The royals love caped dresses, why don’t New Zealanders?

Not all heroes wear capes. But most of the royals do.

On royal engagements in Fiji, Monaco, The Hague, London and Tokyo royals have stepped out in caped dresses, shoulders elegantly covered as they wave demurely to their subjects. The style was the go-to choice at the coronation of King Charles.

While always a visually striking choice, a royal stepping out in a caped dress isn’t surprising. Alongside sensible court shoes, dark skinny jeans and sharply tailored blazers, the caped dress is a sartorial stalwart that has become synonymous with royal style.

Claire Regnault, Senior Curator New Zealand Culture and History at Te Papa attributes the popularity of the silhouette to their formality. “It’s an elegant solution (much better than wearing a coat or jacket) and has a more modern if not quite contemporary feel,” says Regnault.

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“Compare the more historic look of the Princess of Wales in her full length cape at the coronation, which is a bit cumbersome, with her appearances in a cape dress – she still looks regal and slightly other worldly, but also modern.”

It’s this melding of old and new sensibilities that give caped dresses their secret power. “I think the cape dress harks back to the period when cloaks and trains were worn,” Reganult says.

“The cape dress does a similar job – it still imbues the wearer with a sense of occasion, a bit of magic and drama and as demonstrated can look extremely regal”

The suggestion these dresses are being used to prompt notions of modernity is an interesting one.The firm are grappling with a finding a way to outwardly signal nobility during a time of austerity when many are questioning the relevancy of the monarchs’ existence. It would make sense for the royals to ease away from codified costumes that conjure images of colonialist predecessors in favour of more publicly palatable alternatives.

Such a distraction tactic has been adopted by those who aren’t in the direct line succession too. After the coronation gave Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt a visible profile, people weren’t talking about her vocal falsehoods during the UK’s 2016 EU referendum campaign, or her rolling back her support for trans-rights when she thought it would impair her 2022 Tory leadership bid. They’re talking about her finely tailored Safiyaa caped dress and ability to hold a sword for a long time.

While they shoulder the brunt when virtue signalling on the grandest scale, caped dresses prove useful in image making even when the occasion doesn’t necessitate a ceremonial dress. They imbue decorum upon whoever is wearing them.

Catching up with someone who had just returned from a friend’s 10-year vow renewal ceremony recently I was shown a picture of a highly embellished tulle cape creation, positively glittering in gold. I recognised it immediately as the Jenny Packham 007 Goldfinger gown that the Princess of Wales wore to the premiere of No Time To Die in 2021.

So if they’re such an easy path to refinement, why aren’t caped dresses stocked in every dress store in Aotearoa?

Well once upon a time they did play a bigger part in our eventing wardrobe. Regnault recalls that in the 1970s a caped dress wasn’t an uncommon wedding dress design for Kiwi brides to wear, with designers such as Kevin Berkahn and Vinka Lucas utilising the silhouette.

Nowadays, when it comes to dressing for less landmark occasions, Fashion designer Juliette Hogan suggests they’ve fallen out of favour because we’re too laid back to be drawn to the appeal of these status signallers.

“While caped dresses have long been adored by the royal fashion icons for their regal allure and dramatic presence, the New Zealand fashion landscape tends to embrace a more subdued and casually elegant approach,” Hogan said.

“Our style reflects a unique blend of understated sophistication, where the emphasis is placed on a more subtle yet confident sense of individuality.”

Try a cape on for size