41 thoughts on “2017 in Review: Royal Fashion Highlights”

1. I like the cut of Kate’s polka dress, but she reminds me too much of her mother in it.
   Letizia’s blue dress and Maxima’s red one are perfection in my eyes.
   Stephanie’s dress and jewelry would have been nice without the brown stola.
   And yes,I will say it again, I hope she gets pregnant soon(I know, It’s her own business, nevertheless, I’m waiting especially because of her words before their wedding).
   Madeleine is beautiful as ever and I like her dress in the last picture.
   It will be an exciting new year and I’m happy that KMR will post about it.Thank you!

2. You’ve surprised me KMR, i didn’t realize the silver dress was Erdem. This makes me think that maybe it’s the way Kate wears her other Erdem dresses that has made me dislike the designer. I’d like the spotty dress, but in a plain fabric please as I feel , personally, that dots are for the under 4 year old only.

   Another interesting post, thanks for all your hard work this year!

   Happy New Year!

   Love anything Maxima wears, but to be honest it’s more about her as a person?

   1. I’m in the “Erdem looks like crap on everyone” camp because this silver gown is the only one I’ve like so far. NO FLOWERS! NO DUST RUFFLE!

      1. How could I have forgotten about the dust ruffles??????

3. I liked Kate in Polka dots, the Chanel in Paris (but ditch the logo belt), and the Lavender in Germany (new color for her).

   Letizia in the U.K. Evening events were my favorite royal fashions of the year.

4. For such an expensive dress I’d imagine the polka dots would be lined up with the seams and the other fabric in the dress. I like the idea, execution not worth the cash.

   I do love the sparkly Eedem and I usually hate Erdem too.

   Maxima’s evening gowns are always STUNNING. Letizia in the blue gown is perfection.

   1. +1 on all of it

5. Thank u KMR for putting together this post. You prove yourself time and again why I checkout this blog on royals… For its informative and fair information..

   Letizia is perfection and poise.. Wow.. And her intrinsic self confidence radiates.. She wears her
   gowns..

   Happy new years to you and all readers out here..

6. I loved Sophie’s green gown in Norway, and the green outfit with gorgeous hat she worse when she almost fell on Kate in the carriage at Ascot. She’s worn some lovely outfits this year

7. The gowns and jewels are my favorite part of royalty, and Kate doesn’t do much of that. Interesting that two out of three of KMR’s choices are day-wear, when for almost every other royal it is evening wear. Letiza for the win, with Maxima a close second.

8. I am on board with the polka dot dress but for evening dresses I adored her pink Marchesa gown. Yes, the neckline was deep, but she looked stunning at this banquet (Spanish State visit). I even liked the massive necklace. Overall on of her best looks in my book. Hope to see the dress again!

   1. Caroline, I agree about that gown and necklace.

   2. Pictures:
      https://katemiddletonstyle.org/spanish-state-banquet/
      https://duchesseorange.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/duchess-kate-baby-pink-lace-gown-by-marchesa/

      1. Thanks for the additional pictures. I am actually not too fond on how the skirt fits to the top and I will never be a fan of bell sleeves. Bit of a bummer as I imagined the whole dress differently. But this is still on of the nicest royal cleavages we have seen this year. Hopefully we will see less of the t-Shirt necklines and more deep or V or off shoulder ones.

9. The first gown Kate wore (your first photo, KMR) really is lovely. I don’t remember seeing that before. I wish she had worn different shoes, though. Everything blended together too much,
   Polka dot dress was cute, but not outstanding and for the money, as mentioned already, it should have been made far better. It just looked off the rack.

   Leti is sheer perfection That blue gown really is amazing. Her posture is the very best!

   Charlene has worn so many other more spectacular outfits. THis one was boring and Charlene without red lipstick is a no, no for me.

   I also enjoy Max, but it’s her overall charm and her love of life that seem to set off her fashion choices so well.

   Not a fan of Sofia. Sorry.

   Liked this post very much Thanks, KMR. Happy New Year.

10. For me, the stand-out stunner is Queen Letizia in the red gown and joyas de pasar.

    KMR, thank you for all your hard work on this informative and entertaining blog. Happy New Year to you and all commenters!

    1. Happy New Year to you, Constance. Has your wrist healed?
       I will always remember the great blow by blow description you gave of a toddler’s temper tantrums. I think it was you! If I am wrong, whoever posted that when little Charlotte had her little tantrum on the airport tarmac was so spot on!

11. Queen Letizia, hands down, is always beautifully dressed! I wish you covered her a bit more!

    Thank you for hosting this blog…it’s one of my go-to reads!

12. Letiza was the winner for fashion and hair this yr for me. Followed by Madeleine-she tends to lean towards the frilly side, which isn’t my style but she always looks beautiful in it (one exception christening ensemble was a hot mess)
    I agree with the polka dot dress. Kate looks great in them. I think her last pregnancy she wore a Dalmatian type coat and she looked good in it too.
    I’m trying to think of one outfit of hers that I truly loved and all I can think of was when she wore the preen dress with the wave sandals (ocean event I believe thus the wave sandals?) I usually can find a couple of outfits I like on her tours but the Germany Poland tour outfits were a huge NO (cone boob dress??) even her Chanel outfit was ho hum
    The sparkly ensemble would have worked better for me if she hadn’t worn sparkly shoes with it, it’s too much sparkle. I wish Kate would embrace proper slacks (Victoria and Letiza style) she did up her shoe game this yr so yay that!
    Maxima is gonna maxima so you got to love her for that.
    Vic was hit or miss with me this yr fashion wise but she tended to branch out from her normal bun hair wise so yay!
    My problem is that the fashion trends this yr (high collars, lace, bell sleeves) weird mix of little house on the prairie meets the puritans are ones I generally don’t like and are made even worse by labels I don’t like. self portrait, erdem and temperly are all worn by them and I loathe them all!

    1. Apart from the lace I will co sign your last paragraph. I would add the midi and midi-maxi length and coulottes (still not over Letizias black leather look). There are a lot of very distinctive elements in style right now, that just don’t look good on 98% of the people.

13. Go Fug Yourself did a year in review thing for KM and honestly, a lot of her outfits were a lot cuter than I remember them being at the time. I think her style definitely improved this year (less skinny jeans for all of the skinny jean haters!) and her new haircut has elevated her look.

    https://www.gofugyourself.com/2017-in-review-the-year-in-wills-kate-12-2017

    1. Agreed. I’ll have to go through it again to highlight which looks I enjoyed the most,

    2. Joanna Wallace +1

    3. I’ve never read Go Fug Yourself but the captions on that are hysterical. Referring to her hat at Christmas: “If you’ve two of those couldn’t you have lent me one? MY HEAD IS FREEZING CATHERINE.” (Sorry for the caps KMR.)

       The outfits that came to mind before like looking through: the highly unpopular Seraphine red tweed dress because I love tweed; some of her outfits in Germany (even though it was out of place to the location I really liked that Erdem top and skirt combo); her Chanel dress in Paris, even though I wish she’d worn a traditional suit. I also really liked the Erdem dress that you highlighted, KMR; maybe I just hate their dust ruffle dresses? And also the black dress she wore for the reception in Paris, and the Kate Spade she wore just after H&M announced their engagement.

       I was recently watching this show on figuring out how to determine your fashion “personality” so that you only buy clothes you’ll really love and not waste money on clothes you won’t wear, and it made me think of the fashion discussions on the blog. I figured out quite awhile ago that I will often like different things than some others here. It’s endlessly fascinating to me how our brains work and what we tune in to and like and dislike. I intensely dislike that sparkly blue number that was one of your picks, KMR, but that’s what makes it all kind of fun to me.

14. Leti gets my win because hello, La Buena. Duh.

    Maxima has some misses but she has the chutzpah to carry it all. When she’s on she’s ON and she gets my Most Consistent award.

    The D&G polka dot dress was far too expensive to be executed so poorly. Surely a brand like D&G can be bothered to match up the dots. The dress is a total fail for me on that bit. It’s lazy and sloppy on both their part and Kate’s for buying and wearing the damn thing.

    Sofia gets Best Jool Evolution and Stephanie is my Most Improved overall.

    I’m excited to see what the Danes and Japanese pull out for their New Year’s banquets!

15. Maxima and Leticia are just so fabulous. They really stand out among the other women in this review.

    It is still so odd to me that Kate’s approach to fashion just falls flat. She is young and slender however it seems that British fashion just does not allow for the stunning looks we see from the European royals.

16. Letizia and Maxima are here. And they are here to SLAY! That’s all

17. The York Family Christmas Card 2017
    https://hrhprincessbeatriceblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/yorkies.png?w=1410
    I love it the York Princesses are so cute

    1. That is lovely.

    2. The pictures of the sisters are cute.
       Why is Sarah signing their Christmas cards yet they realized it would be bad to have her picture included? i think she was at Ascot with one (or both) of the girls, lord knows she clings tight enough to them to almost be a yoke to them, anyhoodles they could have included a picture from that.
       I guess it’s a fitting statement of her position, good enough to be included for a signature but not picture worthy

       1. Ironically, I always have to write to Sarah in order to receive their Christmas card , she always signs the cards and occasionally her picture will appear on the cards

       2. I think that is a lovely Christmas Card from the Yorks. Beatrice and Eugenie have a sense of humour which is very apparent and even Prince Andrew looks normal. I hopw 2018 is a good year for Eugenie and Beatrice. One engagement brings on another. So hopefully Eugenie and Jack will tie the knot soon. I am not in favour of long engagements. 🙂

    3. That’s so fun. Thank you for sharing!

    4. These are sweet pictures of the sisters and I hope to receive SOMETHING within the next month or so. Andrew looks good too and it’s only a matter of time before he’s the proud papa walking his daughter down the aisle! 🙂

18. I have to say, my personal favourite dress Kate wore this year was the white sundress with floral pattern she wore at wimbledon – if I could get tanned just a tiny bit, I would wear such a dress just like that in a heartbeat!
    Here is a pic for those who are curious / don’t remember:
    https://myfashgram.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/531×531-1-119.jpg

    1. Yes! The dress was a nice fit for her and looked cool and summery. It was a Catherine Walker dress which I would not have guessed.

    2. Thanks for the reminder. The skirt of the dress was quite pretty, but the bodice too plain for my taste. And, the way it pulled at the side of the bodice reminded me how Kate has issues with having things tailored for her body in a positive way. That bow was a tad odd to me, too. Was that symbolic of something?

       At any rate, the skirt of the dress was really very pretty.

       I can’t seem to remember what Kate wore in 2017 that really stood out for me. So many coat dresses, so many leggings! I don’t know. She’s not a fashionista. Some women aren’t.

       One of my least fave looks on her — and I’m sure Pippa chose it — was the dress and fascinator that Kate wore to her sister’s wedding. The color and style were God awful.

19. I prefer the light blue Packham gown Kate wore March 17 to a dinner at the British embassy in Paris. The embellishments on the dress didn’t overpower the fabric or her frame as did the abundance of sparkles on the blue dress worn to the RVP in November. Didn’t care for the sparkly clutch purse and shoes that she wore with either long blue dress. Fabric clutch purse and shoes would have accented either dress much better.

    The cut and style of the polka-dot dress fit her well. Short sleeves would have looked younger. Smaller dot pattern would have not drawn the eye to the dot mismatch at the seams of this style dress.

20. My favorite looks on Kate were (in no particular order) her outfit for the Irish Guards, the Service of Hope outfit, the pale blue Emilia Wickstead coatdress and her Ascot white lace (and my favorite picture of the year was when Sophie tumbles into the carriage right on top of Kate- loved their captured reactions!). Going back, I though Kate looked her very best in July. Her shorter hairstyle looked it’s best that month and she looked happy, healthy and relaxed.

21. Hey, no skirt fly-ups this year! Woo-hoo!

    1. With Catherine Quinn on board, now, I think we may have seen the last of Kate’s exposed bum!

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