How the Duchess of Edinburgh mastered the royal art of diplomatic dressing

Diplomatic dressing is a fine art which must be perfected by any senior member of the Royal family. The late Queen was the, well, Queen of it – throughout her 70-year reign, she continued to hone and reinvent the respectful gestures she made on foreign visits. This was everything from commissioning a cherry-blossom adorned gown to wear in Japan to a dress embroidered with shamrocks for her first visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011.

When the occasion is a sensitive one, the stakes are even higher – the royal in attendance must look suitable for the theme without any possibility of causing offence.

This is a tightrope which the Duchess of Edinburgh has been walking with aplomb over the past few days while visiting Italy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino. Her understated wardrobe for the trip has ticked all the right boxes, comprising new pieces by British designers, new finds from Italian labels and items from her existing wardrobe which worked for the memorial activities.

On Saturday, the Duchess set out the sartorial theme for her trip in two looks both in muted shades of whites and beige. She first appeared wearing a white spotted tea dress by her go-to London couturier Suzannah with a beige linen blazer by Eleventy Milano, a Milan-based label specialising in quiet luxury tailoring. Later in the day, the Duchess changed into another white dress, this time a white crepe design with an exaggerated collar also by Suzannah which she wore with the same blazer shoulder-robed over the top.

As one designer who regularly dresses Sophie told me recently, ‘she looks like a 50s film star’. This was especially true on Sunday, when the Duchess attended a ceremony remembering the end of the battle. She wore Suzannah’s £2,190 ‘Dolce Vita’ silk twill shirt dress which is not only made using Italian silk but features a ‘Tuscan Dreamscape’ print. Suzannah Crabb, founder of her eponymous label, tells me the print ‘initially started as a hand painting of palm trees and natural plants, re-worked digitally, painting in a beautiful backdrop which turned into a dreamy Tuscan landscape. It’s a wonderful piece of wearable art.’ The design looked as subtly reflective as it sounds, encapsulating the mood of the ceremony.

While she was in Italy, the Duchess carried bags by Sophie Habsburg (also known as Her Royal and Imperial Highness Sophie Habsburg, Archduchess of Austria) – an aristocrat whose designs are so loved by the Duchess of Edinburgh that she owns more than 70 styles. It felt apt that she debuted yet another new style from the label, which is based in Rome, for Sunday’s ceremony; her £297 ‘Noe’ bag is now sold out. Habsburg, who is a distant relative of the Edinburghs via Prince Philip, first met Sophie at a wedding and told Tatler last year that ‘she’s very cool’.

It’s not just in Italy that the Duchess has been flexing her diplomatic dressing prowess. The day before her Monte Cassino visit began, she was in Edinburgh with her husband for the Ceremony of the Keys at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. For this formal engagement, the Duchess debuted another new look by Suzannah – the ‘Remy’ cloqué jacket and skirt in forest green. ‘The cropped jacket sits just on the waist of the 50s-style skirt creating a stunning fit and flare silhouette which has presence and modern yet timeless proportions,’ explains Crabbs of the ensemble’s elegant aesthetic.

It was possibly chosen with a deeper meaning in mind, too. The colour was a close match for ‘Edinburgh green’, the dark shade which has become synonymous with the Edinburgh title as it was the colour used by Prince Philip (the previous Duke of Edinburgh) for his staff’s uniforms and on his cars. By wearing the shade at Holyroodhouse, the Duchess paid a touching tribute to her late father-in-law from whom she and her husband have inherited their titles.

At the end of April, the Duchess was in Ukraine - the first British royal to visit the country since Russia’s invasion in 2022 - where she showed similar sensitivity in her style choices. Her standout look was a £1250 dress by Etro which had a floral pattern resembling the traditional Ukrainian ‘Petrykivka’ style of painting.

This was worn for meetings with the UN, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska and people helping the victims of war, including those affected by sexual violence. These were delicate topics, but Sophie’s choice exuded respect, solidarity and optimism.

The late Queen would, surely, be proud.