Windsor Women Chanel Glamour!

People are as het up about Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, as they were about Princess Diana some 30 years ago.  The Daily Mail Online had a spread of the Duchess in a drop dead gorgeous Alexander McQueen styled gown, and compared her to a 19 year old Lady Diana Spencer making her first public appearance with the Prince of Wales 30 years ago, dressed in a similarly styled black strapless number that wowed everyone at the time!

The ladies are different in stature and coloring, but they both wore their respective dresses well in their own element and their own time.  Of course 29 year old Catherine, who has been at her Prince of Wales' side for many years prior to their marriage earlier this year and comfortable in the public spotlight, is more mature and worldly-wise than the naif 19-year old Diana, engaged to a much older Prince of Wales who seemed to be daring her to sink or swim at this very first public outing.  One can see in a couple of her photographs in this article already that certain "look" - a certain wistfulness around the eyes - that she was to wear many many times over the ensuing years.  Their differences in age, temperament and experience take nothing away from either woman.  They are each unique and stunning on their own merits.

Here are the dresses!  Oh, if only I'd been able to wear a dress like this when I was 19, or 29, or 39, or even 49.  I still had a waistline at 49, menopause was only just starting then and my figure was still "girlish" - no "donut" middle!

By Elizabeth and David Emmanuel

By Alexander McQueen