Hooray for Carole Middleton and her frump-解放する／自由な style

By Bel Mooney for the Daily Mail
Updated: 04:47 BST, 8 April 2011

存在 mother of the bride is not an 平易な 職業 ― something I know only too 井戸／弁護士席. This time two years ago I was を締めるing myself for six months of it.

There’s the discussions, the 窮地 of what to wear, who not to 招待する, what hymns for the 儀式 and so on. I won’t pretend I enjoyed it.

But poor Carole Middleton has only three weeks to go. Her 長，率いる must be spinning and there surely are times when she wishes it would all go away.

Chic shop: Here is Carole out with her daughter Pippa, wearing the 肉親，親類d of 着せる／賦与するs any modern mother would wear to go shopping. The jacket is ordinary, the skirt swishy and the boots 負かす／撃墜する-to-earth and sensible

I’m sure every mother of a bride who has chosen a big, 伝統的な 儀式 feels like that at some 行う／開催する／段階.

But Carole is no ordinary MOB. Later this month she will watch her daughter marry the Queen’s grandson and cannot かもしれない have 心配するd the frenzy of attention - the uncomfortable スポットライト - 落ちるing on their whole family.

Excited as she will feel, there must be a small part of her, 深い 負かす／撃墜する, that is perhaps a little afraid. She wouldn’t be human if there was not. After all, now that her daughter is marrying a prince, it’s not just her daughter’s life that is about to change forever.

Carole’s life, too, will never be the same again. And whatever 関心s she may have would be 完全に 理解できる. Carole is, after all, a perfectly ordinary woman.

This is the most important thing about her - and the fact that her older daughter happens to love a Prince does not in any way 減らす her 権利 to be 扱う／治療するd like a human.

When Kate became engaged, she was すぐに する権利を与えるd to some 保護. But that does not 適用する to her family, who have been 急落（する），激減（する）d into the スポットライト and then left to fend for themselves.

So spare a thought for Carole, who is 直面するing the 役割 of mother of the bride at a wedding she can’t 計画（する）, trying to decide what to wear (all the while knowing やめる 井戸／弁護士席 she will be criticised) and trying to imagine a 未来 in which her lovely daughter will move in circles she could not have dreamed of when working as a flight attendant all those years ago.

王室の 未来: Her life in the スポットライト is only just beginning. With it will bring scrutiny not just of Kate, but of her family 同様に

I can’t be the only one to see the Middleton family as a breath of fresh 空気／公表する for the 王室の Family. They are solidly middle class, like so many people in this country.

They 手配中の，お尋ね者 the best for their three children and worked hard to give it to them. They put up with those snobbish whispers from the hooray-Henry types who (unfortunately) たびたび（訪れる） the sixth forms of our 最高の，を越す public schools - not to について言及する regimental officers’ messes and country 追跡（する） balls.

And now here is Carole out with her daughter Pippa. She’s wearing the 肉親，親類d of 着せる／賦与するs I wear to go shopping - and I am a good few years older. The jacket is ordinary, the skirt swishy and the boots 負かす／撃墜する-to-earth and sensible.

Every day, 近づく my home city of Bath, I see women Carole’s age - and younger and older - in attractive, but やめる unremarkable outfits like that.

I don’t imagine, for a minute, that Carole thought her choice of 着せる／賦与するs that day was going to make 前線 page news or 原因（となる） やめる such a brouhaha.

I showed my husband the picture of her and he said, ‘She looks 広大な／多数の／重要な!’ and went on: ‘Why do people have to criticise? Why the suggestion she is dressing too young?’

宗教上の Moly, if you want mutton dressed as lamb, you should see me on some nights out! You want いわゆる biker boots -? 井戸／弁護士席, I have real ones, and wear them, studs and all.

At 64, I’m not ashamed to wear short skirts and don’t see why I should be - I’m やめる fond of my 膝s. Heaven forbid that 56-year-old slender and attractive Carole Middleton should start dressing like some frightful frump just because her daughter is getting married.

Needless to say, the paparazzi are not に引き続いて Mr Middleton to see if he’s wearing the same jacket as last week, nor are the fashion editors zoning in on whether his 控訴s are from Ted パン職人 or M&S.

No, it’s only women who を煩う this 不公平な, microscopic attention ― as ageist as it’s sexist. And that 運動s me mad.

Having said that, it is 利益／興味ing to notice how the women in one family will dress l ike each other. It’s not that the mother is trying to copy or compete with her daughters’ style; it’s that the daughters have always been 影響（力）d by the 外見 of their mother.

Modern mother: Gone are the days of middle 老年の doom of 黒人／ボイコット 着せる／賦与するs and grumpy 態度s

You learn your style, like so much else, at your mother’s 膝. If they choose 類似の outfits to wear on one occasion, this 影響（力） might be やめる unconscious, but not surprising.

My own mother was always quick to comment if she thought I wasn’t smart enough because, in her day, she was a snappy dresser. I still have to live up to that.

On Monday, I saw my own daughter (now 31) at the Oxford Literary Festival. Nervous and proud in equal 手段, I watched her walk in beside her interviewer - wearing my dress.

Relaxed: The only thing that should make Carole Middleton grumpy is 存在 裁判官d by people who really should leave the mother of the bride alone

It’s an understated LK Bennett number - just the 肉親，親類d of thing I’d have chosen for her.

That ‘窃盗’ aside, I’ve recently 手渡すd over a grey woollen tunic from the White Company and a 有望な pink silk cropped jacket by the designer Beatrice 出身の Tresckow, who made my wedding dress.

These gifts were not because I thought the 着せる／賦与するs too ‘young’ for me, but because she looked better in them.

Kitty and I don’t ‘compete’ - any more than Carole Middleton does with her girls. These days mother and daughters can wear 類似の outfits and look terrific.

We can pull on the tight ジーンズs and funky boots 同様に as strutting our stuff in dresses with that 発射 of? va-va-voom. Who’s to say we can’t? Who’s to stop us having fun?

Gone are the days when reaching middle age doomed you to 黒人／ボイコット 着せる／賦与するs like all those 古代の Mediterranean grannies - with the matching grumpy 態度.

The only thing that should make Carole Middleton grumpy is 存在 裁判官d by people who really should leave the mother of the bride alone.

I don’t envy her the coming weeks, but I do raise a glass to her - for producing a lovely family 同様に a successful 商売／仕事.

And for 存在 chic and gorgeous in a way which doesn’t 脅す anybody - but which gives other women of her age inspiration, wherever they are, whatever they choose to wear.