Princess Anne turned up at Royal Ascot this week in a pink button skirt suit and matching hat she had first worn 25 years ago. The repeat was not subtle: the ensemble, topped with three flowers on the hat, was the same look she had already taken out for Royal Ascot in 2001.
That is why the Princess Anne Royal Ascot outfit drew the kind of attention usually reserved for a new season piece, not a faithful repeat. Anne attended all three days of the meeting, but the pink suit became the talking point because it placed a senior royal squarely inside the growing habit of wearing clothes again rather than treating them as one-day statements.
The matching hat and suit were first seen at Royal Ascot in 2001, then worn again to Alexandra Knatchbull's 2016 wedding to Thomas Hooper in Romsey Abbey, Hampshire. This week, Anne brought them back to Berkshire for the annual race meeting, where she also attended on Monday and joined Harriet Phillips in the carriage procession.
Carole Middleton provided a second example of the same instinct on Wednesday, when she and Anne both attended the second day of Royal Ascot in coordinating bubblegum pink looks. Middleton wore a mother-of-the-bride outfit from Pippa Middleton's 2017 wedding, reinforcing how much of the conversation around the meeting centred on repeated clothing rather than fresh tailoring.
That sits neatly with Anne's long-standing habit of recycling clothes. She has described a good suit as something that can be worn forever if it is properly made and cut in a classic style, and she has also said she is “quite mean” about replacing what already works. On another occasion, she said she still prefers to buy materials and have them made up because it is more fun and supports makers who still produce in this country.
Royal Ascot is an annual Berkshire racing meet, and the carriage procession has long been one of its most visible set pieces. This week, King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales also joined the procession, but Anne's pink suit ended up carrying the sharper message: in her case, the outfit is not a relic. It is a repeat choice made on purpose, and 25 years after its first outing, it is still doing the job she wanted.
