Lifestyle
Nothing like a grande dame
Published 28 August 2008
Keira's not a patch on those immaculate "duchesses"
Much talking has been done of late about Keira Knightley's film The Duchess, in which she plays the Duchess of Devonshire of the late 18th century. Most of the words have been about the costumes and the big wigs, so heavy that poor Keira had to have a special board to rest her shoulders against. I'm sure Katharine Hepburn would have sympathised, having had to put up with mere leeches and poisonous snakes while filming The African Queen.
I love the word "duchess". When I was growing up in a mansion block in the West End of London, there used to be a woman we called the Duchess. I've no idea if she was, but it was in reference to the fact that she was of an era so different, that simply calling her "that old lady on the seventh floor" just wasn't enough. She died a long, long time ago now, but I still see lots of women just like her, always in the same half-square-mile around Selfridges and Hanover Square. These women are thin and immaculately dressed and coiffed (hair is usually backcombed into a "do"). They stand as straight as prima ballerinas and you just know they were incredibly beautiful once. You know this because, even though their skin is paper-thin and caked in make-up (expertly applied, mind), they have this aura of incredible self-possession that comes with having been chased, rigorously and extensively, by the opposite sex. Although now I always see them unescorted.
I adore these women. I have to curb a very strong desire to follow them home to see where they live; I'd bet money it's in a mansion block, natural dwellings for such women. What makes them want to dress so finely for a Thursday afternoon in the green grocery department of Selfridges? Whom do they dress for? What must they make of the general rabble of untidiness that makes up the majority of the people who surround them? For these women, dressing well, even on a weekday, is what is expected. It's never too much trouble, or too restrictive. You imagine they have a different idea of comfort - a cashmere cardigan instead of a Chanel blazer might be permitted, perhaps. Occasionally.
They wear heels every day, but only medium-height ones. Anything else would be too gauche. Their shoes are usually patent, for that extra bit of gloss. Naturally, they come from a time when women dressed up more, so perhaps it's not such a stretch for them to dress like this in their dotage. But I wonder how we will all look when we're old. I doubt that many of us will have the discipline for tailoring - we don't now, instead seeing old age as an even bigger excuse to sink into elasticated fibres and shapeless cotton jersey tops.
I like that these women still exist to show how it once used to be done. But they won't be around for very much longer, and Keira Knightley, for all her fancy costumes, is a poor substitute.
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