by In March 2002, Charlotte Todd was a textiles student at the University of the West of England, Bristol. When her tutor asked if she could send a sample from her graduation fashion collection, for consideration to appear in an upcoming charity fashion show at the University of St Andrews, she couldn’t have known what was about to unfold.
The tube skirt she chose to lend took her a week to knit with silk yarn. It cost her £30 to make it plus postage to get it to Scotland. It was added to a rack of clothes lent by students from all over the UK.
Of all the options available, Kate Middleton, then back as a first-year St Andrews student and volunteer, chose to wear Todd’s creation in the show. The sheer skirt became a dress, styled with a black bandeau bra and knickers, Kate’s hair was curled in tight spirals and braided with strips of fabric.
The pictures made local news at the time. But they were shared around the world and seen by millions eight years later when Prince William introduced his new fiancée, the future Princess of Wales.
Now, Netflix has released its first image of actress Meg Bellamy recreating the eye The Crown. The second part of series six, which will be released on December 16, will show Kate and William from their university days, including the moment he watched Kate wear that dress from the front row, and what was left immaculate.
But what happened next to the original dress, and its designer, Todd?
At first, the dress was put in the back of Todd’s wardrobe and left there. Todd finished her studies and went to work in the gift shop at Bristol Aquarium. But when Kate and William announced their engagement on October 20, 2010, reporters began contacting Todd to ask her more about the dress that inspired the royal engagement.
“The dress is a piece of fashion history, the moment William could first fall in love with Kate, and that makes me very proud,” she said in November 2010. “There’s so much use removed from that picture for years. I always wonder if she’s embarrassed by it, or if she likes it. I hesitate to part with the dress.”
Todd promised she would never sell it. “He’s probably the only person I’d give it to [Middleton]” she said. “Perhaps in exchange for a wedding invitation.”
When one newspaper offered her £1,000 for the garment, Todd refused. But ultimately, with the engagement, she realized the importance and potential value of the piece that was gathering dust in her wardrobe.
“My office first got a call from Charlotte’s brother to say we have this dress that Kate Middleton wore to St Andrews University,” says Kerry Taylor, the London-based auctioneer. The Telegraph. “I realized straight away that there would be huge press interest in this segment.”
Charlotte, who worked at the aquarium and is now married, asked her brother to make some calls, and sent the dress to Taylor in a small box. “It was this little black filigree column – really if you were hoping to catch the eye of a prince, this was the dress to do it.”
On the day of the auction itself in March 2011, Taylor says the frenzy was unlike anything she had experienced in more than 40 years as an auctioneer. Taylor sold pieces owned by Princess Diana, Jerry Hall and Elizabeth Taylor, but the crowd of paparazzi and reporters waited to see who bought Kate’s dress even more.
When Taylor sold the dress for £78,000 to a buyer who was bidding over the phone, she had to sweep her agent into a locked room for safety.
“Everyone thought it was William on the other end of the phone,” she laughs. “Was not. He was a private collector from Jersey.”
The whole experience was amazing, but it made it special, says Taylor because “Charlotte was a beautiful person”.
After their initial phone conversation before the auction, they met. “She was a sweet young student and this money changed her. She intended to use the money for a house deposit, just as any normal person would expect.”
After the hammer went down, Todd spoke to the press.
“I’m speechless, and I feel very emotional,” she said. “I really didn’t think he would do that much. I intend to put some of the money towards a deposit for a house, but I might use some to change my career.”
Sure enough, on April 28, 2011 – the day before the Royal wedding – Todd announced that she was launching a fashion brand. Her first collection, under the brand name Fashion Babylon, featured 12 updated versions of Middleton’s knitted tube dress in six color ways, this time using a thicker knit to make the item less overwhelming. The dresses were to be sold for £49.50 a piece.
“The words of the collection are boho glam with a hint of royal sophistication,” Todd’s press release offered at the time. She suggested that the dresses would “keep you cool during the summer days and warm through the evening. It could function as day or beach wear or as a statement piece for a warm summer evening.”
Todd spoke to the British Vogue before the Royal wedding, suggesting that she may also want to design the wedding dress.
“Of course I’d love to make the dress myself but really I think I’d play under the pressure,” she told the magazine at the time before she gave up. “Sarah Burton from McQueen would do it brilliantly though – I hope she does. However, Kate has already shown that she wears what she wants. More than anything, I hope she wears something she really loves.”
Alas, the Commission eventually went to McQueen’s house. Todd’s big moment hit and she ended her fashion business.
The question that may be troubling Todd, of course, is that if she had held on ten years longer, and had stayed until the Princess was “queen in waiting”, how much her dress could be worth £30 today?
“It would be in the hundreds of thousands now,” says Taylor. “At least. These days the Royal family is very protective of any piece of clothing or personal possessions that comes on the open market, which means that anything out there is rarer, and therefore more valuable.”
“Let’s not forget Princess Diana’s wool sweater [the famous sheep knit] recently sold for more than a million dollars.” Is Kate mania as high as it is today? “The sky’s the limit.”
