Worn in Week: Charlene’s Tricky Weekend

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Last Saturday, Charlene along with Prince Albert, her parents and her brother Gareth attended The South Africa Night Gala at the Salle Garnier of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and private concert Performed by the South African singer Johnny Clegg.
 so South African night, South African music and South African dinner as Dobby Doolooa, The chef of Emperors Palace teamed up with Jean-Claude Brugel, chef of Café de Paris to create special dishes and The menu was drawn up “as a discovery of South African gastronomy”.

So logically with all these South African stuff, Charlene’s gown had to be by a South African designer to complete the theme.

And built on that logical guess, I spent the past two days contacting all the South African designers that I -and Google- have ever -and never- heard off!

But guess what? Instead of doing what she was expected or thought to be doing, Charlene chose to wear a vintage gown by ……. Akris!!

The gown comes from Akris’ Spring/Summer 2005 Ready to Wear collection, so most probably it was reissued just for her.

The other trick is that the gown feels SO South African with its color, lace design, and neckline, and its backless-ness.

I love this gown, I think it’s a great choice, even if the designer isn’t South African (it would have been a good move though) I like the flowery/geometric lace and I like that we can see the nude underlay, the only thing I’m not sure about is the back.

She paired the gown with her Repossi Black Gold Maure Cuff that she’s been having for few years (she also has matching earrings, and the same cuff and earrings in white gold) which you can get from Barney’s (If you can afford its 19.095$ price tag), and a bracelet that she has worn before, but I have no idea who made it or what it’s made of.
Being true to herself when it comes to jewelery, she wore no earrings.

To be honest, no one can pull off such a dress, or any other dress with the same back (or actually with same lack of a back) from the royal ladies except Charlene, she’s tall, and she has the structure to pull it off, but is it appropriate for the first lady of Monaco? I have mixed thoughts about that. but that still is not enough for me to hate the look or anything.

Note: Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge (AKA KAte Middleton) wore a Jenny packham teal gown that was semi backless (PIC) And so did Princess Clotilde Courau (PIC)

anyway I like the neckline and think it steals the attention from her broad shoulders and so doesn’t emphasize them at all.

What I quite hate is that now every half an hour I receive an email like “Hi, I didn’t design this dress, Bye”, But hey, I have a plan B, I asked the designers about their opinions about her gown, and will update this post with them once I receive them.

And just because the designers are going to say their opinions, why don’t you say yours too in the poll below the picture..

Also last night (Sunday) Charlene attended the Akris Spring/Summer 2013 prêt-à-porter, not a surprise since the princess has attended the same event last year.

Char wore a maroon Akris Suede dress which is a modified version of the Fall 2011 collection shown below, The Akris Anouk Horsehair Clutch in the same colour, And shoes by Walter Steiger.

exactly like this shoe but in brown, also Christina Ricci has worn the same shoes to the Costume Institute Met Gala 2012.

Charlene was received upon arrival by Peter Kriemler The CEO of Akris, and left the fashion show with his brother, Albert the designer… no wonder she gets Akris’ archives opened for her! here’s another view of the dress, and a close up on the makeup, she wore minimal makeup with highlighted eyes, I like the dress and the makeup, but doesn’t she look tired?

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Later at night, The Princess of Monaco wore a gold Akris coat and dress -and clutch- to attend the Akris dinner to celebrate the collection. 

The coat might be a modified version of this coat from the Spring/Summer 2010 collection.

They are quite modern and simple, nothing special except the colour, I mean, They’re in GOLD!

But I was expecting Charlene to wear a South African design to the Akris show to make them three tricks in one weekend!


Tell me what you think about the three outfits!






Update: Akris replied with a short description of the gown :”Dark brown gown with leather

amulettes over golden beige silk organdy“. So now we know it’s leather not lace, and now I love it even more.