In 2009, British Esquire named Prince Charles the World's Best Dressed Man. "He is perfectly turned out in a double-breasted suit," they claim. "Admirably, the prince keeps his wardrobe in appropriate style: we're told he has a room laid out like a tailor's shop."
Not in Front of the Corgis, a new book to be released in June 2012 by biographer Brian Hoey, gives us a “behind closed doors” look at the British Royal Family. Here’s a preview of a section on Prince Charles and Camilla:
Prince Charles employs 133 staff to look after him and Camilla, more than 60 of them domestics: chefs, cooks, footmen, housemaids, gardeners, chauffeurs, cleaners, and his three personal valets—gentleman’s gentlemen—whose sole responsibility is the care of their royal master’s extensive wardrobe and choosing what he is to wear on any particular day. A serving soldier polishes the prince’s boots and shoes every day—he has 50 handmade pairs each costing over £800 ($1275) by Lobb of St James’s—and a housemaid washes his underwear as soon as it is discarded.
Nothing Charles or Camilla wears is ever allowed near a washing machine. Particular attention is paid to handkerchiefs, which are monogrammed and again all hand-washed, as it was found that when they were sent to a laundry, some would go missing—as souvenirs. HRH’s suits, of which he has 60, cost more than £3,000 ($4780) each, and his shirts, all handmade, cost £350 ($558) a time (he has more than 200), while his collar stiffeners are solid gold or silver. Charles’s valets also iron the laces of his shoes whenever they are taken off.
Source: The Daily Beast
Readers: For more on the British Royal Family on this blog, click here.
Lisa's History Room 