The secrets to dressing the Princess of Wales’s children
When Amaia Arrieta saw the Mother’s Day photograph posted by the Prince and Princess of Wales earlier this year, she was delighted to see that Princess Charlotte was wearing a checked skirt from her childrenswear label, Amaia London. She thought it was simply the latest in a long-line of examples of the Wales children wearing her designs.
Of course, the image would come to be mired in controversy – but to her it will remain testament of a bond between Amaia and the royals which began when Prince George was just a baby.
‘Dressing the royals gives me so much pride, I really do care about how they look,’ reflects Arrieta. ‘I’m heartbroken at the moment, I think they are going through hell, I hope they will be back. It’s really personal.’
Today marks Princess Charlotte’s ninth birthday and whether she wears Amaia in the birthday portrait which the Prince and Princess of Wales are expected to release during the day or not, the thrill of seeing the future king or one of his siblings in her creations remains as much of an honour now as it was the first time it happened in 2014, when a Christmas photograph of Prince George was released in which he wore a pair of Amaia corduroy shorts and knee-high socks.
‘The first time I realised Prince George was wearing my designs I was in Waitrose and saw the picture of him on the cover of Hello! Magazine,’ Arrieta remembers, ‘that was a huge moment because they had been coming to us but you never know if they’ll actually wear it.’
From Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, to King Charles’ Coronation and Princess Eugenie’s wedding, to family christenings, birthdays and Christmas Day church services, Arrieta has helped to create a look for the Wales children which is timeless, immaculate and always adorable.
Some might have criticised the Prince and Princess’s heritage-led approach to style, but Arrieta believes ‘they have put the traditional and classic way of dressing children on the map… I don’t think they look old fashioned’. Besides, while appearances might make this hard to believe, for every pristine Liberty-print smock dress and elegant coat (styles which are always bestsellers for Amaia) in the young Waleses’ wardrobe, there’s also a pair of Adidas trainers or a practical t-shirt from John Lewis or Tu at Sainsbury’s, an approach Arrieta can sympathise with.
A mother of three – she has a son and two daughters in their teens and early 20s – Arrieta is a veteran of the delicate negotiations parents might find themselves having when their darling sprog is insisting on anything plastered with Peppa Pig while they’d prefer them to be wearing an outfit which could have been seen on Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret almost a century ago (indeed many of Arrieta’s girls dresses look like they could be straight out of the late Queen’s childhood wardrobe).
‘It’s not easy,’ concedes Arrieta, who herself exudes understated ‘quiet luxury’ in neutral knits and investment accessories. ‘I had the same where they wanted Princess pyjamas and Disney T-shirts. I’m not the kind of mum that would say no, but you need to give in in a way, like the pyjamas which no one’s going to see. There’s a subtle way of doing it so they don’t feel frustrated... a nice coat with a superhero T-shirt underneath.’
Arrieta founded Amaia ‘out of necessity’. Spanish-born, she had just given up a career in international finance in London when she was expecting her first child 20 years ago. ‘I started to look for kids’ clothing and I couldn’t really find the equivalent of what I would have in Spain so I would go to Spain, buy everything there and come back to London. Then all my friends would say “Oh, that’s so cute, I want the same”.’
She felt that the unfussy but sweet clothes being made by Spanish labels (ironically in a style which seems quintessentially English) filled a gap in the market. ‘You had the very high-end designer clothes, and you had the very low end, but you didn’t have anything in between which was good value for money, in good materials and good fabrics.’ She began importing pieces from labels which hadn’t previously been sold in the UK before and eventually started her own line.
Members of the Royal family were clients long before William and Catherine started their family. Although it’s often assumed that the connection came from the Waleses’ Spanish nanny Maria Borrallo, it was in fact Lady Serena Linley (the former wife of Princess Margaret’s son, David Armstrong Jones, now the Earl of Snowdon) and her children’s nanny Jessie Webb, a regular visitor to Amaia’s Chelsea store, who helped introduce the now Princess of Wales to Arrieta’s designs. Webb had previously cared for William and Harry and was drafted in to help with George in the early days.
Now Arrieta works closely with Borrallo to find the perfect outfits for the children. ‘It’s often a very tight deadline,’ Arrieta explains, hinting at the intense preparation which goes on behind the scenes to create the picture-perfect moments for which the family is renowned. ‘We would do anything for them… the children always look amazing in the end.’
Princess Charlotte will soon be too old to wear Amaia’s ready-to-wear collection, which goes up to age 10 for girls. Then, William and Catherine will face another dilemma which many parents of ‘tween’ girls have had to confront. ‘Once they get to that age, the kids get to choose, it’s not the mum who is shopping for them, it’s the little girl who is going with her school friends and wearing their crop top,’ she says, admitting that Brandy Melville becomes more appealing than cute floral smocks to this demographic.
‘It’s a big issue when they get a little bit older, because they are in no man’s land, it’s a tricky age. They go to Zara or Mango. For good clients, we’ll do something for older ones but it’s a very risky business… unless I open another very cool store with a nail parlour or something like that.’ Now there’s an idea to keep her royal custom going.
But there’s a longevity to the relationships you can forge through making childrenswear which doesn’t stop when the teen years hit. The label is reaching a stage where the children who first wore its designs are now coming back as adults. Perhaps not quite with their own offspring, but as brides looking for bridesmaid and pageboy outfits.
‘Yesterday, we had a customer come in with her daughter, who used to be dressed in Amaia when she was younger, and now she’s getting married,’ Arrieta explains.’I feel so honoured, it was so meaningful for me and the mum had been looking forward to having an excuse to come back.’
Arrieta’s own children Ion, 21, Ines, 20, and Ariane, 14, were always her inspiration, and modelled for Amaia throughout their childhoods. While her eldest two love to spot children wearing their mother’s creations, they don’t harbour any ambitions to join the business. Her youngest daughter, though, is showing promising signs.’She helps in the photo shoots and tells me I should have a Tik Tok account,’ Arrieta laughs.
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