Princess Anne is one of a kind. While the rest of the royal family shows up at every event with something new to applaud or criticize, she has been doing exactly the opposite for decades, and she doesn’t apologize for it.
At the gala dinner hosted in Windsor by King Charles and Queen Camilla in honor of the President of Nigeria, Buhari Tinubu, and his wife, the Princess pulled out of her closet a white evening coat that she had worn for the first time in 1969.
The first time she wore that coat, she was 18 years old and attending the premiere of the film Run Wild, Run Free in London. Fifty-seven years have passed, and the coat is still there, intact.
What changed about Anne’s white coat and what remained the same after 57 years
The coat didn’t arrive at the event completely intact. A dressmaker made a subtle update to the coat, replacing the original collar, which was more elaborate and typical of 1960s style, with a simpler, cleaner collar.
The rest of the coat, including the circular geometric details on the sleeves, was kept as it was.
The result is a piece that doesn’t try to pass as new or pretend to belong to another era.
What is striking, to put it mildly, is that Anne wears that coat with the same figure she had back then.
At 75 years old.
The Meander tiara and the jewelry Anne chose for her dinner with the President of Nigeria
When it came to jewelry, Anne didn’t go for the easy option or the latest trend either. On her head was the Meander tiara, a diamond piece with a Greek design and a complex family history.
It was created for Alice of Battenberg, Prince Philip’s mother, who gave it to Elizabeth II for her wedding in 1947.
The Queen never wore it in public, and in the late 1960s, she passed it on to her daughter, who made it one of her favorites. In fact, she loved it so much that she even lent it to her daughter Zara Phillips for her wedding to Mike Tindall in 2011.
Anne completed her look with a diamond bow brooch with tassel pendants, a wedding gift from her brother Charles, and the City of London choker, a piece that had belonged to Queen Mary of Teck, the wife of King George V.