Princess Diaries: 70 years of Princess Anne's timeless style

With her trademark beehive and penchant for recycling, the Princess Royal has a wardrobe that works as hard as she does
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Lucy Pavia|Chloe Street14 August 2020

If you called Princess Anne a style icon she’d probably roll her eyes at you.

But as she approaches her 70th birthday tomorrow, her hairsprayed beehive, upturned collars and penchant for power tailoring have become as famous as her cutting remarks and work ethic — she averages 500 engagements a year.

No lover of the limelight (she loathes smartphone cameras, reportedly telling people to “put that thing away” on walkabouts), the Queen’s only daughter is, albeit reluctantly, enjoying a moment in the sun as a newly recognised royal style maven.

At her London Fashion Week show in February, Shrimps designer Hannah Weiland sent models down the runway in Adidas aerodynamic sunglasses, inspired by a shot of the Princess Royal wearing the shades at the Chelsea flower show in 2018. Anne also made her own London Fashion Week debut when she turned out to present jewellery designer Rosh Mahtani with the Queen Elizabeth Award.

A decade before Princess Diana swept onto the scene, there was Anne. Young, eligible and stylish, on her 21st birthday in 1971 she became the first senior royal to pose for the cover of Vogue’s September issue. The fashion bible featured her again in a tiara and white fur for a lustrous Norman Parkinson shoot ahead of her 1973 wedding to Captain Mark Phillips. On the big day, watched by more than 500 million people, Anne stripped away the traditional, lacy fuss of the royal bridal gown to walk up the aisle in a high-neck minimalist creation by Maureen Baker, head designer at ready-to-wear label Susan Small.

As a young working royal in the Seventies, Anne shifted away from her mother’s conservative uniform of skirt suits to something more experimental. She was the first royal to wear a miniskirt and played with block colours, print, wide-brimmed hats and mutton-leg sleeves by designers including Ossie Clarke, Pucci and Zandra Rhodes. After those early years were dramatised in season three of The Crown (played with cynical, scene-stealing perfection by Erin Doherty) Anne laughed off the two hours the actress said it took to replicate her famous coiffure: “How could you possibly take that long?” she scoffed, “I mean, it takes me 10 or 15 minutes.”

She has also inherited her mother’s sense of thrift. When it comes to wardrobe longevity, Anne has decades on the young royals. She wore the same belted lavender coat by John Boyd to events in 1979, 1983, 1997 and 2001. Though don’t expect her to start extolling the virtues of forever fashion on social media any time soon. “I know what Twitter is,” she said in a recent ITV documentary about her, “but I wouldn’t go anywhere near it if you paid me frankly.”

That 70s show

Princess Anne, Dressed Casually In Shirt And Jeans, In Kiev, Russia During Her Visit 5-11 September 1973
Tim Graham Photo Library via Get

Bearing no similarity to Meghan’s conservatism or Kate’s high-street thrift, Anne’s sartorial heyday was high octane, experimental (Pucci dress layered underneath a bright yellow cardigan, anyone?) and unapologetically high fashion. From the leather over-the-knee boots she wore on her first solo royal tour to Africa in 1971 and the Travolta-esque white suit worn with a bright yellow shirt on a trip to the theatre, to the printed silk Pucci dress with matching headscarf she sported as maternity wear, Princess Anne was a sartorial risk-taker par excellence. She even reportedly encouraged the Queen to raise her hemlines above the knee to appear more modern.

Hair apparent

Princess Anne In Berlin, Germany On A Visit From 5-9 June 1973
Tim Graham Photo Library via Get

Headlines are generated when Kate puts highlights through her bouncing blowout or Meghan lets loose her tightly wound bun. And yet what could be more symbolic of Anne’s unwavering sense of discipline and duty than a hairdo that’s not changed for the best part of five decades?

Anne hasn’t been seen in public without her signature beehive since the early Seventies, which by any metric is a fairly serious commitment to a ’do. All business, her “glam” routine consists of a quick change between helicopter rides to an evening function. “Sitting still really doesn’t happen very much” she said recently. Her daughter Zara Phillips says she’ll often come home from a dinner, sling on a Barbour over her evening dress and go out to feed the chickens.

Crown and Co-ords

Princess Royal on day two of the Royal Ascot Meeting at Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire, 2011
PA

While her mother is famous for her colour blocking approach to suiting, Anne takes her co-ordination up a level — quite literally — to include her headwear.

From the striking yellow coat with matching, oversized hat decorated with a black bow she wore to attend a horse trials in 1968, to the bright blue coat and matching hat she wore to Caernarvon in Wales the following year, Anne is master of matching avant-garde millinery to fabulous frock coat.

Dressage

Princess Anne wins the European Eventing Championships on Doublet at Burghley, Lincolnshire, UK, September 1971
Getty Images

As a world-class eventer, Anne — who became the first royal Olympian when she competed in the three-day equestrian event at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal — is master of the elegant equestrian ensemble.

No stranger to jodhpurs and a fitted tweed blazer, her eventing wardrobe sits in perfect synchronicity with the camel-hues of Burberry’s autumn/winter 2020 show and the caped coats and riding boots seen at Michael Kors.

Throwing shade

Princess Anne, Princess Royal watches on during the Archery Ranking Round on Olympics Opening Day as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games
Getty Images

Thought Rihanna was driving the trend for sporty Matrix-like sunglasses? Think again.

Princess Anne has been rocking her wraparound Adidas shades for years now, most strikingly pairing them with power tailoring at the Chelsea flower show in 2018 in a look that could well have inspired the oversized suiting and sporty specs seen at Balenciaga’s autumn/winter 2020 show. Could she be Demna Gvasalia’s secret muse?

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