Mixing urgency with nobility and opulence, it’s the regal colour combo which puts lesser mortals in their place. No wonder the Royals are reaching for ‘PRED’…

Red demands to be seen. Shy and retiring it is not.

Next-door to red on the colour wheel is purple, a shade with some rather different connotations. 

Purple likes attention, too, but where red is urgent,  purple is a byword for nobility and opulence.  

The dye was once so expensive that Elizabeth I is said to have reserved purple clothing for her close family, ensuring its exclusivity.

So wearing red and purple alongside each other is the fashion equivalent of wearing a flashing neon sign on your head that says ‘look at me! I have something important to say!’

Queen Maxima wore a magenta and red Claes Iversen embroidered dress which featured a swirling lace pattern and floral beaded details in November 2023

The purple and red (Pred) dress coordinated perfectly with the pink carpet

Princess Diana at a dinner in Bangkok in February 1988 wearing a Catherine Walker red and purple chiffon evening gown

The same Catherine Walker dress came out for a performance of Aida in aid of The Prince’s Trust in June 1988

The latest royal to embrace this colour clash is Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, who stepped out in Rotterdam to present the Cultural Fund Prize in a purple dress with red lace embroidered details.

Trailblazer that she was, Princess Diana was the first royal to deploy the power of ‘pred’ (purple/red – do keep up). 

Such a bold combination was perfectly at home against the theatrical, unapologetically dramatic silhouettes of ‘80s fashion.

A power shoulder not powerful enough? Make it post box scarlet!

A pussybow not gigantic enough? Make it violet! 

For a banquet hosted by Crown Prince Maha of Thailand in 1988, Diana chose a red dress with purple one shoulder detail by Catherine Walker, and it positively exuded regality – no mean feat when you’re surrounded by a plethora of international royals. 

To arrive with Prince Charles for a three-day tour of Hong Kong in 1989, a purple pencil skirt, cropped red jacket and purple boater with red trim was order of the day. Such a bold clash of opulent colour left one thing unequivocally clear: there was a princess in the building.

Princess Diana wore a purple pencil skirt, cropped red jacket and purple boater with red trim as she arrived in Hong Kong in 1989

Princess Diana wearing the Catherine Walker red and purple suit again in Agra, India in 1992

Diana wears purple and red at the Taj Mahal in 1992

In 1992, the same red and purple outfit took on another meaning, as Diana wore it again for the now-iconic pictures of her sitting alone outside the Taj Mahal.

By then she had separated from Charles, but the colour combination projected something regal all the same.

In fact, she was more regal than ever. 

As her brother Earl Spencer said in her eulogy, ‘she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic’.

Pred lay low in the ‘90s and ‘00s (it couldn’t quite find its place next to the ripped jeans and plaid shirts of the grunge movement).

But it sprang back on to the scene in a big way in January 2019, when the Duchess of Sussex wore a red coat over a purple dress for her first public engagement of the year. 

Six months after her wedding and newly-pregnant, the powerful colour combination cemented her place in the public consciousness as part of the royal establishment.

It also served the practical purpose of making her and Harry noticeable to the huge crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of them. She had perhaps been inspired by the late Queen, who had worn a purple coat and matching hat to visit Lincoln’s Inn in London the previous month, in December 2018.

 A small glimpse of red dress underneath the coat, plus a red feather poking out of her hat, made this the Queen’s first official pred moment. 

Meghan sports a combination of purple and red to mark the 100th Anniversary of Wilfred Owen’s death in 2019

The Queen looks festive in her purple coat with a glimpse of the purple and red dress underneath on Christmas Day 2014

Red and purple for Queen Elizabeth II as she makes a video call in 2020 during the pandemic 

Lady Gabriella Windsor looks regal in a purple and red dress a a party in 2019

The fashion world eventually cottoned on to the power of this punchy colour combination, with pred popping up all over the AW20 catwalks, in particular at Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta.

Again eschewing her usual uniform of a single block colour, the late Queen wore a geometrically-printed red and purple dress to receive the Order of St. John’s first ever Service Medal at Buckingham Palace on 11th March 2020. 

Amid the growing concern of coronavirus (national lockdown started on 23rd March), the pred combination evoked a reassuring message of both power and serenity. Thought clothes were little more than a practical measure against indecency and hypothermia?

 Pred proves it’s time to rethink that.