageing should never be a basis for judging someone's performance. Even Camilla's character is not the worst of the royals by any stretch of the imagination. Of recent I am beginning to question Camilla's alleged unpopularity. You have the same people commenting again and again with ad hominen insults and snipes. It does not mean the entire world is against Camilla...far from it.

[Curryong]

It was more luck and the times changing (social attitudes towards divorce) that enabled Charles to keep his position as Prince of Wales. Had the affair happened in 1950, not the mid 1980's, there could well have been a severe constitutional crisis provoked if it became publicly disclosed, what with Cam being non-negotiable and all.That wouldn't have anything to do with Camilla's judgement or persuasion one way or the other, simply time moving on.

(I also don't believe that Wallis persuaded David into exile. I think David was chomping on the bit to abdicate and was willing to entertain whatever measures it took. However, that's off topic.)

I believe the QM and Diana wrote several letters to each other. It must have been reasonably extensive as it was among correspondence Princess Margaret burned on her mother's behalf shortly before her own death. I for one would have loved to know what it contained.

However, if the Queen Mother couldn't even bear to have Diana's name mentioned in her presence  why was she writing to her? It would hardly be poison pen sort of stuff, indeed I can't image the QM or Diana being even mildly impolite to each other on paper, so why the letters?

[royalanthropologist]

You see @Curryong. That is precisely the problem with royal secrecy. We are all working on supposition. If we were able to read the correspondence, it might shed light on it. The thing about not mentioning Diana's name in the QM's household was put out by Lady Fermoy. Apparently the QM hissed at Diana at a state banquet after the separation. Ultimately it is hard to judge what is what. Diana in her own book and audio tapes indicated that the QM gave up on her once it became clear that Diana was no longer making Charles happy. She just stopped talking to her or about her. Certainly Diana neither loved or respected QM if we are to take a literal reading of her Morton book and the recently unearthed audio tapes of her private interview.

Yes, we keep getting off topic but in my defense I am trying to challenge some "facts" that are not convincing to me. It all started with querying Camilla's suitability for her visit to Aldershot. A number of largely irrelevant stuff about her dress choices, looks, age, smoking, lack of anti ageing creams etc were highlighted. I responded by arguing that those are not relevant to the visit or the work that Camilla is doing here.

[sandy]

The QUeen Mum would never "hiss" at anyone in a public venue. She was all about keeping up appearances. I never heard of her "hissing" at anybody. Diana in interviews was in awe of the QM particularly early on. Before the wind changed, Lady Fermoy and the QM had the best things to say about Diana. Lady Fermoy was an opportunist.
Double post auto-merged: March 18, 2017, 02:25:32 PM

If (and a very big if it is) the QM called Camilla a schemer, then I dread to think the terms she used to describe Camilla's predecessor. They famously did not get along and the QM would not allow her name to be mentioned in her house, let alone acknowledge her at state banquets after the Morton book.  It would also mean that the QM was a hypocrite. Camilla did not help to persuade a king into abdication, exile and social ostracization.

If "the most dangerous woman in Europe" called Camilla a schemer then it was a case of selective amnesia and a lack of self-awareness. I will not bore you @sandy by cataloging all the manipulative and subversive behavior that was once employed by a certain famous British princess in the war against the royal family. It is well documented in literature and even in  letters by the princesses' own family. Camilla may be a schemer and manipulator (as you unfailingly point out at every event she attends) but she has absolutely nothing on that famous princess who was the empress of press and family manipulations.

Meanwhile Camilla is just doing the work of a royal consort by visiting Aldershot. You are right quite right that some of Camilla's sartorial choices are not up to scratch but she is definitely not the first member of the royal family to occasionally get it wrong. Fashion sense can be blamed on someone; but looks and ageing should never be a basis for judging someone's performance. Even Camilla's character is not the worst of the royals by any stretch of the imagination. Of recent I am beginning to question Camilla's alleged unpopularity. You have the same people commenting again and again with ad hominen insults and snipes. It does not mean the entire world is against Camilla...far from it.

The QUeen MUm reviled Diana and Camilla but held Charles blameless. Camilla's not being popular with everybody  is not "alleged." If you choose to think it only alleged so be it. You do the same comments over and over too. As do we all on the board.