In March 2002, Charlotte Todd studied textiles at the University of the West of England, Bristol. When her lecturer asked if she could send a copy of her student’s fashion collection for consideration for entry into an upcoming charity fashion show at the University of St Andrews, she could never have known what was about to unravel.
The pencil skirt she wanted to borrow had taken her a week to hand-knit with silk yarns. It cost her £30 to make plus postage to send it to Scotland. It was added to a range of outfits loaned by students from across the UK.
Of all the options available, Kate Middleton, then a first-year student from St. Andrews and a volunteer model, chose to wear Todd’s creation in the show. The sheer skirt became a dress, styled with a black bandeau bra and panties. Kate’s hair was curled into tight spirals and braided with strips of fabric.
The photos made local news at the time. But they were shared worldwide and seen by millions eight years later when Prince William introduced his new fiancée, the future Princess of Wales.
Now, Netflix has released the first image of actress Meg Bellamy recreating the look The crown. The second part of series six, released on December 16, will feature Kate and William from university days, including the moment he saw Kate from the front row wearing that dress, and was most likely in love.
But what happened next to the original dress and its designer, Todd?
Initially, the dress was placed in the back of Todd’s closet and left there. Todd completed her studies and started working in the gift shop at the 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 sparked the royal relationship.
“The dress is part of fashion history, the moment when William was able to fall in love with Kate for the first time, and that makes me really proud,” she said in November 2010. “That photo has been used so many times over the years. I always wonder if she’s ashamed of it, or likes it. I am reluctant to part with the dress.”
Todd swore she would never sell it. “The only person I’d probably give it to is her [Middleton]she said. ‘Maybe in exchange for a wedding invitation.’
When a newspaper offered her £1,000 for the garment, Todd declined. But eventually, 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 saying we have this dress that Kate Middleton wore to St. Andrews University,” said Kerry Taylor, the London-based auctioneer. The Telegraph. “I immediately realized that the press interest in this topic would be enormous.”
Charlotte, who worked at the aquarium and was now married, had asked her brother to make some phone calls and sent the dress to Taylor in a small box. “It was this little black knitted filigree column. If you were hoping to catch the attention of a prince, this was the dress to do it.”
On auction day itself in March 2011, Taylor says the frenzy was unlike anything she has experienced in her more than four decades as an auctioneer. Taylor has sold pieces owned by Princess Diana, Jerry Hall and Elizabeth Taylor, but the crowd of paparazzi and reporters waiting to see who bought Kate’s dress was even larger.
When Taylor sold the dress for £78,000 to a buyer who bid over the phone, she had to take his agent to a locked room for safety.
“Everyone thought it was William on the other end of the line,” she laughs. ‘It wasn’t that. It was a private collector from Jersey.”
The whole experience was extraordinary, but made special, Taylor says, because “Charlotte was such a nice person.”
They met after their first telephone conversations prior to the auction. “She was a sweet young student and for her this money was life-changing. She planned to use the money for a house deposit, just like any normal person in the spotlight would do.”
After the hammer fell, Todd spoke to the press.
“I am completely speechless and feel very emotional,” she said. “I really didn’t think it would raise such an amount. I plan to spend some of the money on a down payment on a house, but maybe I can use some of it to change my career.”
Sure enough, on April 28, 2011 – the day before the royal wedding – Todd announced she was launching a fashion brand. Her debut collection, branded Fashion Babylon, featured 12 updated versions of Middleton’s knit sheath dress in six colours, this time with a thicker knit to make the piece less transparent. The dresses would be sold for £49.50 each.
“The keywords for the collection are boho glamor with a touch of royal sophistication,” Todd’s press release said at the time. The dresses, she suggested, would “keep you cool during the summer days and warm during the evenings.” It can serve as day or beach wear or as a statement item for a warm summer evening.”
Todd spoke to Britten Fashion ahead of the royal wedding, suggesting she might also have liked to design the wedding dress.
“Of course I would like to make the dress myself, but actually I think I’m cracking under the pressure,” she told the magazine at the time before relenting. “Sarah Burton from McQueen would do it brilliantly though – I hope it’s her. However, Kate has already shown that she wears what she wants. Most of all, I hope she wears something she really loves.”
Unfortunately, the committee ended up going to McQueen’s house. Todd’s big moment passed and she wrapped up her fashion business.
Of course, the question that might haunt Todd is: if she had held out ten years longer and waited until the princess was a ‘queen-to-be’, how much would her £30 dress be worth today?
“It would be in the hundreds of thousands now,” Taylor says. Nowadays, the royal family is incredibly protective of any items of clothing or personal belongings entering the open market, meaning anything available there is rare and therefore increasingly valuable.
‘Let’s not forget Princess Diana’s wool sweater [the famous sheep knit] recently sold for over a million dollars.” With Kate-mania at its peak today? “Everything is possible.”