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He was slender, upright, and impeccable in his haute couture Andrée Lafayette, an actress and self-proclaimed Countess
blazers and polo shirts fitted to his body. He was a man who did de La Bigne. These rough years forged Philip’s character, for-
not go unnoticed and who, for most of his century of life (73 out tifying his muscles and thickening his skin, but also brought
of 99 years), was the perfect embodiment of celebrated British him closer to the man who would become his mentor, Un-
elegance, which had been orphaned of one of its most illustri- cle Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten; he was Edward VIII’s best
ous representatives after Edward VIII’s tempestuous exit and friend, possibly his lover, and they were the two most elegant
it didn’t matter that he has solid − and possibly inconvenient − men in the Kingdom.
Teutonic roots and just a few drops of English blood in his veins. Philip’s style and savoir faire, which accompanied
Philip’s life was not destined to be an ordinary one: since him all the way to his last appearance (the car ride to King
that day in September 1922, when he was just a little four- Edward VII’s Hospital at Windsor Castle a month before
teen-month-old infant, it is one that books, legends, and sto- his death) originated there: from watching Uncle Dickie,
ries are made of. Greece was in upheaval and he was smug- his wife Edwina, their entourage of friends and the demi-
gled out of the country in a crate of oranges, forced into exile monde that surrounded the couple. Net of excessive frivol-
with his uncle Constantine I after a series of military defeats ities that Philip would avoid his entire life, the young man
against Turkey. This unfavorable turn − which certainly de- starts absorbing a love for details, tweed suits tailored to
prived Philip, Prince Andrew’s only male son, of a wealthy his figure, and a calculated nonchalance that was actually
and comfortable childhood − incredibly, also opened up the the final signature of a style that was personal and recog- On this page, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth with their children, Prince Charles and
way to the most ambitious goal in love: the heart of the first- nizable, like mixing different buttons on a jacket. It didn’t Princess Anne, during the summer of 1951 (© Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
born daughter of King George VI. mean following passing trends; on the contrary, it meant
When Philip arrives in the United Kingdom, Elizabeth resisting them and asserting one’s own personality even
was a backbench princess. Her grandfather George V was on more strongly. Later, when he was already an adult and
the throne and the first in the line of succession was her un- married to the Queen, he wrote a manual for the younger
cle David, later known as Edward VIII, a dandy with a com- generations in which he advised that we should “dress for
plex sexuality and a fondness for married women. The Greek ourselves and not for others.”
prince is barely ten years old when he is entrusted to his His allure and natural poise had little to do with luxury
maternal grandmother: his mother Alice was hospitalized and wealth, at least in his youth. When Philip starts court-
in a Swiss asylum and diagnosed with schizophrenia while ing the daughter of George VI (completing the web that his
his father got lost on the French Riviera skirt-chasing after ambitious Uncle Dickie had been spinning over the years),

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