Princess Anne’s fashion hack proves she’s the ultimate style queen | Royal | News

Most of us feel rather pleased with ourselves when we pull a dress from the back of the wardrobe that hasn’t seen daylight for five years. Princess Anne? Try five decades. As the Princess Royal celebrates her 76th birthday; there is one element of her famously no-nonsense approach to fashion that deserves far more credit.

Anne has never appeared particularly interested in chasing trends, overhauling her wardrobe every season or retiring an outfit simply because photographers have already seen it; instead, she buys well, knows what suits her and, crucially, actually wears her clothes. Again, and again – sometimes more than half a century after their first outing.

Long before sustainability, capsule wardrobes and “buy less, buy better” became fashionable talking points, Anne was quietly practising precisely that philosophy, and the fact that she has the means and access to wear something new at every engagement only makes her approach more compelling.

Earlier this year came perhaps the ultimate example, when Anne attended the Nigerian State Banquet at Windsor Castle wearing an elegant cream ensemble first seen in 1969, when she was just 18 years old. After an astonishing 57 years, it was back.

Plenty of clothes bought five years ago can already look unmistakably tied to their era, yet Anne managed to revive something first worn when The Beatles were still together and make it appropriate for one of the most formal occasions in the royal calendar.

The piece appears to have undergone alterations during its extraordinary lifespan, but that only strengthens the argument: good clothes do not have to remain frozen in time; they can be adjusted, restyled and allowed to evolve with the person wearing them.

Celebrity stylist Ciara Russell told the Daily Express: “I think it really shows the quality of the clothes she was buying in the first place. For something to still look good and be wearable 30, 40 or even 50 years later, it has to have been made properly.

“The quality of the fabric, the tailoring and the construction all play a huge part. It shows why investing in fewer, better-made pieces can be so worthwhile.”

Anne’s State Banquet appearance was certainly no one-off. At her son Peter Phillips’s wedding to his wife Harriet this summer, the Princess Royal once again delved into her archive, wearing a floral ensemble with a butter-yellow hat that had previously appeared at Zara Tindall’s christening in 1981.

Some 45 years later, Anne evidently saw no reason why a perfectly good piece should be pensioned off simply because it had already been photographed. There is something surprisingly refreshing about that, particularly for a woman whose diary has been filled for decades with royal weddings, State Banquets, diplomatic receptions, race meetings, investitures and overseas engagements.

Anne could feasibly commission something new for every one of them, yet she repeatedly chooses not to. The expert continued: “I think it shows that luxury doesn’t have to mean constantly buying something new. To me, real luxury is having beautifully made pieces that you love enough to keep wearing for years. Princess Anne could obviously have a completely new outfit for every engagement if she wanted to, but she doesn’t feel the need to. I think there’s something quite confident and stylish about that.”

And that, to me, is what separates Anne’s habit from simple thriftiness. Rewearing isn’t a necessity for the Princess Royal; it’s simply how she dresses.

Another extraordinary example is a floral evening dress first worn during an official visit to The Gambia in 1984, which Anne brought back more than four decades later for a formal engagement in London.

An evening dress surviving 40-plus years is impressive enough, but still wanting to wear it after all that time says something far more interesting about personal style. Trends move on, tastes evolve, and bodies change, yet Anne appears to have understood remarkably early what cuts, fabrics and proportions work for her, meaning much of her wardrobe hasn’t become redundant simply because the fashion cycle has turned.

Ciara said: “For me, it’s about not buying into every trend and instead looking at the quality, fabric and cut of something. Fabrics like wool, silk, cashmere and good quality cotton will always have a place in a wardrobe, and really good tailoring ages so well.

“A beautifully cut blazer, coat or pair of trousers can be styled in so many different ways over the years.”

Perhaps that’s the question we should all be asking before heading to the till: will I still want this when nobody is telling me it’s fashionable anymore?

Anne’s coats offer some of the best evidence of just how hard-working her wardrobe really is. A cream-and-navy design first worn to Royal Ascot in 1980 returned to the Epsom Derby in 1985 and continued to appear decades later, including at Commonwealth Day in 2018.

Then there is the beige skirt suit finished with distinctive orange piping, which made its debut at Trooping the Colour in 1987 before resurfacing for engagements years later. Rather than viewing these pieces as relics of a particular decade, Anne has repeatedly found new ways to make them work for the occasion at hand.

That often comes down to the details. Hats are swapped, brooches moved between outfits, and different shoes, bags and jewellery can completely change the overall effect, meaning a familiar coat or dress doesn’t necessarily have to look exactly as it did the first time around.

Ciara explained: “I think the biggest thing is realising that you don’t need to buy a whole new outfit to make something feel different. Changing your shoes, bag, jewellery or the way you style a jacket can completely change a look.

“I personally love mixing older pieces with something more current because I think it makes an outfit feel more individual. Sometimes it’s just about looking at what you already own in a different way.”

It is probably Anne’s easiest trick for the rest of us to steal. A forgotten dress may only need a different pair of shoes, while an older jacket can suddenly feel current again when separated from its matching skirt and paired with something more contemporary.

And perhaps that is where Anne’s real fashion strength lies. Her wardrobe has evolved through bold prints, dramatic millinery, military-inspired tailoring, eveningwear and practical country pieces, but there has always been a clear sense that she knows exactly what works for her.

Ciara summed it up: “I think Princess Anne’s style has lasted because she’s never tried too hard to follow fashion, she knows what suits her, invests in quality and isn’t afraid to wear the same pieces again and make them feel current.”

She doesn’t need every appearance to deliver a new fashion moment; sometimes the more interesting story is discovering that the coat she has just stepped out in has already lived several lives. And in an industry constantly telling us what to buy next, perhaps Anne’s greatest style lesson is remarkably simple: before buying something new, take another look at what you already own.