Prince Harry’s Royal Wedding Tailors Tell Us What It Takes to Make a Uniform for a Prince

In the end, Prince Harry wore what the experts, bookies, and prognosticators expected: a military uniform. The Palace kept the exact details of what Prince Harry would wear in his wedding to Meghan Markle under wraps until the moment he appeared. The Duke of Sussex (Harry’s official title) wore the uniform of the Blues and Royals, the regiment he served in when he was part of the army, made by Savile Row tailor Dege & Skinner.

The historic Savile Row shop has been busy. In a phone call this morning, Dege & Skinner’s managing director William Skinner revealed that all the pageboys also got bespoke uniforms tailored precisely to their miniature measurements.

Making uniforms for the royal wedding is a historic moment for the 153-year-old company. Dege & Skinner had the inside track for selection since the tailor also made the uniforms for both Harry and William when the brothers sat for their official portrait after joining the Blues and Royals over a decade ago. The shop found out only six weeks ago they’d been selected to make uniforms for the wedding. ”In our parlance, that's a relatively short period of time,” says Skinner. To put that amount of time into context, it took an entire week to make the intricate sleeves alone. But after 65,000 stitches and more than a football field’s length in lace was used, the uniforms were ready for Saturday’s nuptials. We spoke with Skinner about making the uniforms for Harry and Prince George, elaborate lacework, and how much it would cost to get one for yourself.

What's it like, watching the ceremony, and seeing your work up there?
It's a great honor for the company. We're a relatively small bespoke tailoring company on London Savile Row, we employ 20 people, and military uniforms is one of our niche markets and something we've done for many, many years.

We first made William and Harry's uniform when they went into the army in 2006. We were originally asked to make the pageboy uniforms [for this wedding] and I then offered to make Harry a new frock coat, which he gladly accepted.

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Wow, so they had you make the pageboys and you just went for it and offered to make Harry's?
Yeah, and the pageboy uniforms were a bit of a challenge because obviously we were very familiar with the grown-up version that Harry was wearing and to make it for someone who's considerably smaller, particularly with the detail on the sleeve and on the back and collar of the jacket, we just have to shrink it down to the size that a young child could wear.

On the grown-up version, the lacework on the sleeves goes up above the elbows, so if we used it on the coat for a small chap that would have gone all the way up his sleeve and over his shoulder. So we had to think quite carefully how to represent that design on the sleeve which is an intricate design and we just shrank it.

We were working it out yesterday how long it took and how many stitches were involved and the sleeves alone for Harry's uniform took one lady one week to make. Between Harry's and the four pageboy uniforms we used 150 meters [164 yards or 492 feet] of Black Russia, which is a type of double-ribbed lace, and we worked out it was about 65,000 stitches and that's just the lacework alone.

What's the process for fitting pageboys? Is Prince George coming by for fittings?
Yeah, we went to him to Kensington Palace and we did the fittings there along with the other English pageboy. We delivered them on Friday morning to Windsor castle.

I imagine it's a huge deal to be selected to do this, how do you find out?
Well, because we've made Harry's uniforms before and we're in the process of making his uniform for the Royal Marines so we have quite close contact with various people within the palace. So through conversations with them we were able to take care of it quite well.

And keeping in touch and suggesting things, like the little detail on the pageboy uniform. On the shoulder straps on each of the pages, there's gold monogramming on the end and that's the initials of each of the pageboys.

We had discussed with Harry whether they should wear the same rank as him which we all felt was not quite appropriate because they were young and not serving members so Harry came up with the idea of embroidering their initials. That's quite a nice personal touch.

So, did you find out six weeks ago and it's been a mad dash since then? Can you walk me through the process of making Harry's uniform?

With Harry's uniform, because we've made things for him before we've got a good pattern for him. So we were able to do the first fitting, which is a shell based on the actual frock coat itself. Then we had an appointment with him and a fitting and made various adjustments to it. Then we'd take it back to the shop and rip it down again and put it back together, add the lacework to the sleeves and collar then have another fitting with him to make sure the changes were appropriate and everything looked comfortable.

Then we went back again for a final fitting and a couple adjustments then it was delivered and the uniform was there for everyone to see today.

How long does that take from start to finish?
From start to finish, we took about six weeks to do it. So, yes, in our parlance that's a relatively short period of time. And also in that time, the same team of people made the four pageboy uniforms.

There's so much secrecy around this process, what's it like dealing with that?
Yes, there is. I mean, I spoke to a reporter from The Telegraph on Thursday and he asked my opinion on what Harry would be wearing on the day so I sent him off on a bit of a wrong scent. I spoke to him again today and said, "Sorry, I couldn't divulge anything more but that's the nature of it."

It's not cloak-and-dagger stuff but it's realizing the client-customer relationship and you're expected to not say anything and let anything out of the bag. All of my members of staff were told it's a great honor and if people ask you just don't know anything.

I remember when Prince William got married his uniform was made with a heat-absorbing material. Is there anything unique or special about Harry's uniform in that same vein?
We didn't put as much padding on the inside of the jacket, because that just makes it thicker and hotter. And obviously not knowing what the weather will be like in May, British weather it could have been wet and cold and miserable.

But Harry asked for it to be made slightly lighter and less structured inside so it'd be more comfortable and cooler to wear. We did the minimal amount of interior construction that was required.

Sounds like you went back for several fittings, what's he like in these interactions?
He was very natural, very relaxed, very chatty, very engaging. We were able to talk freely about his uniforms and just things generally. He comes off as such a genuine straightforward person. At the end of the day, bearing in mind the position he is in, he's exceptionally well-rounded and very normal and knowledgeable about things around him and in the world.

I know a lot of people expected him to wear the Captain General Royal Marines uniform but he ended up wearing the Blues and Royals. Do you have any insight on what swayed that decision?
The Blues and Royals was his first regiment and because it's his first regiment it becomes his mother regiment. So the ties and the connections that he has with that regiment and the people that he served with, particularly in Afghanistan, it's very much a strong family atmosphere within the regiment.

We kept hearing about how if he was going to wear a uniform, he'd probably lose the beard. Are you surprised he kept the beard and still wore the uniform?
There was a lot of chat about the beard. Traditionally, yes, you wouldn't wear that uniform with a beard but he's certainly not the first member of the royal family to get married with a beard. I think it just emphasizes him being his own man.

So what does it mean to you and the tailoring shop to dress Harry for such a historic moment?
We regard it as a great honor and a great accolade for the business. To be asked to do it is a great feather in our cap and something we hold very close to our hearts and are quietly very proud of. All the hours of hard work and the training, it just makes it very heartening and a testament to why we're still doing what we do.

Uniforms are a niche market, it's a skill we've maintained but a lot of our clothes are making suits, sportcoats.

Yeah, with Meghan Markle, everyone talks about the effect her wearing a certain designer will have on their business. Do you think you'll also feel some of those benefits?
I'm sure there will be some knock-on benefits with it. But it's one of those things that the uniforms that Harry wears that we've made, he'll continue to wear for a long, long time. So rather than just stating the fact we've done it now, it's not something we'll sing the rooftops, it's something that's always there: that Dege & Skinner made his wedding uniform.

It'll go into our scrapbook and over the coming months and years it'll be mentioned to some of our customers and they will take great pride in knowing that their tailor makes clothes for the Prince Harry.

If someone, hypothetically, wanted to get a custom uniform like Harry's, how much would that cost approximately?
If we were making one for a collector we would charge in the region of £6500 for frock coat and £1350 for the trousers [$10,573 total].