RICHARD EDEN: Waspish interior designer to the stars (and friend of Queen Camilla) Nicky Haslam, 84, condemns Prince William and Kate’s ‘so boring’ fashion choice of ‘endless blue’ for them and their children

Nicky Haslam, born to one of Queen Victoria’s goddaughters, dated Princess Diana, worked for King Charles, is a close friend of Queen Camilla and once sang for Queen Elizabeth.

However, the waspish interior designer is not impressed with the Prince and Princess of Wales. Haslam, 84, accuses the heir to the throne and his wife of being “childish” and unsophisticated and dressing like dolls in a department store window.

He’s so disappointed that he’s included them in his “Common List,” his playfully snobbish compilation of things that have gotten him into trouble over the past year.

The list is printed on a tea towel, or ‘drying towel’ as he calls it, which is sold to his friends for £40 a time.

The family are recorded as ‘The Waleses in blue’, referring to the way they have worn colour-coordinated outfits. “You see endless photos of the whole family in different shades of blue,” he says. ‘It is common. It’s so strange to see an entire family dressed in blue. Wouldn’t little Princess Charlotte like to wear white?

‘It’s supposed to suggest a calm upper class, and that’s so boring. If you look at photos from the past, the royal family had beautiful exotic clothing. But now they look like dolls in Peter Jones’ shop window.’

About William and Catherine, he adds: ‘They do childish things like playing football and games. They couldn’t be less advanced. They don’t go to literary lunches, they don’t read special books and they don’t go to the theater.’

The Old Etonian also has ‘fly-pasts’ on its list. “They come at every opportunity, they even happen in France now,” he tells me.

‘The royal family just has to find them. Wouldn’t you fly by after the 100th? Wouldn’t you rather go in and have a drink?’

Haslam, whose clients include Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Rod Stewart, also condemns Wimbledon, telling me: ‘The people who go there, the whole atmosphere, is normal now, there’s no glamor whatsoever. It’s no longer elitist.’

Haslam, 84, accuses the heir apparent and his wife (pictured in matching blue ensembles) of being ‘childish’ and artless and dressing like dolls in a department store window

United in blue: The Prince of Wales poses for Father’s Day surrounded by his children: Princess Charlotte, eight, Prince Louis, five, and Prince George, ten

Kate and William attend the Easter morning service at St George’s Windsor, 2019

The interior designer adds about William and Catherine (pictured in October 2023): ‘They do childish things, like playing football and games. They couldn’t be less advanced. They don’t go to literary lunches, they don’t read special books and they don’t go to the theater.’

He insists the Queen will be amused by his list: ‘I think she’ll laugh about it. She is sophisticated, well-read, very funny and very fast.”

In 2018, Haslam described the Duchess of Sussex’s family as “terrifyingly ordinary.” Referring to Meghan’s father’s absence from her Windsor wedding, he said: “It would have been terrible if that huge chunk [Thomas Markle] had been there.

‘The royal family probably doesn’t know how to deal with it.’

He did make an exception for Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, saying, “One person who was unusual was her mother.”

He also criticized Meghan’s £200,000 wedding dress by British designer Clare Waight Keller.

“I didn’t like her dress that much, for one thing it didn’t fit,” he said. “It should have been made of thinner material, it looked like concrete.”

Nicky Haslam (L) and Queen Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, attend Fortnum & Mason’s Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon for the launch of Tom Parker Bowles’ book Let’s Eat Meat on October 21, 2014 in London

The interior designer (pictured right in 2019) is so disappointed that he included them in his ‘Common List’, his playfully snobbish compilation of things that got him in trouble over the past year. The list is printed on a tea towel (pictured), or ‘drying towel’ as he calls it, which is sold to his friends for £40 a time