Fashion

Wallis Simpson’s Most Iconic Style Moments

7 April 2020

The legacy of Wallis Simpson – later the Duchess of Windsor – is such that decades after her death in 1986, we still find ourselves fascinated by her. Proof, if it were needed, can be found in the recent announcement that her story is once again being brought to the big screen. Based on Anna Pasternak’s biography, The American Duchess: The Real Wallis Simpson, the film will follow her early years and marriage to King Edward VIII in 1936, which saw the British monarch abdicate the throne for her. Best of all, Cate Blanchett is reportedly set to play her.

Comparisons have previously been made between Simpson and the Duchess of Sussex. Like Meghan, Wallis loved fashion. “Love or hate her, the world is still obsessed by that woman,” designer Roland Mouret once said of Simpson. Indeed, the influence of the twice divorced Pennsylvanian has influenced many fashion collections, films and popular culture today.

Just like her wit, Simpson’s sharp outfits are hard to forget. Her clothes were as thought-provoking and individual as her approach to royal etiquette. When Coco Chanel’s boyish Breton tops and trimmed boxy jackets were de rigueur, Simpson was wearing American couturier Main Rousseau Bocher’s corsetry.

Simpson even collaborated with artist Salvadore Dalí, who designed a lobster print for the Elsa Schiaparelli gown that she wore in Vogue in 1937 – photographer Cecil Beaton captured a demure Simpson sitting in the grass for the issue. Simpson was often seen on the front row of Schiaparelli’s seasonal shows, and was a firm favourite of Christian Dior. Simpson believed she was “not a beautiful woman”, and so she used fashion as a kind of armour – with her sense of style becoming more sophisticated the more famous she became.

Here, British Vogue looks back at Simpson’s most stylish moments ever.

Rex Features
1/45
1927
Taken around the time of her divorce from her first husband, Earl Winfield Spencer, a 30 year old Simpson poses in the era’s fashionable ankle-length skirts, with a belt and hat.
Getty Images
2/45
1936
The then Prince of Wales on holiday with Simpson, who had become his mistress in 1934.
Central Press
3/45
1936
Simpson in a floor-sweeping sequinned gown in Paris.
Cecil Beaton
4/45
1937
The Duchess wearing a white Elsa Schiaparelli gown while holding bundles of flowered twigs in the garden of the Chateau de Cande for Vogue.

Bettmann
5/45
1937
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor gaze from a balcony on their wedding day.
Central Press
6/45
1937
The couple’s wedding day at Chateau de Conde, near Tours, France.
Rex Features
7/45
1937
The Duchess in the Elsa Schiaparelli gown, which she designed with Salvador Dalí, for her shoot by Cecil Beaton in Vogue.
Fox Photos
8/45
1939
The Duke and Duchess at their home, the Villa La Croe in Cap D’Antibes, France.