Royals on the Vanity Fair Best Dressed List 2017
It kind of snuck under the radar this year. Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List is always pored over by royal watchers keen to see whose style has hit the mark in the past twelve months but this time round it was somewhat eclipsed by another item in the same month's magazine, an interview with a certain Meghan Markle. Let's face it, we're all convinced that Meghan will be gracing this list in the coming years with an HRH in front of her name. She's not on the 2017 line up but we do get a couple of royal nods. Here's who hit the Vanity Fair heights in the style stakes for this year...
Absolutely nobody was surprised to see Queen Letizia of Spain on the Best Dressed List for 2017. Leti is always a style smash but this year saw her grab global headlines for her sense of chic as the Spanish State Visit to the UK got everyone talking.
And it's a State Visit style moment chosen as her chicest of the year. Vanity Fair has Letizia's most memorable look of 2017 as the yellow coat, dress and hat combo chosen for the official welcome at the start of the State Visit.
That's perhaps not everyone's pick of the Leti looks for the past year but it does sum up the Queen of Spain's modern take on royal dressing. It also acknowledges her passion for Spanish fashion (the coat and dress were by Felipe Varela) while the go to designers for Letizia are a mix of designers (Hugo Boss, Carolina Herrera) and High Street (Mango, Zara).
Another stand out Leti look is the red dress chosen for the 50th birthday party of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in April this year which brings us neatly to the other major royal mention on the list. WA and Maxima get a nod in the 'Couples' section of the Best Dressed run down of 2017.
There's no real citation for the King and Queen of the Netherlands just several photos where they look rather co-ordinated and very loved up. It's that colour matching that gets a special nod with the blue dress and navy suit combo chosen for a welcome ceremony at the Noordeinde Palace this year mentioned in the citation.
The royal offering on this year's list is rather small but we have to remember that three nods sees someone inducted into the Vanity Fair Best Dressed Hall of Fame and several of the royal style icons of the 21st century have already taken a bow and joined the legends with Crown Princess Mary of Denmark the most recent in 2016.
But there is one more royal to mention before we're done. Every year, Vanity Fair has a special citation and in 2017 that goes to Prince Philip. Yep, the Duke of Edinburgh has added another feather to his already overladen cap by being given recognition he probably has no interest in at all.
Who cares? Head to Vanity Fair and check out some rather nice photos of Philip looking effortlessly stylish in the Sixties and equally dashing in the Noughties. The man has panache and zing and couldn't care less. When it comes to style, that's all you need, royal or not.
