Prince Charles' 'ragtag' jacket sends fashionistas into frenzy

PRINCE CHARLES has been hailed as a "man of great style" after a heavily-patched gardening jacket he wore in an episode of the BBC TV programme Countryfile sent fashionistas into a frenzy.

The Guardian says the future king's appearance as a guest presenter on last Sunday's edition of Countryfile was dominated by his jacket, "a patchwork of army green fabric with leather and stray threads in a ragtag display".
 
The paper admits "Charles is not your typical style reference", but his "perfectly distressed" garment set chic tongues wagging. Fashion blogger Melanie Rickey says Barbour should consider making a version of the jacket and designer Patrick Thornton says it is an example of how Charles is "completely at ease in his clothes" and evidence he is "a man of great style".

Couture rarely makes any concessions to comfort and in this respect Charles's coat is completely "on trend". The Prince said it had been patched with so many pieces of leather he could "hardly move".

The Daily Telegraph's Belinda White calls Charles an "accidental style icon" and says his Countryfile appearance showed him "rocking a shabby chic look par excellence". White praises the "elegant nonchalance" of the "much-loved timeless coat" which had been "hand-patched by one's housekeeper in a complimentary palette of rustic, leathery patches".

"In this tradition, Charles's battered and weather-beaten jacket rather brought to mind the tumbledown grandeur of Richard E Grant's greatcoat in the film classic/Withnail and I," writes White. "When all's said and done, it doesn't matter if you're mucking about in a B&Q shed, or tending to your rambling estate, if you've got it, you've just got it."

The Prince's taste for vintage clobber is well known. In an article for Vogue, the Prince wrote that "the older some things are, the more comfortable and familiar they become.
 
"I even have a pair of shoes made from bales of leather salvaged from an eighteenth-century wreck off the Southwest of Britain," he went on. "They are totally indestructible and will see me out."
 
Last word to The Guardian: "While the Duchess of Cambridge's style may have captured the hearts of the masses, Charles's appeal seems to have penetrated the upper echelons of high fashion. This jacket only clinches it".
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