A fashionable view of the wedding

By Marcelle d'Argy Smith Former Cosmopolitan magazine editor

The Royal engagement was announced on 10 February 2005

It's the wedding of the, um, week.

After the delay caused by the Pope's funeral, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles have finally settled on the details.

We subjects are in a collective frisson of indifference. I mean - some people, would you believe, have actually made other plans that day.

Yet, we fashion mavens wait with bated breath to see what Camilla, the new Princess of Wales, will be wearing on The Wedding Day.

The pictures will be flashed around the globe and she has to look the part. Some of us haven't slept for weeks worrying about her outfit.

'Biddable Diana'

But let's face it, it's tough when you're bride number two, in your fifties, and being compared with a 20-year-old.

We all remember sweet, biddable Diana, exquisite in her Emmanuel dress with the yards and yards of bridal train that trailed down the red carpet at glorious St Paul's Cathedral while bells pealed out and people partied, and rejoiced.

Young, beautiful, innocent, doe-eyed Diana stepping out of a golden coach. The bride of our dreams. In the last century, when we were all naïve, we thought it was romantic to marry a prince.

As a 20-year-old bride Princess Diana wore a gown by Emmanuel

But now, in April 2005, when only one in three brides gets married in a church and times and our attitude to the monarchy have changed, it isn't going to be much of a challenge for Camilla to be a reasonably attractive bride at somewhere as deeply, unbelievably surreally suburban as the Guildhall in Windsor.

At least she won't be competing with the décor. Even the staff admit it needs renovating. Black patches stain the brown carpet, there is a battery of electric junction boxes and a sticker which reads: "Help conserve energy. Please turn off the lights."

It would be unwise to make too much of a sartorial effort at such a venue. Aiming for gorgeous is out of the question. If Camilla tries too hard, it'll send out a message that she maybe thought she deserved something a little more - shall we say, Royal.

Appropriate effort

I suspect she'll go for something shiny, brocade in cream or pale blue. Long? Short? A suit? A dress and jacket?

HRH Prince Charles, Rear Admiral of the Royal Navy, Air-Vice Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Major General in the Army, may, if he's not wearing one of his ill-fitting double-breasted Savile Row suits, be wearing epaulets and rows of hard-earned medals.

Edward VIII abdicated to be with divorcee Wallis Simpson

But I guess he'll dress down so his bride will shine in comparison. Not everything is about him.

Bride Camilla should, of course, opt for a Chanel suit. It's the perfect wedding outfit for her. Timeless, elegant, it would suit her shape.

And it's the kind of thing that those clothes horses who always got it right - Jacqueline Onassis, Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor - would have chosen.

But everyone would hiss and boo and say her outfit is "French" and Camilla would be even more unpopular than she is already. So, she has to wear something from an English designer.

Lately, obviously with a battery of fashion advisers, she has looked far more elegant. In fact, she cleans up rather well and she's looked pretty damned good for her a woman of her age and curvy shape.

'Stunning' dress

The scarlet dress she wore for her engagement announcement was stunning. In the flesh, believe it or not, Camilla is an attractive real woman. Let it be whispered that had she lived, Diana, without a little cosmetic enhancement, might not have looked nearly so good at this age.

I think I foresee little white pearls dripping off a pale short jacket and just below the knee dress. Or maybe a coat and dress with pale high heels. Fifties restrained chic with a dash of Royal bling.

She needs fabulous-fitting figure-flattering underwear by Rigby and Peller to accentuate her waistline and restrain the heaving bust (and not that ghastly scarlet bra and pants set Charles was seen buying for her). Designer Amanda Wakeley may have helped with, or inspired, the total look.

The wedding will take place on Saturday at Windsor Guildhall

Charles will have given her some exquisite brooches, bracelets and there may be a blinding diamond necklace. So there could be a half-a-million quid on show there. She's unlikely to ditch the short Farrah Fawcett flick for a new hairdo. She'll carry a small white bouquet.

Whatever she wears, Camilla, yes, is going to look radiant. She'll be beaming. It will be a sensational triumph for her and everyone who sniped at her can go to hell in a handcart.

Does she really care that much about her outfit, the wedding pictures, the weather, the ghastly Windsor Guildhall, the sniping, the objectors, Queen Elizabeth not showing up at her wedding, the republicans and their placards, the ghastly Hello magazine pictures?

Camilla has got the last laugh. She's got her man. She's nabbed the future King of England. She may yet be Queen.

So - expect a dazzling middle-aged bride in clothes that look very British High Street, shoes courtesy of Russell and Bromley.