The man who gave Diana glamour and Camilla 信用／信任: Bruce Oldfield 準備するs to design the Queen Consort's dress of a lifetime for the King's 載冠（式）／即位（式）

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Make no mistake, it will be the dress of her life. The gown Camilla wears as she is 栄冠を与えるd next to King Charles in Westminster Abbey on May 6 will define her as no other outfit has done yet, or will hence.

So perhaps it’s 理解できる that the news that the Queen Consort has chosen one of Diana’s favourite designers, Bruce Oldfield, to create her 載冠（式）／即位（式） dress, has 原因（となる）d some surprise. Wearing the gown of a man so indelibly associated with your husband’s late ex-wife on such a 目印 day could be seen as a risky move.

I, however, feel 正確に the opposite. Bruce, whom I have known for many years, is the perfect match for Camilla.

More than 存在 just the ideal craftsman for such an occasion ーに関して／ーの点でs of style and sartorial 技術, he’s the dream man for such a high-圧力 occasion. The 肉親，親類d of designer who puts a woman in a dress and gasps along with her, as thrilled as she is by the result, he’ll be as 投資するd as Camilla in her 載冠（式）／即位（式） 式服s.

支援する in 黒人／ボイコット: Diana at the Barbican in 1985 and Camilla at a movie 首相 in London in 2019

祝祭 glamour: The Princess at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel in 1988 and, 権利, Charles’s 70th birthday party in 2018

And forget the chance of it 存在 as ill-fitting as Meghan’s wedding dress, or as 鎮圧するd as Diana’s Emanuel-designed bridal gown as she 現れるd from her fairytale carriage. If I know Bruce, he’ll be there on the day, pinning Camilla in to 絶対の perfection until the very last moment. Camilla 簡単に couldn’t be in better 手渡すs.

同様に she knows. For all his past 協会 with Diana, Bruce, 72, has been dressing Camilla, 75, with 広大な／多数の／重要な success for a １０年間 now, and they get on like a house on 解雇する／砲火／射撃. After all, choosing a designer you’ve never worked with for such a 抱擁する occasion would be rather akin to using a hairdresser for the very first time on your wedding day. As he puts it himself: ‘She is a good egg. We get on 血まみれの 井戸／弁護士席.’

But there’s far more to Camilla’s choice of Bruce than his genius at 建設するing 内部の corsets ―ideal for 持つ／拘留するing in middle-老年の 人物／姿／数字s ― or the fact that he’s British, a 決定的な consideration for an occasion of such 国家の significance. Camilla could just as easily have steered （疑いを）晴らす of him so as to not 招待する comparison to Diana. But I feel it shows she is no longer 避けるing comparisons with Diana ― because that 戦う／戦い is finally over.

And 載冠（式）／即位（式） day will show it. 確信して in a way almost unrecognisable when compared to the 早期に days of her 関係 with Charles after Diana’s death, Camilla doesn’t need to over-analyse her choices any more. She can just be herself.

Perhaps there’s a chance that her choice of Bruce might even be a subconscious nod to the late Princess, an olive 支店 of sorts. Surely, にもかかわらず all the 苦痛 of the past, Diana’s sons will 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる her choice on the day, this 承認 of their mother in some way. And really, considering that both women loved Charles so, is it any wonder that Bruce won both their hearts, too?

Ladies in red: Lady Diana in Melbourne in 1985, left, and the Queen Consort in London last year

Effortless elegance: Diana in Canada in 1983, left, and Camilla in Sri Lanka in 2013

Pink parade: Diana on a 王室の visit to Coventry in 1986, left, and Camilla in Colombia in 2014

All white now: Diana at Somerset House in 1990, Camilla at 2016 明言する／公表する 開始 of 議会

Bruce has a lot in ありふれた with both women ― wonderfully warm, and with a terrific natural empathy, he has as good a sense of humour as Diana famously did, and as Camilla most certainly has.

Today, Bruce is understandably tight-lipped on the 載冠（式）／即位（式）. But he has spoken about his 関係 with both 王室の women, 説: ‘I gave Diana her glamour and Camilla her 信用／信任.’

After 会合 Diana in 1980, when she asked him to make her something to wear to switch on the Oxford Street Christmas lights, he steered her away from Sloane 特別奇襲隊員 style into something far more chic. She was, he has said, ‘the perfect （弁護士の）依頼人’. She once wrote to him admitting that she was his ‘No 1 fan’.

In those days, I worked opposite Bruce in Knightsbridge, in the Beauchamp Place shop. Bruce’s dresses were the ultimate. Anything but froth ― the antithesis of the Emanuels ― Bruce exemplified 広大な／多数の／重要な structure and femininity. 商売／仕事 にわか景気d for him. Celebrities 含むing Joan Collins, the ultimate 1980s fashionista, and 妖精／密着させる Dunaway adored him.

Then （機の）カム the 1990s and the 王室の 離婚, after which Diana dropped Bruce. Her new 選び出す／独身 life meant she didn’t have as much need for his formal wear. He was a 死傷者 in a war very muc h not of his making. ‘Oh no, I no longer need to go to Ascot. I hated it anyway,’ she 明らかに told him.

The loss of her patronage, in favour of European designers such as Versace, whom she understandably sought out in her 地位，任命する-離婚 reinvention, was a blow.

‘We were shunned,’ he has said in past interviews. “We were p***** off, I can tell you. It wasn’t good. It means everybody looks at you as if to say, “You’re rubbish. We’re not going to buy from you any more.” ’

Supporting Barnardo’s: Bruce Oldfield with Princess Diana in 1988

Supporting Barnardo’s: Bruce Oldfield with Queen Consort Camilla in 2016

Indeed, the 後退，不況 which struck in the 1990s saw Bruce sell his flat and use the money to shore up his 商売／仕事. A deeper 削減（する） （機の）カム for him when Diana ― again, understandably ― 簡素化するd her charity かかわり合いs in 1996 after her 離婚.

の中で those charities to lose out was Barnardo’s, of which she had been 大統領，／社長. This was a 原因（となる） の近くに to Bruce’s heart. Born in London to a young half-Irish woman and a Jamaican boxer, he was given up for 採択 すぐに after his birth. His seamstress foster mother in 郡 Durham taught him to sew and he developed a love of fashion and 着せる／賦与するing.

述べるd as ‘uncontrollable’, Bruce was placed in a Barnardo’s home in Yorkshire when he was 11. It didn’t stop him passing the exams to …に出席する Ripon Grammar School, however. He first trained as a teacher, but in his 早期に 20s moved to London and was the 星／主役にする pupil in his year at Central Saint ツバメs. Today, he remains 副／悪徳行為-大統領，／社長 of Barnardo’s.

Discussing the 分裂（する） with Diana, he once commented: ‘We were more angry about the Barnardo’s 関係. To lose your 大統領，／社長 in such a 明白な way, we were pretty upset.’

Today, in another uncanny echo, Camilla is patron of Barnardo’s.

Bruce, when he does speak of the Queen Consort, is 明確に enamoured: ‘She’s fabulous,’ he told one interviewer several years ago. ‘I’m really pleased that people are warming to her. In America it was やめる difficult, because people were very プロの／賛成の . . . somebody else [Diana]. But it’s 20 years ago, you know? Please!’

It seems testament to Bruce’s talent that h e can make women of such 相違する styles ― Diana, a fashion icon by the end of her life; Camilla, far more 伝統的な ― look so elegant. The ranginess of the late Princess of むちの跡s would appear to be easier to dress than Camilla’s 5 ft 6 in でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる. But there are similarities. He is singularly unfussy in his 着せる／賦与するing, preferring 封鎖する colour rather than patterns, and tailoring to flounces.

No 疑問 Camilla and Bruce are 完全に in tune as they 検討する，考慮する what shades 控訴 her best. Just 証言，証人／目撃する the 創造s he has （手先の）技術d for her already. The 狭くする, pale turquoise gown with lace he made for her for a 小旅行する of Sri Lanka in 2013. That dazzling white number at the 明言する／公表する 開始 of 議会 in 2015 and 2016. He elevates her into the 肉親，親類d of regal elegance the late Queen was known for. It seems 確かな that Camilla will choose something pale for the 載冠（式）／即位（式）, and will choose with care.

I’m lucky enough to have met Camilla just the once. Our families are friendly, and I know her sister Annabel 井戸／弁護士席. And the sisters are known to be 広大な／多数の／重要な fun. Both have a wonderful sense of style: clean lines and uncomplicated with no unnecessary fuss or frills.

But where Bruce will come into his own is the 信用 that Camilla already has in him. Over 50, all a woman ever wants from a dress is to be 確信して. And yes, some of his detractors might say that Bruce is a bit ‘mother of the bride’, but there’s a 安全 to him that Camilla would so need on this biggest of all days. She will be able to have a wobbly in 前線 of him, and know she’s in 安全な 手渡すs.

One interviewer asked him whether Camilla ever spoke to him about Diana. The answer was so endearingly, wonderfully Bruce: ‘I don’t have many （弁護士の）依頼人s who discuss their husband’s previous wives with me. It just doesn’t happen. Moving on! I think Camilla has become more relaxed and ― what’s the word? ― 確信して. In 取引，協定ing with me, she’s muc h more 受託するing of what I 提案する, you know? 信用ing, that’s the word.’