Queen Camilla wears Bruce Oldfield to Garden Party and is set to wear the designer to the coronation

Queen Camilla dressed in a navy and white dress by Bruce Oldfield for her and King Charles' first Buckingham Palace garden party. She accessorised with a Philip Treacy hat, black leather gloves and navy shoes. 

As well as mixing with thousands of people for the celebration, they were joined by the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, as well as coronation concert performer Lionel Richie.

Lionel Richie was joined by his model girlfriend, Lisa Parigi, who looked very glamorous in a blue floral dress with a white headpiece. They were spotted laughing and talking with both King Charles and Queen Camilla.

When King Charles and Queen Camilla recently went to Germany for their three-day tour , Camilla chose to recycle a turquoise Bruce Oldfield dress. She accessorised her look with a Philip Treacy hat, knee-high black boots and a brooch that belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

It is no surprise that the Queen Camilla decided to wear Bruce Oldfield for the start of her tour of Germany as he has become one of her favourite designers. She has worn his designs for many years, including for King Charles’s 70th birthday in 2018. 

Other occasions over the years when the Queen Camilla has worn Bruce Oldfield include for the State Opening of Parliament in May 2016 and to the James Bond premiere in 2021, As Camilla has long been a fan of Bruce Oldfield’s designs, he is a natural choice to design her dress for the forthcoming coronation in May.

An insider reportedly told The Sun newspaper that “Camilla has a very close friendship with Bruce spanning many years so in many ways it is the natural and obvious choice. Camilla trusts Bruce because he has really delivered on dresses for so many important occasions recently for her.”

The only element of surprise when it comes to Queen Camilla in choosing Bruce Oldfield to create her coronation dress is that the designer did have a long history of designing outfits for the late Princess Diana. She wore a suit by him in 1985 when she visited Italy with King Charles (the then Prince Charles). 

In the same year, Princess Diana also wore a fabulous backless lamé dress by Bruce Oldfield. According to Good Housekeeping, “The favoured silhouette soon earned her the nickname “Dynasty Di.”

In 2011, Bruce Oldfield contributed to an article Vogue put together on what the late Princess Diana would have thought about turning 50. “Diana had found her feet shortly before she died and I think she’d have embraced life on her own terms,” he said. “She’d have found being 50 quite funny.”

Bruce then went on to say that Diana “was keen on the old gym, and she’d have made the best of what she had, but I’m sure she would have got a few things done, like many women of her age.”

As expected, no specific details have been released regarding the Queen Camilla's Bruce Oldfield dress for the coronation and she is believed to have worked with him in secret on the creation. 

Bruce Oldfield has not only designed outfits for the late Princess Diana and Queen Camilla, but for the likes of Rihanna, Sienna Miller and Jemima Khan. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Bruce Oldfield’s early life, he was fostered when he was a child and then lived in a Barnados' home for his teenage years. 

Bruce Oldfield went on to graduate from Centre Saint Martin’s College of Art and is set to have got his ‘first break’ when he was asked to design costumes for the actress Charlotte Rampling for her film Le Taxi Mauve.