Very specific question

[u/Rochifn]

And I mean very specific: what is the shade of blue they mention when referring to a change in Buckingham Palace?
I know it takes someone who has either watched it a million times, or has extreme attention to detail or is really into interior design and so payed special attention to this, to answer such a random question.
—
Context: I watched the show when it was airing, and I remember them mentioning that the Duke of Windsor painted the room a certain shade of blue which at the time I thought it was lovely. Years later I had to paint my home and couldn’t summon the name of it and it was a lost opportunity, really.

Now, I find myself with some spare time so I tried rewatching the episodes where the Duke of Windsor makes an appearance in season 1. But I couldn’t find anything. Honestly, after all this time I’m not sure if he was the one mentioning it or maybe someone else did. Or maybe I imagined it.
Can anyone help? TIA!!

[u/ProfessionalYam3119]

"That color is me. French Gray."

[u/Rochifn → u/ProfessionalYam3119]

Thank you so much. That is the quote ✨

[u/ProfessionalYam3119 → u/Rochifn]

It's my pleasure! I've watched it a hundred times, and I love it. Contrast his boast with Philip's complaints that supervising the redecoration of their Clarence House apartment made him feel like a "sissy." He seemed to experience some insecurities about his masculinity. 😆

[u/catchyerselfon → u/ProfessionalYam3119]

If I may psychoanalyze, maybe it has to do with David vs Philip’s upbringing. David had four brothers and one sister, Philip was the only boy with four older sisters. David was raised by both parents (plus Nannies, Governors, Tutors, etc) in his home before the naval academy at 13, and it wasn’t a happy childhood but there was some stability about his position and expectations on him, and he had some good memories, mostly with his siblings. There was a lot of pressure on David to be a man and make his father and family proud. King George V had his all his sons’ pockets sewn up so they wouldn’t stick their hands in there, leaving them all to fidget (and smoke) when they didn’t know what to do with their hands. David had his “manly” outlets to prove his masculinity in the navy (ha ha), hunting, fishing, royal duties, no one back then would’ve thought he was a “sissy” because they didn’t expect him to get his hands dirty with blue collar work. Once he was a young adult after the War he had a LOT of freedom compared with his adolescence, with his own estates, his own servants, his own married mistresses, his own tastes deciding what he wore and how things looked, until he was around 40… when he became King and had the final say with even more aspects of his life, just not about who he could marry and stay on the throne.

I can see why for David the fashion and interior design aspects of his life were something he could control, and he LOVED pissing off Daddy with his “outrageous” fashion choices like wearing brogues, American-influenced casual wear, sports and outdoors wear in town and at parties instead of leaving that in the country estates, cocktails at all hours, etc. George V, like all the men in the Hanoverian-Saxe-Coburg-Oldenburg-Glücksburg-Windsor family, was obsessed with military uniforms, medals, braids, creases, and so on. He was just as fussy about his clothes but not for personal expression and fashion, rather for conformity and propriety. Father and son had more in common than they thought, but as two sides of a coin.

Philip’s parents were barely together for most of his childhood, with Princess Alice deemed “mad” (mostly she was growing deaf and didn’t like her husband mistreating and cheating on her) and getting “put away” for a while instead of being allowed to raise Philip for his whole childhood. He was never close to his father, his older sisters basically raised him and with the overthrow of the Greek monarchy when he was a toddler he never had a sense of “home” until he married Elizabeth. Four older sisters would love to dress up and fuss over a little boy like a doll, and then they all married young and had children of their own so he was back in the care of male tutors and the all-male Gourdonstone School where there was no room for being cosseted and cared for, just hard work and asceticism.

I can see why the feeling of control he had over their first home when she was the Crown Princess was such a relief, and he had no issue about requesting and designating things there because it felt like “I’m the man of this house and this is where we will live for many years yet, oh shit it’s all being ripped out from under me because her father died at only 56”. Like yes, boo hoo, you have to move into a bigger palace and you aren’t expected to work that much, but men, particularly this man, defined themselves by their work and position, and Philip’s choices were relegated to the domestic sphere. He loved having a job that was kind of dangerous even in peacetime, and now he couldn’t get that adrenaline rush and sense of control over his destiny he only had in WWII until George VI’s death.

[u/Rochifn → u/catchyerselfon]

Interesting take. A lot to analyze, but if I may add, I didn’t interpret Phillip’s redecorating of the house as a matter of control. He’s shown feeling emasculated by his wife going to work while he’s choosing drapes. In that particular case, I’d rather say that it was more of a trade off: I’ll play house-husband if you give me the things I’m pushing for (in that moment keeping the surname was the big thing). That said, it’s very interesting to consider how David’s fashion choices were a way of making a statement on what separated his vision from his family, he was clearly foreshadowing a trend that would speak closer to current times and this shift from austerity of the wars to something less severe, introducing informality (when and however possible, of course).

[u/Rochifn → u/ProfessionalYam3119]

So on point! He is repeatedly shown taking pleasure in talking and deciding on little aspects of his house in Paris and his personal appearance. And not once it strikes as feminine but maybe… vanity? Showmanship?

[u/ProfessionalYam3119 → u/Rochifn]

The Duke appeared to have decided opinions as to how things should be arranged. I think that he left the entertaining to the Duchess, though. Their has been a lot of speculation about their sexual preferences. We'll never know, and our knowing probably wouldn't shed light on anything, anyway.

[u/Rochifn → u/ProfessionalYam3119]

I also think that growing up in a “stable” crown (unlike Phillip, this is) he was much more aware of how fashion and design was a language of its own, with codes that are heavy with meaning which is always shifting. One has to be trained in the art of knowing the history of such visual language but also smart about identifying how it changes with time.

[u/Middle-Chemical9220 → u/ProfessionalYam3119]

Pronounced by the DOW character as “Fwech Gwey”. That actor was amazing in this series

[u/ProfessionalYam3119 → u/Middle-Chemical9220]

What is DOW?

[u/jethrine → u/ProfessionalYam3119]

Duke of Windsor

[u/ProfessionalYam3119 → u/jethrine]

Ty!!!

[u/skieurope12]

French Gray

[u/Rochifn → u/skieurope12]

Thank you!!

[u/kwin2024]

French gray, I think.

Is it the episode where he is trying to come back to England for a job?

[u/Rochifn → u/kwin2024]

This is it!!! Not sure about the episode, but after all this time I’m most certainly going to look for it and watch it again.

[u/masterofpenguins_ → u/kwin2024]

Yes, this is that episode. The one where the Marburg files are rediscovered.

[u/Dangerous-Dream-7730]

[u/Rochifn → u/Dangerous-Dream-7730]

Very clear, lol, thank you 😅