It has been a very long time since the royal family exerted any real influence on fashion. There were a couple of improbable placings for Prince Philip and the Duke Of Kent in the 100 Best-Dressed Men lists a couple of years ago, but that didn't go any further than being a talking point.
That, of course, was before the announcement of the royal wedding. The collective madness that seemed immediately to break out had many faces – Johnny Rotten wishing them well; the belief that this was going to be some kind of austerity wedding, as if they're going to be down the local community centre, tucking in to an Iceland king prawn ring to the strains of the Soundsfantastic Mobile Disco playing the Macarena, and the elevation of Kate Middleton, a pretty but pretty unremarkably dressed young woman, to the status of style icon.
I live in fear of something similar happening to menswear. It's not entirely beyond the realms of possibility. You can influence the way men dress by ubiquity alone, and we're going to have Prince William shoved down our throats for the next few months. What's more, he's going to be held up as an example of all that is dashing: this may be the moment that the future king's style – to all intents and purposes, the "honking posho" look – finally spreads beyond the boundaries of Kensington & Chelsea. In fairness, it never has before, but there's a first time for everything: so if you see someone in Rotherham rocking the old Bouji's mufti, don't say I didn't warn against it.
• Alexis wears brogues, £158, by Grenson, from asos.com.
Jeans, £35, and shirt, £29.50, both by Marks & Spencer.
Jacket, £249, by Barbour, from John Lewis.
Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian.
