Act Like Royalty

Ever wanted to impress your family and attract attention? Or pretend you have royal blood? The common folk who don't have any relation to a royal family may not have any reason to behave, speak, and look like royalty, but that doesn't mean you can't imitate them to add a little more class and charm to your life.

Steps

Looking Like Royalty

1. Stand with proper posture. Men should stand with their feet shoulder length apart, women with one foot slightly in front of the other. Proper posture means a straight spine and your chin slightly lifted. Keep your feet flat on the floor and your knees very slightly bent. Your shoulders should be back, with your ribcage in the center of them. Try to keep your hands out of your pockets.
2. Learn to sit with good posture. Sitting for men generally means crossed legs, or both legs straight out and both feet on the ground. Sitting for women means ankles, not legs, crossed. As royal women are usually in dresses, it's therefore important to sit and stand carefully, to avoid an accidental flashing of undergarments.
   • In addition, when sitting, your back should be straight, your shoulder should be back, and your buttocks should touch the back of the chair. Keep your weight evenly distributed on both hips.
3. Get out of cars with grace. For royal women, usually found in dresses, getting out of cars requires a little bit of foresight. The process typically goes like this:
   • Scoot yourself toward the edge of the car keeping your ankles and knees together.
   • Open the door or have the door opened forward. Angle your knees toward the door.
   • With one hand on the seat in front of you and one on the seat you're in, pull yourself out of the car. Keep your knees together and put one leg out of the car.
   • Keep your body facing the car door as you place your other leg out of the car. Then once both feet are on the ground, stand up straight and close the door.
4. Dress with class. Royal clothing includes fairly simple outfits that favor quality over showiness. For women, that means elegant dresses for more formal affairs, and simple blouses, blazers, and jeans for casual affairs. For formal affairs, men wear suits. Tuxedos are for evening wear. Morning dress for men includes a tail coat, striped trousers, and a collared shirt. Causal wear for men includes blazers and dress shirts, and jeans or light-fabric pants, like cotton trousers.
   • Jewelry can be a great way to add to a women's outfit, but keep it understated and don't pile it on. For example, one or two pieces, like earrings and a simple silver necklace, can add class to a cocktail dress outfit.
5. Walk with elegance. There's a name for the gait that the women in the royal family are taught: The Glide. You start with your weight on your back foot, and your feet about a half-foot length apart. As you walk, your knees should cross over each other, and the moving foot should brush lightly against the heel of the other foot, to make sure your feet are perfectly aligned.
   • Your movement in general should be smooth and not jerky. Slow, precise movement shows confidence and calmness, traits exuded by royalty.
6. Keep yourself well groomed and styled. While it's unrealistic to try to never have a hair out of place, you should still try to be as well groomed and styled as possible in most situations. Find a haircut that is stylish without being over the top, which typically means something classic and timeless. Follow a grooming routine that leaves you looking your best everyday, which can include:
   • Teeth care: Brush and floss your teeth everyday. Use mouthwash and put to use one of those tools used to scrape your tongue.
   • Hair care: Wash your hair regularly and thoroughly, using both shampoo and conditioner. If your hair style requires it, use product, such as pomade or gel.
   • Face care: Use products such as cleanser and moisturizer to keep your face as clean and healthy as possible. That's the minimum, but you can go above and beyond with any number of skin care products, like pore cleansing strips and facial masks.
   • Smell your best: Use deodorant daily, and find a good body wash. Consider using perfume or cologne, but remember that less is more when it comes to extra fragrances.
   • Remove unwanted hair. For guys, pluck excess bushiness in your eyebrows and between them, and keep your facial hair under check. Consider shaving your face regularly for that clean cut look. For girls, keep your eyebrows well shaped and facial hair nonexistent, and consider keeping your armpit and leg hair at a minimum as well.

Speaking Like Royalty

1. Avoid slang and profanity. Royalty practice politeness at all times, which means leaving profanity out of your speech. Slang words and phrases aren't as necessary to avoid, but an overabundance of them gives off too much of a casual, uneducated vibe.
2. Start incorporating more formal words into your vocabulary. Generally, people in higher class societies, especially in Britain, speak with a broader vocabulary, and favor elegant words over more common ones. For example, dazzling instead of pretty, and delighted instead of happy.
   • For more ideas on sophisticated words to improve your vocabulary, try: blunder instead of mistake, loathe instead of hate, yearn instead of want, and cherish instead of like.
   • Invest in a dictionary and a thesaurus, or use online versions. Take some time to increase your vocabulary with these tools.
3. Avoid the "seven deadly sin" words of royal speech. There are seven words that when used, instantly indicate to members of the English upper class that one is purposely trying to sound more genteel than they are. Those words are:
   • "Pardon". Royals use "what?"
   • "Toilet". Royals use "lavatory."
   • "Dinner". Royals use "lunch."
   • "Settee". Royals use "sofa."
   • "Lounge". Royals use "sitting room."
   • "Sweet". Royals use "dessert."
   • "Serviette". Royals use "napkin."
4. Enunciate properly and avoid slurring. Pronouncing words correctly is a must, so make sure you know how to pronounce words before you use them. To sound royal, you must enunciate clearly, and speak with confidence, loud enough to be easily heard but no louder. Speak slow enough that you don't slur your words or lose enunciation.
   • You can practice your enunciation by trying to perfect tongue twisters such as "Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?" Or you can just practice reading out loud from a book when you're alone, and making the words a clear as possible.

Behaving Like Royalty

1. Learn how to greet people like royalty. When meeting someone, a royal always offers their hand for the handshake first. A good handshake means the webs between the thumb and fingers meet, the grasp is firm but not aggressive, and the handshake lasts two to three shakes, maintaining eye contact throughout.
2. Practice proper table manners. When drinking tea or coffee, use a saucer, and keep the handle of the cup pointing toward the right. With tea, you lift the saucer with your left hand and the cup with your right. With coffee, you can leave the saucer down. Contradictory to popular belief, you shouldn't stick your pinkie out. At cocktail parties, keep your glass in your left hand so your right is free for handshakes. Never put a finger on the back of the fork to guide it, or use it to scoop up food like peas. And the fork goes to the left of the plate, the knife on the right.
   • Of course, there a lot more rules to proper table etiquette, such as chewing and swallowing before drinking, putting cutlery on the side of the plate when finished, and not blowing on hot drinks or food.
3. Be courteous and kind. Above all, the behavior of royals can be described as proper and courteous. Imagine that you and all your actions represent a large group of people. A prince or princess is going to be watched by the whole country and world, so they need to be on their best behavior at all times in public. Think cool, calm, and collected, charming and always polite, especially to strangers.
   • Some examples of royal-like courteous behavior include: always use "please" and "thank you," always be punctual, compliment others when something about them strikes you and give praise for the achievements of others, and make an effort to engage in light conversation with those around you.
4. Develop more confidence. To be like royalty, you need to be confident. Confidence is part of what gives royalty their charming manner. Gaining confidence will require self-discipline, practice, and patience. Sometimes, the best way to start is to follow the oft-repeated advice of "fake it until you make it." Get out of your comfort zone, take risks, and pretend you've got oodles of confidence. As you notice how differently people treat you, and how much more you get out of social situations, you'll gradually start to become more confident on the inside as well.
   • Another surefire way to increase confidence is to develop skills, and allow yourself to be proud of what your good at. Having confidence in your ability to write, or draw, for example, will carry over into your general confidence.
5. Develop poise. Poise is that extra bit of grace and elegance in the way a person holds themselves that can take them from ordinary to captivating. There's a lot that goes into developing poise, but some ways to start include:
   • Be humble. A person who's unsure of themselves will try to overcompensate by bragging or showing off. A poised person has no need for validation from others, and can take criticism well.
   • Be calm. Being poised means being at peace. Stress and worry will cause you to come across as negative and frantic. Practice taking deep breaths when something starts to cause you stress, and take a step back from the situation. Analyze why you're having this stress and what you can do about it.
   • Don't rush. A poised person will never be seen rushing across the room to get the last seat. The mindset behind poise means slowing down, and being confident that you'll get where you need to be eventually.
   • Be gentle. Your body movements should be gentle and careful. Put your cup down slowly. Don't drop your books on the table. When you hug someone don't try to squeeze the life out of them. Just use as much force as is necessary in most situations.

Tips

• Read up on other Queens, Kings, Princes etc. This will give you an idea of how their life was and will be an interesting read.
• Don't judge people too soon, that might make you look well educated.

Related Articles

• Feel and Act Like a Queen
• Formally Address British Royalty and Aristocracy in Person
• Act Like a Princess
• Behave as a Princess
• Write to HM Queen Elizabeth II

Sources and Citations

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