Aiming at an art review, I wanted to write first only about the beautifully illustrated book “The Windsor Style” by Suzy Menkes. When flipping through the book, the well researched and mostly friendly biography of Wallis Simpson “The Duchess of Windsor” by Greg King came back to my mind. This biography shaped my views about her. This essay therefore includes knowledge from both books.
Back then in the 1930ies, royality was taken much more serious than today. Only 20 years before, The Great War had been started by the crowned heads of state in Europe. Great Britain’s prime ministers were strong before and after, but the rest of Europe did only slowly adapt to democracy. Times were different. When I think back to the royal weddings in Europe in the 1990ies and 2000s, when almost every crown prince married a “commoner” and Prince Charles of England was finally allowed to marry his divorced long-time friend Camilla Parker-Bowles, there was still a lot of fuss about something that should not upset anybody at all. The medieval habit of marrying only virgin princesses for reasons of making sure the heir was truly of the right bloodline, stayed on longer than one would have thought.
The story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, how they met and fell in love, is not that special. Had it stayed an affair, we would have long forgotten her. That King Edward VIII abdicated the throne for her, the last and least pretty in a row of mistresses, is on the contrary very special. Such a sacrifice in the eye of a curious public and a disapproving family made it impossible for her, the twice divorced American, to ever leave him (not that we can be sure she really ever wanted, but signs of rebellion were there). We do not know if she even wanted him to abdicate. For her the abdication in 1936, to be able to be with her, created a golden prison, one that she could never ever leave. She made the best of it and saw it as her duty to create a life as perfect and as royal as possible for him.
The former king had lost all official duties and the extremely organized and structured life he was used to. His life had always been organized by others and he was used to do what was expected of him in his role. He was noone to look for own causes to support. For an English crown prince or king that could have easily been seen as meddling with affairs of state and invite criticism. Therefore, he was fully unprepared for a life in leisure without any task. Whilst he was used to living in luxury, everything he had done circled around the duties a crown prince or king had.
In the middle of his life he was rich and he finally had won the woman he wanted to live with, but he did not have anything important to do anymore. There were smaller engagements, like on the Bahamas, but in general the royal family kept him out of everything. It became Wallis Simpsons life task to entertain him and organize their life and create the illusion of a jet-set royality till the end. She did that with great dedication. Their whole life long she proved “the other side” wrong that had denied her to become queen. Wallis Simpson would have been an untypical queen, less “sweet” than others, but she would have been fully up to the task.
Looking at the front and back cover of Suzy Menkes book, we see an elegant and sophisticated Duchess in a yellow dress, drawn by Cecil Beaton. It hung in her bathroom, as one of the pictures in the book shows. She looks still young there. Wallis Simpson was never a beauty, but she was also 40 years of age when the king abdicated for her. In the 1930ies 40 years was not really young anymore like it is today. She had lived a life full of experiences before meeting him and she had never looked like a pretty young princess from the fairy tales anyway. She was a very elegant, self-made woman who had fought her way through and up in society.
The back cover shows the Duke and the Duchess with one of their beloved pugs, sharing a look of great affection. They were not together for nothing, there was a great love story behind all this. Both are clothed formally, as there were never any pictures of them in a less then perfect attitude and posture. Clothes, hair, jewels – ready to move to a reception of ambassadors or a garden party at any time.
Their wardrobe and her jewellery were above criticism. Rarely has a couple shown so much style in all situations. There were no mistakes made, ever. They could move out with today’s royals and not look out of place. That is a big difference to quite a few other late members of the European royal families. Abundant pictures of the couple dressed up for all occasions can be admired in Suzy Menkes book.
Their main home was in Paris, in the Bois de Boulogne and it reminds me a lot of the palaces of the American tycoons of the gilded age around Newport: “The Elms”, “The Breakers”, “Marble House”.
Great rooms for representation had been carefully made to look like a castle or palace inhibited by ruling princes. Exquisite antiques from his family’s past, as well as selected items from their time together made an unforgettable impression on guests.
In the private rooms the decoration is not in the same league of timeless style. One recognizes the rather overcrowded interiors from the current residences of the older members of royality around the world and – being honest – older members of one owns family. The kind of style where the wallpaper can’t be seen for pictures and every open space is decorated with something.
Personally, I think it is more tolerable for the eyes if at least the wall behind the pictures is simply white and not in elaborate colours and patterns. There was no lightness about the decoration, every inch was measured and an army of servants kept everything spotless. Running a big house (or more than one) is a time-consuming task and the Duchess certainly was not idle.
Flipping through Suzy Menkes book gives insight of a world far away for most of us in terms of money. The underlying emptiness that can be felt through, is unfortunately part of many people’s homes. Only their country home looks like one that has been really loved by them. Maybe because it was possible to let their guard down a little. The former king did a lot of gardening there and gardening usually gives tranquillity and satisfaction.
Theirs is a story of dedication, affection, duty, toughness, passion and justification. They both went through with it till they died and showed a real spine of steel, which makes them very much worthy to remember. They both paid their dues. They did not try to short cut. In today’s superficial world their qualities lack.
All rights to the books belong to:
Menkes, Suzy: The Windsor Style, 1987, Grafton Books, a division of Collins Publishing Group, 8 Grafton Street, London WIX 3LA, Printedin Great Britain, ISBN: 0-246-13212-4
King, Greg: The Duchess of Windsor, The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson, 2003, Aurum Press Ltd, 25 Nedford Avenue, London WC1B 3 AT, printed by Bookmarque, Croydon, Surrey, ISBN: 1-85410-943-X