12 Times Royal Fashion Got Weird

The British royals attract attention as much for their status as for their style. Easily one of the best-dressed noble families in the world, their fashion — both individually and collectively — makes a striding statement of just how significantly clothes can be used as a medium of expression. Surely, sartorial meanings have evolved over decades within the royal family. While wardrobes were exponentially more dramatic in the past — like Princess Diana's ginormous wedding gown — they were also less publicized. As fashion expert Elly Summers told the BBC, "You just dressed for a particular event – now you have to dress for everyone all the time." 

With social media digging out lost vintage royal trends, the glad rags of the monarchy are routinely and carefully relooked at. In the past, as in the present, many royal fashions have broken away from the norm and veered wayward into curious territories. They may be trends that have been previously unexplored, garb that one wouldn't ever have imagined seeing on a royal, or even contentious costumes with a history that the public just didn't favor. Royal garments have made headlines on countless occasions for getting messages across, either successfully or unsuccessfully, but often oddly and in ways that are worth remembering. So let's jog that memory, shall we? Here are 12 times royal fashion got weird. 

Leave it to Catherine, Princess of Wales to put a shirt on backwards and rock it better than how it's originally meant to be worn. The senior royal has proved herself a worthy successor of her mother-in-law Princess Diana of Wales, who was regarded highly as a groundbreaking style icon during her time. Like Diana, whose disruptive wardrobe left a mark in the fashion world, Catherine is seemingly not fearful of experimenting with clothes — even going so far as to put them on the wrong way. The odd trend came to light in 2019 when, during a visit to the Henry Fawcett Children's Centre in London, Catherine was spotted in a purple Gucci blouse that had buttons running down the front. As resplendent as she may have been looking, fans couldn't help but point out that the top was actually supposed to be worn with the buttons down the back! 

As People observed, retail photos of the product also showed the blouse's buttons at the back and the cuffs faced outwards, as opposed to Catherine's inward-facing cuffs. It's possible that she had her luxury apparel specially customized — at least, that seems to be one possible explanation — because, despite the commotion her outfit caused that time, Catherine wore her top backwards yet again in 2020 while appearing in an Instagram video. The repeat glitch can only lead one to believe that Catherine strictly prefers her buttons running down the front. 

In the history of wild royal fascinators, Princess Beatrice's 2011 piece takes the cake and bakery both. A mention of the young royal is enough to conjure up a mental image of her in that most memorable hat she sported at Prince William's wedding. Both Beatrice and her sister, Princess Eugenie, became the talk of many towns at their cousin's widely televised nuptials for their extraordinary headpieces that looked straight out of a quirky fantasy. Designed by the royal family's go-to milliner Philip Treacy, Beatrice's fascinator — which showcased a nude-colored squiggly bow that was compared to everything, from a toilet seat to a fallopian tube — was the more striking of the two, and inspired a barrage of memes online. And the mass teasing didn't go unnoticed by her. 

"I've been amazed by the amount of attention the hat has attracted," Beatrice remarked later that year while turning her hat's ridicule (ironically) on its head and actually putting the now-iconic piece up for auction. According to the BBC, the "pretzel" hat was sold for a whopping £81,100 (over $100,000), with the money raised donated to charity. As much fun as she'd claimed to have with the hat, Beatrice never repeated a similar one after. Under the guidance of celebrity stylist Charlie Anderson — who told People "it was a little unfair" how Beatrice and Eugenie were treated for their hats — the two sisters later underwent a style revamp.

Catherine, Princess of Wales rarely missteps when it comes to picking out the perfect attire for any event. She is dressed to the nines every time she steps out in public, especially on official business. It was, therefore, a thorough shocker that Catherine dressed inappropriately in 2012 while on an international trip to the Solomon Islands. She decked up in a vividly pink printed dress that made her look every bit like a tropical princess. As regal as she looked, Catherine was dressed unsuitably for the Oceanic nation and, unwittingly, slipped on garments that belonged to the Cook Islands situated miles away. The embarrassing mix-up prompted controversy, with Catherine in the eye of the storm. 

As Solomon Islands locals charged Catherine for the error, Clarence House rushed to issue a clarification, alleging the confusion was because of no fault of the British royals. Clothes for both Catherine and Prince William had been laid out in their room beforehand and the royals' staff "undertook to check that the items of clothing were indeed the gifts of the Government and not a gift from any other individual," a spokesperson told E! News. Officials in the Solomon Islands apparently okayed the outfits, "mistakenly as it later appeared," which led to the sartorial misunderstanding. Catherine reportedly kept the dress as a memento — and possibly a cautionary reminder to double-check her official outfits twice! 

Catherine, Princess of Wales has been a devout champion of floral trends. While her wardrobe has "taken quite a serious slant" since she assumed her latest senior title, as royal fashion expert Bethan Holt put it (via People), Catherine's bygone era of wild prints and graphic florals remains unforgotten. And some such fashion moments stand out more distinctly in memory than others — like a particularly bold gown Catherine wore in 2015 that became a heated talking point among the custodians of royal style. The then-Duchess of Cambridge attended a dinner in London for the 100 Women in Hedge Funds event wearing a satiny number splashed with all the colors of the French flag. 

The dress was by the British high fashion brand Erdem, known for its floral designs and clearly favored by Catherine, who has been spotted on multiple occasions over the years wearing its pieces. In fact, according to The Telegraph, the fashion label was allegedly an issue of discord between Catherine and Meghan Markle, both of whom are fans of Erdem and vied for first preference over it. Like the two royals were apparently divided, so were audiences over Catherine's noteworthy 2015 dress that some fans said looked more like curtains than elegant dinner attire. As Metro observed, some fans took precise offense to the flouncy drop waist design of the dress that didn't quite flatter the stylish princess. 

One didn't ever have to strain too hard to discern Queen Elizabeth II from a crowd of royals. Her prominence can be attributed to her center-front position always, yes, but her attire contributed a great deal, too. The late queen was quite easily the monarch with the brightest wardrobe ever, and had a legendary reputation for pulling off all kinds of pinks, purples, yellows, and blues with panache. These sartorial decisions are deliberate, as Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, confirmed in a documentary about the queen. "She needs to stand out for people to be able to say, 'I saw the queen,'" she explained, per The Telegraph. Even a glimpse of the queen's hat passing by is momentous to the crowds. 

In fact, Elizabeth's outfits were so vividly colored that it's altogether impossible to erase some of them from memory — in particular, the neon green number she rocked back in 2016 at the Trooping the Color ceremony. The title of the occasion suggested that Elizabeth, who was then ringing in her 90th birthday, was dressed aptly in her neon coat dress and matching hat. But the colorful ensemble looked too much of a green screen for the internet to not make memes about Her Majesty's blinding clothes. From a highlighter to a traffic light, the range of comparables was vast. It was still undeniable that the queen carried her fit out as well as she did any other.

The magnitude of the British monarchy's wealth is unimaginable. The royals don't particularly have to deck up in gold to tell us that. But, in case this little nugget went missed, Queen Consort Camilla did just that while attending a royal event in 2012. Commemorating Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years as monarch, her daughter-in-law opted for a dazzling gold outfit that screamed Diamond Jubilee like nothing else. The geometric print on her coat dress by Bruce Oldfield — who is rumored to also be working on her attire for her and King Charles III's coronation in 2023, per The Independent — glimmered in a golden display of extravagance, with an equally dramatic Philip Treacy hat completing the look. 

In fact, the guest of honor herself — the queen — was dressed in paler tones than Camilla, who stood out among the crowd at St. Paul's cathedral in her tinfoil regalia. Independent.ie, naming Camilla the worst-dressed at the event, observed that her over-the-top garb made it look like she "had been finger painting with solid gold." Camilla, who has long held firm on her love for casual dressing (jeans and such), is known to pursue earthier colors compared to the vividly-shaded wardrobes of other royal women. As fashion writer Caroline Young told The Independent, Camilla "is very much a countrywoman at heart" and, besides the "occasional drama," her outfits generally follow a neutral pattern.