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The Queen and Princess Diana's bra-fitter has been stripped of its royal warrant after its former owner revealed royal secrets in a tell-all memoir

Bobbie Edsor   

The Queen and Princess Diana's bra-fitter has been stripped of its royal warrant after its former owner revealed royal secrets in a tell-all memoir
Finance3 min read

collage queenie pants 2

Getty/Stuart C. Wilson/Stringer and Getty/Monica Schipper

  • Luxurious lingerie company Rigby & Peller has been popular with the female members of the royal family for 57 years.
  • But when the former owner published personal accounts of the royal family in her memoirs, the company was stripped of its royal warrant.
  • June Kenton compared one of the Queen's personal apartments at the Palace to "an old-fashioned dentist's waiting room."

 

When June Kenton and her husband Harold bought Rigby & Keller in 1982, the luxurious lingerie brand already had a long clientele list of "Ladies with a capital L" and "the aristocratic creme de la creme" - not to mention a royal warrant.

"Even the grandest ladies need to be well-supported," said Kenton, according to The Daily Mail, who measures her clients by eye rather than using conventional methods.

However, when Kenton published her memoirs, titled "Storm in a D-Cup," in March 2016, the royal corsetiere quickly ceased to be invited to conduct fittings at the palace.

As a result of the memoirs, which recount Kenton's personal experiences of fitting various members of the royal family, wandering through Buckingham Palace, as well as other anecdotes from her time in the lingerie business, Rigby & Peller lost its royal warrant this week.

june kenton getty stuart c. wilson stringer

Getty/Stuart C. Wilson/Stringer

June Kenton, right, with Gok Wan at Rigby & Peller's flagship store in Knightsbridge, London.

Rigby & Peller has nine boutiques across the UK including locations in Mayfair, Chelsea, and its flagship store in Knightsbridge. Brassieres typically retail for around £80 to £110 ($110 to $150).

Kenton has spent plenty of time with both the Queen and Princess Diana through the years. She regularly travelled to Buckingham Palace to conduct fittings for the Queen over the span of almost 35 years, and even claims that she became "good friends" with Diana when it turned out they both attended the same sports rehabilitation clinic in Chiswick, West London, every week.

Even after Kenton and her husband sold their majority stake in the business in 2011, Kenton remained on the firm's board and continued to fit the Queen's bras having established a strong, professional relationship with the monarch.

In order to be issued a royal warrant, a brand or retailer must have supplied goods or services to the royal family for at least five out of the last seven years. If a company loses its royal warrant, any promotional material or shop signs bearing the royal coat of arms must be removed within a given time frame agreed between the Royal Warrant Holders Association and the Retailer.

Russell Tanguay, director of warrants at the Royal Warrant Holders Association, confirmed to the MailOnline that Rigby & Keller no longer holds a royal warrant on Tuesday.

Kenton's memoirs contain accounts of the author fitting the Queen, Princess Diana, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret.

The memoirs specifically recall one of the Queen's fittings conducted in her private apartments at the palace which Kenton described in an unglamorous fashion, comparing them to "an old-fashioned dentist's waiting room" with "a jumble of mismatched [furniture]."

As well as uncovering the drab side of Buckingham Palace, Kenton also revealed that Princess Diana previously accepted posters of bikini and lingerie models for princes William and Harry.

"I never met William or Harry - though she was always talking about them," Kenton revealed in her book. "I gave her posters of models in lingerie and swimwear for them to put up in their studies at Eton."

Kenton has not been invited back to the palace since the memoirs were published in 2016.

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