#annespired

[princessanneftw]

Fendi pays tribute to Princess Anne with themed Milan show

This was the designer’s witty love letter from one strong, forthright woman within a powerful dynasty to another

Stephen Doig for the Daily Telegraph

Just this week, a colleague was extolling the wardrobe virtues of the “accidentally stylish” Princess Anne. And it seems that Silvia Venturini Fendi, the formidable matriarch of the Roman fashion house, is in agreement.

“I fell in love with the style of Princess Anne who, to my mind, is the most elegant woman in the world,” said Fendi, backstage in Milan. “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 collection took the codes of the Princess Royal’s singular approach to dressing and applied them to men’s clothing, with a dusting of Fendi luxury in the mix.

“It’s a little bit Town and Country,” Fendi said of the distinctly British homage. “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.”

Princess Anne’s status as a style icon over the years certainly hasn’t been by design on her part – leave the Princess of Wales to the Burberry while she dons House of Bruar – and was never the intention of the no-nonsense and hardworking royal, who favours practical country attire and Oakley shades over couture and experimental shapes, horse trials over the Gucci horsebit loafer. But that same sense of self-assuredness, stoicism and very British approach to dressing is just what appealed to Fendi in theming her show around the royal.

In actual terms, that translated into twinsets and chunky tweed skirts, heritage fabric coats – plaids spliced on plaids for a layered effect – waxed jackets and Wellington boots. The kind of attire built for yomps at Balmoral and Gloucestershire horse trials rather than the bars of Milan’s Brera district. The colours were those of the British countryside; olive, moss, oak and stone hues that evoked Gatcombe’s Green & Pleasant Land. The skirts, coincidentally, were in fact big, blousy Bermuda shorts designed to ape the appearance of Princess Anne’s solid kilts, although the royal herself has always mixed up the gender codes with her upright military uniform, so perhaps she’d approve of a bit of fluidity in that respect.

This being Fendi, a bit of experimentation with fabrication also weaved its way into the collection, with a tufted coat actually made from slivers of denim and some plush shearling on cropped jackets.

What Princess Anne would make of the sparkly suits on the willowy young men on the catwalk – perhaps a nod to her 1970s glamour – as well as the screaming furor from fans outside due to the presence of K-Pop stars and actors James Franco and Kit Harrington is anyone’s guess. But Silvia Venturini Fendi is no stranger to the singular position of being a strong, forthright woman within a powerful dynasty. It was a witty stylistic love letter from one woman of substance to another.

[annefic]

suspicious

dANNElle (me)

jANNE (@princessanneftw)

busybody laurANNE (formerly royal-windsor)

duchessANNEon (now @duchessbusybody)

karANNE (@lionessofwindsor)

laura ANN(E) (@mochimaster)

will the real Annepostor please stand up

[annefanne]

Felt cute in my uncles mechanic shop earlier, I got the funky earrings, all I need is a headscarf and I’d be looking Annespired 💅

[princessanneftw]

Do you know any more Anna-inspired sessions / editorials?

This one from last year!

[princessanneftw]

Queen of 70s curtain patterns, K8 can’t help but be Annespired

I stg this birch is tryna COPY Anne in the fugly patterned outfit stakes. Let me tell u she will NEVER be that iconic to pull it off. Back off K8!!!!!

[princessanneftw]

Doesn't it remind you of Anne's first wedding gown?

It's just some rich Spanish girl I saw in a magazine but sans sleeves it reminded me a lot of Anne's

Setting fashions since 1973 😍

Oooh the bodice could definitely be Annespired! I see it!

[annefanne]

Recommend clothes to me. I’m having a hard time putting together a cute, Anne-inspired (Annespired hehe) summer wardrobe!

Winter wardrobe items are also always good because I live in the god damn great white North.

HELP.

[princessanneftw]

I know how much you love Anne, but please don’t be so Annespired that you feel you need to emulate her early driving accidents ❤️

just got into my second car accident in a week 🙃 pls send me positive energy my bank acc cannot handle this