The Royal Box Celebrity Crush For The Finals

The heavy royal hitters arrive in the Royal Box towards the end of the 14-day All England Lawn Tennis And Croquet Association run, as yesterday, when Catherine, the Princess of Wales, took prime place at the wood rail on the court, flanked as ever by the Chair of the All England Club, Deborah Jevens, pictured below in her radically cool purple-black-and-white print summer dress accompanying the Princess of Wales to their seats. For her part, the Duchess of Cambridge is in an belted Nehru-collared military-style top, paired with the only slightly lighter-toned chiffon for the skirt. Key here to the military tone is the broad “Sam Browne” belt and the mid-biceps length of sleeve. Perfect patron summer jacket.

A courtly note: All are standing, as they should while the Wimbledon patron takes her seat, but key to this scene is the fine slight bow of the gentleman in the cream double-breasted, far right. The eye contact is between the princess and him. Although it’s not known (except to the principals) whether he is actually a courtier — he can well be an equerry, a prior acquaintance or royal security — but whomever he is, courtly posture is being adhered to, which is to say, when there is eye contact, a slight bow in acknowledgement of the Crown is due. Noting the placement of his arms, which would have put his hands more or less in on the “braiding,” or stripes, of his trousers, he can well have had military training. This leans toward him being of the court.

Two weeks in, champions anointed, have we finally had enough cream-colored Wimbledon attire? Frankly, if you ask us, it’s wearing a little thin — what about a few refreshing yards of well-cut summer-crispy good ol’ seersucker suitings, as in July in Mobile or New Orleans? That allowed in the Royal Box? Apparently not!

While we do freely admit that the whole Wimbledon metaphor of strawberries-and-cream is, the social buttress for all these dairy colorways, but, man! Any way you cut it, it ain’t spring right now. Put another way, yes, the North Sea does make strawberry season more than a bit late in the Hebrides, but that’s the Hebrides! The Vikings settled up there. They may never get any strawberries. Either way, this year’s prodigious June heat waves in England’s south, very much including the swelter around London, have just about played out whatever strawberries they may have had this year.

Below, the seminal polymath musician and amazingly-still-married Nirvana and Foo Fighters Hall-of-Fame rocker Dave Grohl and his wife Jordan, in fine cream, make their way to their seats on July 2.

White lace, on the other hand, works well, as pictured below on Patricia (Mrs. Bjorn) Borg on July 10. Though extremely clean shaven and slightly shorn of his impressive “Jesus Christ Superstar” locks as he won Wimbledon’s coveted men’s singles title five consecutive times from 1976-80, Bjorn Borg brings every ounce of his patented ferocious gravitas to the Royal Box in his fine blue suit. Behind the couple, upper left, singer/songwriter Ellie Goulding brings a bit of fresh air to the Royal Box in a refreshing — non-cream-colored — grey and white striped summer sleveless. Kudos, Ms. Goulding.

We’re now officially celebrating Royal Box departures from cream, not arrivals. That notwithstanding, British/American actress Sienna Miller is trying her level best but can’t quite cut clear. Still, it’s a pattern on a cream background, so we can give the early-Aughts It-Girl and Vogue cover model points for getting at least a pattern on that milky summer dress. The shoulders are working for the actress, and we do respect the whole gritty turn her acting career has taken. Current boyfriend Oli Green is up to snuff in a regulation dark City-of-London/Wall-Street let’s-argue-about-the-tariffs suit, but the suit has got a hellish job of work boosting Green even so much as a few months older than his 28 years. In fact, the suit is losing the desperate battle — Green looks every minute of 25.

That noted, at 43, Miller’s not exactly robbing the cradle — they’re only sort of a May-September thing, or okay, May-August if that makes everybody feel better. What’s a decade and a few years in the Royal Box? Nothing, I tell you. Nothing.

Below, what would Wimbledon be without the magazine world’s most passionate tennis fan, Conde Nast ueber-editrix Anna Wintour with no less a seminal fashionista as Tom Ford as her day-date. Power couple would be an understatement to describe this unit. As ever, Ford is impeccable, and the 1920s under-the-tie collar-stay does its somewhat insouciant work unevenly. The flower print on Wintour is, again refreshingly, on a white ground. Untouchable would be the message being broadcast here. Mess with either of these tennis fans at your peril.

Below, HRH Prince Michael of Kent may have won the Royal Box competition for the absolutely perfect old-man-bespoke suit offsetting a really rich blue shirt. Question of the hour is: Is it a classic chalk stripe? Technically, yes, but it’s a right skinny one, and the key to the mystery is that the stripes are set wide in the weave, as if they were much chalkier and thicker. But, they’re not! This lends the suit a kind of lightness that only a royal clothes horse such as Prince Michael could pull off.

He comes by the ability honestly. First cousin to Queen Elisabeth II through his father, King George’s brother, Prince Michael is, through his Greek ancestry a cousin of Tsar Nicholas II and is fluent in Russian. While it’s not a language in wide circulation in the Royal Box, on the palate of HRH Prince Michael, it harks back to a pre-revolutionary Russia.