She herself is slightly biased, of course, as she thinks the Simoan national preoccupation with rough weave fabrics is drab and boring...
Niua Simoa Royalty Watch
from our local correspondent
It is not often that the fashion department has such a great chance to see some of the latest design in gowns, and we were very happy to be allowed to take photographs at what must be the biggest event of the year: the Royal Wedding.
First of all, let us look at the bride. She is wearing a gorgeous Chinese gown, embroidered with a design in the finest red silks.
Next to this splendour of course the Simoan national costume looks just a bit drab...
Their Royal Majesties seem to agree, as neither of them were in traditional clothing. Queen Elesabeti was wearing a very uninspired fur coat. Not what one would expect of royalty, to be honest!
Much to the consternation of his parents, Prince Henry took off at the start of the party to dress in a more casual outfit. He complained about the fit of his tuxedo. Apparently it was a matter of comfort over style - which is not unheard of when it comes to Prince Henry. Why adhere to the rules of society if you can be more comfortable when you ignore them?
Princess Elesabeti seems to be the only member of the Royal Family to favour the national costume. Compared to her two sisters-in-law, she looked a bit drab, which is very unusual for her. It's usually she who looks like a bird of paradise lost in a flock of sparrows...
Before we get floods of letters, let me stress that I do not, in any way, mean to insult the national costume. It is wonderful that so many people still wear the traditional outfit when there are so many more colourful options available.
And when it comes to that - one has only to see this picture of Sifoua Schiffer in her beautiful dress to see that one can be traditional and elegant at the same time.
It might not be a bad idea for Princess Elesabeti to adopt a style more like this. And it is worth noting that the gentleman behind Sifoua is one of our more recently arrived citizens, Louis Stevenson - who has no roots whatsoever on the island himself (although his partner has), but who appears to have immersed himself in the local culture - his jacket may be of a western cut, but that's definitely traditional Simoan fabric.
Robert Stevenson, on the other hand, seems to prefer a more Western style of dress:
In fact, he appears to have the same tailor as Fonzell Schiffer, who was late arriving at the party, but dressed to impress:
Kurt Schiffer was far less elegantly dressed as his father - and appears not to have been impressed by the catering at all. One has to wonder where his wife was?? The word 'indisposed' covers such a multitude of ailments, doesn't it?
The groom's sister-in-law, Mae Tapuwhai, has chosen to wear a beautiful designer outfit in red and black - a perfect complement to the bride's outfit without in any way trying to compete with the Chinese traditional look of Princess Sima.
Here, again, it is noteworthy that Tim Chin, also not born on this island, has chosen the same compromise as Louis Stevenson in combining traditional materials with a more western cut.
By contrast, Claudine Palefau - who, unlike Mae Tapuwhai doesn't have any roots in Shang Simla whatsoever - came in wearing a designer number obviously created by the same Chinese couturier who made Princes Simas wedding dress:
Runa Palefau arrived in a similar dress, albeit of a slightly inferior quality silk, it became her very well. It does make one wonder what made her chose this particular style, as she is not Chinese, as far as anyone knows. However, if both of the Palefau ladies chose this type of dress, chance is it will be all the rage on the island from now on.
Behind Runa is our newest citizen Dylan Potpourri, also in an obviously Chinese outfit. Maybe he has a Chinese father? Wouldn't we all like to know?
Lu Zhi did change into something more 'formal', but it was hardly appropriate for a royal wedding. I get the impression that she had not expected it to be such a big, ostentatious affair, and hadn't bothered to pack anything decent!
Lu does seem a bit out of her depth... She must be wondering how she got it so, so wrong. That should have been her in the spotlight, as a future queen. If only she'd bothered to actually talk to Henry and find out who he was!!
In the meantime, the halls of the palace are crowded with well-dressed Sims.
Most Sims have tried to dress to impress - like Terrence Karakia here, who looks almost handsome in his traditional outfit.
His mother showed up in the same simple dress she always wears - she doesn't 'do' formal, apparently. Interestingly enough, Ariifano and Terrence did not talk even for a minute.
Most of the men are in traditional outfit or a tuxedo. (There are, of course, some notable exceptions!)
Robert-Michel Gao prefers the 'hybrid' style.
While Salote Tau has opted for a totally western outfit that had no other merit than to provide a nice contrast with the more elegant members of our community.
The rest of the guests all arrived after nightfall, which makes it harder to illustrate our comments with photographs. We hope our readers will forgive us.
Muriel Potpourri showed up, but she clearly was not enjoying herself.
There isn't much to say about her outfit, except that it was very short and showed a lot of skin.
In the background we can see a glimpse of Sisana Karakia, Hina Chin and Ariifano Karakia, all in very traditional outfits.
To his credit, Henry II did not spend any time at all with Muriel. At least not openly - they both did a lot of texting, though.
One of the last people to arrive was our busy doctor Daniel Tumeke. He was followed by a certain Ota Ika who managed to dress as inappropriately as possible. In fact, the only person who was equally inappropriate appears to be his brother. One can't help but compare these two, as they are really very much alike in both face and dress sense.
And that concludes the review of the fashions at the Royal Wedding. The evening was mostly taken up by a disco-like party. Some of the clothing of our teenagers can be seen in the Pacific Youth Weekly, which will come out later this week.
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