Last week, the Princess of Wales’s former stylist Natasha Archer posted a vague “coming soon” Instagram after a months-long hiatus from social media. Last summer was pretty crazy – out of nowhere, Archer announced that she was leaving Kensington Palace after more than a decade of working for Kate in particular. Archer didn’t give a reason, and within the world of the Windsors’ close staffers, it was seen as incredibly bizarre for Archer to leave when Kate was likely on the verge of becoming the queen consort. Even weirder, it felt like the breakup was messy – soon after Archer left, she turned her Instagram to public, thus revealing that she (and Kate) were Instagram-stalking the Duchess of Sussex and all of Meghan’s friends and associates. Not only that, but it turned out that Natasha’s marriage to Chris Jackson fell apart around the same time – Jackson is a longtime royal photographer, also closely associated with Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace. Well, enough backstory. What IS Natasha doing now?
Over the 15 years since Kate Middleton married Prince William, we’ve watched as she has become a force in British fashion, from the “Kate effect”, which boosts the sales of items and brands she wears, to the fashion trends she has driven and her championing of British brands. And over that time Natasha Archer has gone from being a personal assistant to princes William and Harry to Kate’s unofficial stylist. So when she resigned last year the focus wasn’t only on what was going to happen to the royal wardrobe but on what Archer was going to do next.
On Thursday she made her plans official, posting a statement about her next project to Instagram. “After almost two decades working within private households, I’m delighted to begin this next chapter, offering discreet, bespoke advisory services for those seeking considered guidance across wardrobe, personal presentation, creative direction, and the finer details that shape important moments.”
“Discreet” seems an understatement since there’s not a single mention of the Princess of Wales or the Palace. The closeness of the relationship that had Archer arriving at the Lindo Wing with a garment bag before Prince George’s public debut on the hospital steps, with new mum Kate in blue — for a boy — polka dots, isn’t touched on. Nor is there talk of those big fashion moments that topped best-dressed lists, the “diplomatic dressing” involved in foreign tours or the state visits that Archer attended.
As Archer’s role has long been a badly kept secret, cheering her on in the comments section below her post are several Kate fan accounts, as well as many of her most-worn brands, among them Emilia Wickstead, Jenny Packham, Suzannah London and Catherine Walker London. Also sharing their support are Isabel Spearman, who was Samantha Cameron’s aide (and, again, unofficial stylist) at No 10, and Ginnie Chadwyck-Healey, a friend of Kate’s from university. A former Vogue editor, Chadwyck-Healey is also said to have input on the royal wardrobe, and possibly to have stepped in to cover the unofficial styling role during Archer’s maternity leave. She is one of the names mooted to become Kate’s new — still unofficial — stylist.
That “stylist” is a word avoided by the Palace may have something to do with Archer’s departure. The Kate effect sells clothes, making Archer one of the most influential women in fashion — but she couldn’t claim ownership of her work publicly. It was easy to see Archer’s taste at play since she was often wearing the same things herself, such as polka dots, nude court shoes and the padded oversized headbands that became a surprising trend after Kate started wearing them.
Without the rigours of royal protocol to work around, Archer’s launch will allow her the scope to move further away from “appropriate” clothing and into high fashion territory. But I’d guess that her clients will be women who want their own versions of Kate’s style transformation — and that whether she claims her work publicly or not, Archer’s style will still affect the way that British women, and British royals, dress.
I still wonder why Archer basically sat on her hands for nearly nine months after leaving palace work. How much time did it take her to come up with “personal stylist for hire,” which is basically her new thing? The nine-month gap AND the fact that Natasha seems banned from mentioning Kate as a reference? How bad was this breakup? Something smells like a pretty strict NDA, doesn’t it? And no, women don’t want to dress like Kate. Not even Kate wants to dress like Kate, that’s why Kate and Natasha spent years style-stalking Meghan and creating Meghan moodboards for Kate’s reference.
Also: there’s a mention of Kate’s possible new “unofficial stylist,” Ginnie Chadwyck-Healey. I don’t get the “royal system” around having unofficial stylists – it’s dumb as hell and insulting for all parties. It’s not some scandalous thing that a high-profile woman would use the services of a stylist. What’s scandalous to me is that Kate is so unserious and unprofessional that she won’t give her stylists credit, nor will she hire actual stylists who know what the hell they’re doing.
Photos courtesy of Natasha Archer’s Instagram, Avalon Red, Backgrid and Cover Images.
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