Disgraced Edward VIII was once the most glamorous man on the planet – a fashion icon responsible for riding jodhpurs, trouser turn-ups and new-fangled dinner jackets! (His grumpy father did NOT approve…)

Today, the Duke of Windsor remains a figure of indelible infamy: the man who plunged the monarchy into crisis by choosing love for another man’s wife over duty and the Crown.

Even the kindest estimates would label his legacy as “complex.” Edward was described by his Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin as ‘half child, half genius… as if two or three cells in his brain had remained completely undeveloped’.

Yet there was a time when the heir apparent, as Prince of Wales, was the most glamorous man in the world, one of the most fashionable – and perhaps the most photographed.

As Ingrid Seward explains in her new book about Charles and his mother, the late Queen, Edward was handsome, sporty and popular.

Prince Hirohito and Edward VIII wear his plus-fours during a round of golf during his official visit to Japan, August 12, 1926

Prince of Wales pictured in riding breeches at a point-to-point meeting in 1912

As a young man, Edward toured the British tirelessly and met huge crowds of people, all eager to shake his hand.

During a visit to Cape Town in 1922, Seward writes, his right wrist became swollen and painful due to excessive shaking of the hands, and the prince resorted to using his left hand.

Clothes were important to Edward – and obviously an important part of the job.

Even today, guests at the royal palaces can be surprised by the number of times their hosts change outfits in a day.

As Seward explains, the prince took forty large suitcases of clothing with him when he traveled abroad to accommodate the many events he would attend, each numbered and with its contents listed.

“Edward’s valet, Jack Crisp, arranged all the necessary items three days in advance, along with any medals and decorations that needed to be worn,” she writes in My Mother and I – The Inside Story of The King And Our Late Queen.

‘Edward’s father, King George V, was a stickler for proper dress and examined the press photographs of his sons’ dress for any detail of the dress that he considered wrong.

“If he found anything wrong, correction and reprimand would follow.”

“With his movie star looks, he became the most photographed celebrity of his time and every detail of his clothing was reported by the press,” she writes.

In 1924, the magazine Men’s Wear Review reported that the “average young man in America is more interested in the clothes of the Prince of Wales than in any other individual on earth.”

‘An interest in changing fashion became a lifelong passion for Edward.

However, often the rebel preferred a more informal approach to dress than had been the norm, much to his father’s ‘intense chagrin’.

Among other novelties, Seward explains, he popularized plus-fours for golf, cuffs for trousers, and breeches for riding.

‘He popularized the tuxedo jacket – instead of a jacket with tails – and owned one in dark blue with black silk trimmed borders – very unusual at the time.

Touring America in 1924, where the average young man would be more interested in the clothes of the Prince of Wales than any other individual on earth

Edward in a more traditional outfit for Derby Day, 1926, in a colored photo from The Sphere

Prince Edward at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight, with his father George V. George was a stickler for proper attire, scrutinizing press photographs of his sons – and criticizing their clothing

The future King Edward VIII pictured in theatrical costume in 1911

King George V and his son, the Prince of Wales, in 1928

The Duke of Windsor helped popularize turn-up trousers. Here he is pictured in 1946

He is also credited with popularizing and perhaps helping to invent the Windsor knot – a wider and more symmetrical tie knot than the standard ‘four in hand’ style.

An avid socializer and partygoer, Edward was commemorated in a popular song of the time that included the words:

‘I danced with a man who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales.’

George V, meanwhile, remained resolutely unimpressed when he once wrote to his eldest son:

“I heard you were seen at a ball last night where you weren’t wearing gloves. Don’t let this happen again.’