The Queen and the Princess of Wales stepped out wearing matching blue outfits this morning to greet President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for a landmark German state visit, the first of its kind in 27 years.
In any other family, this would be a non-issue, or even something to laugh about. But in the royal family, every garment is meticulously crafted, selected and pre-planned, with particular attention to colour. There is no such thing as a happy accident when it comes to colour clashing within The Firm.
For anyone who remembers Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary like it was yesterday (it was three years ago, rather terrifyingly), they will remember how seriously the Duchess of Sussex took the royal protocol around garment colours.
“Most of the time that I was in the UK, I rarely wore colour,” Meghan said in the documentary. “There was thought in that. To my understanding, you can't ever wear the same colour as Her Majesty if there's a group event, but then you also shouldn't be wearing the same colour as one of the other, more senior members of the family.”
And yet here is the Princess of Wales (née Kate Middleton) wearing the same colour as Queen Camilla.
More specifically, the Princess of Wales wore a bespoke royal blue coat dress by Alexander McQueen, with Gianvito Rossi suede boots and a bow and arrow headpiece by London-based milliner Juliette Botterill.
More hidden details include a new bespoke Burberry dress beneath the Princess’s coat, an Emmy London suede clutch, and two pieces of royal jewellery: Queen Alexandra's Prince of Wales brooch and a pair of Saudi Sapphire Earrings that used to belong to Princess Diana.
Meanwhile, Queen Camilla wore an electric blue coat by Anna Valentine, paired with a peacock blue hat by Philip Treacy, black Eliot Zed suede boots and Prince Albert’s diamond and sapphire Brooch. It’s as close as you’ll ever get to royal “twinning”.
So, why are the royal rules suddenly relaxed around colour, and why is blue the exception? According to reports, Camilla’s stylist had been struggling to dress her in accordance with the royal colour clashing rules once she became Queen.
This is because the Queen gets to choose her outfit first, meaning her preference overrides everyone else's. However, this is rumoured to have “ruffled a few feathers” at Buckingham Palace, with the Queen’s fondness for blue unfortunately matched by both the Princess of Wales and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.
The rules have apparently since been relaxed around this one particular colour, allowing royal women to all wear blue if they should so please — as long as it’s a different shade.
