She's neither a duchess like her sister, nor a princess like her niece, but her dress at Charlotte's christening confirms that Pippa Middleton is the new Pearly Queen.
But wait! Don't pearly queens and kings dress in black that's been embellished from head to hem with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pearl shell buttons?
Of course, but if we look at Pippa's beautifully elegant and flattering Emilia Wickfield cream dress, we can see that its texture resembles (from my vantage point, anyway) strings of pearls.
And if we recall the bridesmaid's dress that Pippa wore to her sister's wedding, its only embellishment was a crisp row of covered buttons down the back, that looked, from a distance, like pearls.
So if that isn't enough to crown Pippa as the Pearly Queen, I don't know what is.
In other Moving Up with the Middleton news, brother James runs a thriving socks business--no; wait--he makes marshmallows--it's another brother who designs the socks. And in this lovely Mario Testino family photo, James just might be the only adult not sharing a full-on toothy smile because he's sneaking one of his own Boomfs.
