Princess Anne is known for a frugal and no-nonsense approach to fashion, revealing last year that she was happy to opt for full military regalia for the coronation because “not least of all, it solves my dress problem”. But now, the royal has become an unlikely style icon, after Italian fashion house Fendi revealed that she was the source of inspiration for its latest menswear collection.
The designer Silvia Venturini Fendi said it was the sight of the 73-year-old princess at the coronation, wearing her Blues and Royals green velvet cloak, towering feathered hat and an array of military sashes, badges and stars, that prompted the choice.
“I fell in love with the style of Princess Anne, who, to my mind, is the most elegant woman in the world,” said Venturini Fendi. “When I saw the coronation last year with Princess Anne in her uniform, I thought she looked beautiful. So I said: ‘Let’s be inspired for a men’s collection.’”
The autumn/winter 2024-25 collection, named Town and Country, is reminiscent of traditional royal-wear for a drizzly winter’s walk across the Balmoral moorlands. It includes oversized Barbour-style parkas, leather wellies, sou’wester rain hats, generously sized dark green sweaters and a variety of tartan skirts, skorts and kilts.
“I liked the idea of breaking barriers, breaking the masculine and feminine codes,” Venturini Fendi said. “The princess royal is very rigorous in how she dresses, with this kind of military-minded attitude, but feminine at the same time.
“She has a life outside the spotlight. She’s kind of an anti-fashion person and, to me, that’s something that’s actually very fashionable and chic.”
Venturini Fendi, 63, said her collection was about creating “garments for life, not use and throw away”, which also appears in line with Princess Anne’s approach to fashion.
The royal is often seen rewearing clothes at public events. One blue fur-lined coat has continued to make periodic appearances for Christmas morning church services at Sandringham since 1976. This week, on a trip to Sri Lanka, she was seen with her trademark Adidas sunglasses, given to her by the British cycling team during the 2012 London Olympics, which she has been wearing for the last 12 years and which it has been previously speculated served as inspiration for Stella McCartney designs.
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During a visit to a textiles facility, Princess Anne criticised fast fashion, saying: “You think about how much is going into landfill.. You go through the phase when fashion was very structured and people followed fashion, but you had tailors and dressmakers who absolutely fundamentally made that, but you could also alter it because they had the skills to do so.
“Now you’ve got instant fashion which you then throw away, you don’t alter it because it wouldn’t be worthwhile. So whether we’ve got to relearn those skills, go back and say: ‘Actually, we need materials that can do more than one evolution of fashion.’”
