If he is in fact the chosen one, don't expect any surprises from British designer Bruce Oldfield's dress for Kate Middleton. Though he came of age at a time when London was positively roiling with counterculture (he graduated from Central St. Martins in 1973 along with Katherine Hamnett), he's always been unapologetic about his very traditional approach: luxe fabrics, conservative cuts, glamorous clients of a certain age (Joan Collins is also a big Oldfield fan). He doesn't do runway, operates a shop in a very exclusive neighborhood of London, and bemoans the lack of elegance in the current generation. "It's gone, hasn't it?" he said to the U.K.'s Daily Mail in 2008. "We've sort of lost it ... I don't know why it's happened, but in a way it's become an age thing. I can think of a lot of women clients of mine who are well into their fifties or sixties who are still quintessentially very elegant ... but there don't seem to be any role models among the younger women.'"

Until now, of course.