8 Sporty Royal Looks That Missed The Mark

The watchwords of royalty are typically class and elegance — not sporty. Every outfit they wear for an appearance is carefully considered and meticulously reviewed by stylists before it's given the thumbs up. For example, many fashion trends come straight from the royal family in the U.K. David Reiss, the founder of the clothing brand Reiss, spoke to Marie Claire about the phenomenon. "The surge in web traffic following the release of these images [of Kate wearing the brand's Shola dress in 2011] caused our website to crash. The dress promptly sold out online when service was resumed." But it's a different story when royalty ventures into the sporting world: some family members are more faux pas-makers than trendsetters.

With the popularity of the athleisure trend increasing year over year, it's a shame for these royals that many of these fashion missteps were made before the boom in Lululemon and On Running. A recent Harris Poll on Lululemon shows that this trend is here to stay, with 45.1% of Gen Z Americans surveyed having tried the brand (via The Harris Poll). The millennial royals, like Kate Middleton and Prince William, have given birth to their next in line, so their heirs may bring more cohesive sportswear-based looks.

Royal families across the world attract paparazzi like moths to a flame. We've all had a bad day and worn a sub-par outfit to the gym, but thankfully, the average Joe doesn't have to deal with the all-seeing-eye of the on-street photographers; royals aren't so lucky. From soccer to marathon running, these royals didn't quite get it right when it came to these sporty looks.

The sun-soaked months of 2024 will forever be known as Brat summer, inspired by Charli XCX's album of the same name released in June. It was a season that saw a very specific shade of puke green everywhere. XCX herself defined brat on her TikTok, saying, "You're just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown." Not exactly the qualities befitting of a royal. But in 2010, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's daughter, Princess Beatrice, ran the London Marathon in an outfit that wouldn't have looked out of place at the Sweat Tour. Beatrice wore a hat in the same neon green color as XCX's album. Not only did she foreshadow a now infamous shade, she inadvertently mimicked the whole album cover. Her hat featured her name in a font reminiscent of Arial-style wording on the album cover. You almost have to wonder if XCX saw Beatrice's ensemble before creating her now-iconic cover.

Beatrice's look was intended to resemble a caterpillar, and she was one of 33 runners donning the green cap with a matching tutu. This was all for a good cause — her mother's charity, Children in Crisis. It was a look ahead of its time but didn't quite work, both in style and as a caterpillar costume. Her ill-fitting cap drooped over her head, and although it matched the tutu, it made her green sweatbands and leg warmers — which were a different but equally garish green shade — stand out even more. While totally brat, she didn't actually resemble a caterpillar — after all, caterpillars don't typically wear tutus. This definitely isn't a positive moment in Beatrice's style transformation from worst dressed to best dressed.

Dutch soccer fans, aka Het Oranje Legioen (The Orange Legion), are known for their famous orange shirts. At any major soccer tournament, you won't miss the Dutch as they roam in the streets in their signature tangerine. But it didn't quite go to plan when King Willem-Alexander got in on the act.

Any royal walks a sartorial tightrope between being a reflection of the population and exuding power. It was a balancing act that King Willem-Alexander couldn't quite get right when he joined Dutch soccer fans at the 2021 European Championships, which was pushed back a year due to the pandemic. He wore a navy suit and white shirt, sans tie and jacket, and to give him a man-of-the-people look, he threw on an orange Dutch football scarf around his neck. This is a look that brings together two disparate ideas to little effect: the formal royal uniform and casual soccer fandom.

The soccer look is associated with the bloke-core trend, a trend that is signified by memorabilia (shirts and scarfs), baggy jeans, and Adidas trainers, a look that dates back to the dark days of football hooliganism in the '80s. But the king's look lands in a no man's land, not going full-bloke but also not looking like a royal. It's a look that would've hit the mark had he worn a Dutch football shirt and jeans, keeping it a little more casual. Overall, opting for a cohesive look would have been more effective.

Tennis may be the most stylish sport, with fashion staples like Fred Perry, Sergio Tacchini, and Fila first becoming popular on the court. But Princess Catherine's tennis-inspired outfit didn't have quite the same sense of style as those brands. At an event for the Lawn Tennis Association in Edinburgh, Catherine wore a cable-knit Ralph Lauren sweater with ice-white Superga trainers and jet-black trousers.

While Catherine was probably going for a classic look, it read more outdated. Her outfit appears to be a throwback to the days when Wimbledon's television coverage was still in black and white, but that was nearly a hundred years ago. Thankfully for the princess and her fans, Catherine has wowed at Wimbledon in the years since, but this particular outfit — especially the business casual trousers — is still cemented in history. 

The former England rugby captain married into the British monarchy by way of Zara Tindall (née Phillips), the daughter of Princess Anne. At a charity golf game, the couple looked like they'd had a proper royal makeover. The couple wore matching pink golf polos, with Mike even donning a co-ord in his pink pressed slacks. In a tweet showing off his new look, he let fans know it was all for a good cause. "A huge thanks to everyone who supported today's golf classic," he wrote. "We have raised a huge amount of money for [Cure Parkinson's] and [The Matt Hampson Foundation]."

Zara Tindall's style transformation has been stunning to watch, but unfortunately, Mike and Zara's ensembles missed the mark. In 2024, is it really worth noting or funny that a man wore pink? Mike has shown himself as somewhat of a fashion Neanderthal. When the former rugby player appeared as part of the class of '22 on the U.K. reality show "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here," he revealed he keeps it casual even when heading to Buckingham Palace, often opting for just a pair of "jeans and tee." Perhaps, then, this look should've been expected, but it was still unnecessarily distracting — especially in the post-"Barbie" era.

Princess Diana changed royal fashion forever and has even become a posthumous fashion trendsetter to TikTokers everywhere. Even celebs like Harry Styles and Taylor Swift have recreated Diana's outfits. One of the princess' most famous influential looks is the cycling shorts and oversized sweater combo. It was her go-to get-up when met with a barrage of paparazzi or when she was running through the streets of London; it was a dressed-down look that cemented Diana's reputation as the people's princess. However, it's a look that doesn't have the most flattering silhouette. 

The shape that Diana's outfit takes is far from complimentary. The oversized frumpy sweatshirt makes her look uncharacteristically disheveled; it's all creased and crushed and it is at odds with the tightness of the cycling shorts, which is then at odds with the chunkiness of her trainers. There's no cohesion to the range of different silhouettes, which makes this outfit look like it was thrown together in the dark. The most iconic Diana looks feature garments that are highly structured and angular, but this athleisure outfit is the exact opposite — totally formless.  

In an interview with The New York Times, Italian fashion designer Giambattista Valli famously said, "The hardest thing in fashion is not to be known for a logo, but to be known for a silhouette." Diana will be remembered for plenty of silhouettes, such as her revenge dress, but this sporty look certainly shouldn't be one. 

Certain things in life shouldn't mix, like Kanye West and X or orange juice and freshly brushed teeth. A soccer jersey combined with a dress shirt is another entry to add to that list. Prince William didn't get the memo when he wore a red soccer jersey customized with "Wales. W" printed on the back, gray tracksuit bottoms, Adidas Copa Mundial shoes, and most egregiously, a blue dress shirt. Prince William's appearance has made royal fans go wild on many occasions, but this particular look likely won't be on anyone's list of favorites. It's a hodgepodge of different styles all woven together to create a look so unfashionable it bordered on avant-garde.

The bizarreness of the outfit is exemplified by the fact that more classically dressed soccer players are standing just behind him; the Charlton Athletic players are wearing an all-black training kit. Why couldn't Prince William just wear that? Prince William's outfit is only a testament to the fact the British monarchy doesn't have their finger on the pulse. It's a look that someone who has never done exercise before would wear, let alone appropriate dress for soccer training.

Another major issue with this look is that Prince William is not a Charlton Atheltic supporter but is famously an Aston Villa fanatic. He was even spotted at the team's big match against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League. This is a major faux pas in the U.K., with wearing a rival team's jersey often being seen as "sell-out" behavior, certainly not befitting of someone who claims to be a lifelong Villa fan. It's a conversation that has only been accelerated since soccer has become a major inspiration for fashion designers like KidSuper and Martine Rose. But Prince William's look was less Balenciaga, more forgetting your gym clothes and having to raid Lost and Found.

It's important to be visible on a ski slope, but Sarah Ferguson took that idea a little too far with her Grimace-colored ski suit in 1988. Ferguson was pictured in the Swiss Alps with Princess Diana and Prince Charles, who opted for far more demure looks — wearing neutral blacks and grays. Ferguson also added canary yellow ski boots to her ski suit. Although purple and yellow are complimentary on the color wheel (purple is even symbolic of sophisticated royalty) and Ferguson clearly understands color theory, the mixture of these two shades does not pass the eye test.

Although Ferguson's outfit is by far the most garish, it might be the safest. Ski experts suggest that wearing loud colors will help with visibility, ensure friends can keep track of your whereabouts, and even make you more detectable should search and rescue be required. So maybe Ferguson's bizarre outfit choice was a conscious effort to preempt any goings wrong on the slopes. But with the security detail that surrounds any royal at any time, it's unlikely she really needed to choose an outfit that made her stick out quite so much.

In 2017, Prince William, Princess Catherine, and Prince Harry answered the question on everybody's lips: Who's the fastest royal? However, they weren't exactly dressed for the occasion. The footrace took place during an event for Heads Together, their campaign for mental health, and saw Harry clinch the gold medal with his brother in second and his sister-in-law bringing up the rear. The sportswear industry has a breathless excitement to stress its innovations in helping runners go faster, as seen with the mainstream adoption of items like compression shorts, which were formerly exclusive to Olympic-level sprinters. Perhaps the royals would've performed better had they opted for this sort of clothing.

As for William, he wore a blue knit sweater over a collared dress shirt, green slacks, and blue sneakers, while Harry sported a dark puffer jacket, dark slacks, and trail shoes. Catherine looked a bit more ready for the race in her running tights and sneakers although she, too, sported a puffer jacket in red. The runners supporting the event trackside were dressed far more appropriately in their Asics and lycra.