How Mike Tindall masters regal (and relatable) style
Mike Tindall has successfully refuted the notion that athletes die twice. The former England Rugby Captain and 2003 World Cup Winner has created his own pro-consular role after leaving professional sport. He’s enjoyed a hit run on I’m a Celeb contestant and stars on The Good, The Bad, and the Rugby podcast, which celebrated the release of its book on Thursday, and then there’s his promotion to the Windsor fold when he married Zara Phillips in 2011.
Recently, members of the Royal family who had kept themselves to themselves have had to step up. It is of no surprise that the daughter of the hardest working Royal has raised her hand, and her husband is right with her. His moment of duty coincides with something of a style moment too.
Life in the Royal Family is beset by formal occasions, both recreational and official, each one a chance for the public and media to deliberate as to whether you’re a poor fit in the Firm or not. Recently he’s been put through every permutation on offer, from jubilees, state funerals and coronations on the official side, to Ascot and Wimbledon on the recreational. For such a big chap, it’s the small details that shine through the most.
Morning dress is a uniform of body coat, which is famously unforgiving, waistcoat and cashmere-striped trousers. The design is intended to be worn in the saddle. It can only be executed well when the component parts all fit, and the wearer throws in a touch of dash that others do not think to do. The King does it with slips – barely visible but mighty-smart white Marcella strips of fabric tucked behind the waistcoat, but Tinds (if I may) tries a new flex each outing.
In 2022, during the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, he wore a tie in the exact hot pink of his wife’s dress. He doesn’t strike me to be particularly uxorious by nature but if you look closely, his ties seem to always coordinate with Zara’s outfit and this gets a big tick from me. Part of their appeal is that they always look incredibly happy together and these small, often unnoticed gestures are intimate and considered.
His appeal is authenticity and relatability. He isn’t looking to be a facsimile of a courtier (though he bears a striking resemblance to the King’s former comms director Paddy Harverson), his wardrobe is a reflection of who he is, and those who found him relatable before don’t see anyone different today, and this is to his credit.
He made three visits to this year’s Royal Ascot and did something different every day. A pretty stag-head tie pin or tie bar, worn between the third and fourth button. He mixed up the styles of morning dress, the best being the use of morning grey, a shade that should only be worn to weddings or the races. On an episode of his podcast, Tindall said he chose it because the King had one, and he fancied himself in one too – and so he should.
His finest Ascot moment came in 2019 when he was caught on camera playfully removing his top hat in front of Queen Elizabeth and removing from within a miniature version of the hat, which she and the now Duchess of Edinburgh found most amusing.
Mike’s frame is where he could come unstuck. A vast set of trapezius muscles pushes the off balance of a jacket, exposing a crevasse between the jacket and shirt collars, which is the key tell-tale sign of fit, or lack thereof. Knowingly or not, he has countered this in two ways. First, he has turned to double-breasted jackets, which by design pulls a jacket forward with the multiple fastenings at the front, pushed by that barrel chest of his. Secondly, he layers well, with a shrewd use of overcoats, trendy-dad jumpers and unstructured single-breasted jackets.
His appearances at Wimbledon in the Royal box require a jacket and tie; he opts for light fabrics like the beige cotton throw-on that he also wore to the Platinum Jubilee concert where he had his playful moment with Prince Louis. Cotton can be tough because it has no give, which for his size would be helpful, but it is the perfect fabric for him, as wool would be unnecessarily ceremonial, and linen would look shabby and creased.
Dressing down has been made a perfectly legitimate royal practice through the blessing and patronage of the Prince of Wales, who turns to chukka boots and chinos more readily than a highly polished pair of Oxfords and flannel trousers. Tindall, as a veteran of the Twickenham set, looks right at home in this look, so it is much fairer to say that the Royals have been gravitating to him, more than he has gravitated to them.
Tom Chamberlin is the editor of The Rake magazine
