5 Royal Outfits That Completely Broke The Internet

British royal fashion wasn't much of a thing before Diana, Princess of Wales, entered the spotlight — but then, in fairness, there's only so much you can write about Barbour jackets, tweed skirts, headscarves, and wellies. Cue Diana, who dazzled the world's media from the moment she was snapped unwittingly posing in what transpired to be a totally see-through skirt. It's a photo that would have undoubtedly broken the internet if that had been a thing back in 1980, but it wasn't. Instead, it was splashed across every front cover of every tabloid in the United Kingdom, and that's where stories about Diana appeared pretty much every day up until her death in 1997 — and beyond.

The world's media documented every step of Diana's stunning transformation from shy nursery teacher assistant to glittering global superstar and fashion luminary. She had a love-hate relationship with the paparazzi, who relentlessly hounded her until her very last minute on Earth. Still, over time, Diana learned how to take advantage of her celebrity status for good, promoting causes close to her heart, championing the unfortunate, and shining a light on wrongdoing, injustice, and crises worldwide.

Diana's gone now, but her legacy lives on, and there's no turning back the royal fashion fascination clock. A new generation of the nobility (and some of the old guard) have taken up the mantle of awesome, outrageous, inappropriate, and sometimes just plain awful outfits. We're checking out seven of them that completely broke the internet.

Given that the British royal family costs taxpayers an estimated £510 million ($634 million) a year, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Queen Elizabeth II could splash out on a new outfit occasionally. However, it appeared she was feeling the financial pinch in 2010 and was forced to wear a badly stained old dress to party with Greece's deposed King Constantine. Adding to the indignity, Elizabeth also had to settle for a tatty old clutch bag with a broken chain.

But save your tears! Her sad stained frock wasn't down to necessity or choice. Of course not; it resulted from a waiter spilling coffee on her, an offense that would have resulted in them being hung, drawn, and quartered back in the good old days.

Not surprisingly, given Elizabeth's usual impeccable styling, talk of her shabby chic look lit up the interweb. "Spilling food on the Queen ... oh dear! Possibly the clumsiest thing you could EVER do! Couldn't her ladies bring something else for Her Majesty to wear?" one concerned subject asked. "The Queen looked lovely, very elegant anyway, I sympathise too as I'm forever spilling stuff down me and my handbag's broken," a second wrote.

Few royal outfits have confused and amused the hoi polloi more than the fantastical fascinators Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie wore to the wedding of William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales in 2011. Beatrice's pastel pink pretzel monstrosity and Eugenie's jaunty homage to Robin Hood were designed by the respected and famed milliner Philip Treacy.

As the daughters of Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York, Beatrice and Eugenie are used to being subject to negative press. However, nothing could prepare them for the seemingly endless stream of memes and intense ridicule their headwear sparked. "There was a horrible article that had been written about Beatrice, and she got really upset," Eugenie told Vogue in October 2018. "We were just about to step out, and she had a bit of a wobble and cried. I was looking after her. And then, about an hour later, I had a wobble and started crying, and Bea was there for me."

Treacy credits the royal family's patronage for skyrocketing him to the ranks of the design elite, so it's little surprise he feared that fascinator-gate would spell the end of their lucrative relationship. "There was a moment where I thought I would find myself with my head on a spike outside the Tower of London," Treacy admitted on an episode of "Desert Island Discs" in July 2018 (via BBC). "But it was a very modern hat, and modernity is always unusual things."

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex's royal experience was doomed from the start. In the red tops' opinion and eyes of fanatical royalists, Meghan was too down to earth, too willing to pose for pics with the great unwashed, no good at that curtsying malarky, and unable to perfect the noble limp wrist wave. Oh, and worst of all? She's a divorced actor who speaks with a U.S. accent — how terribly unseemly. Then, lest we forget that racism is still very much alive and kicking in old Blighty, Meghan was deemed by some as, well, just a tad too brown to be worthy of marrying the beloved Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Poor Meghan got her first taste of the brutal criticism and condemnation she was subject to while in The Firm during her first official public appearance with Harry in 2017. The couple was the picture of happiness and clearly in the first throes of love as they sat watching the Toronto Invictus Games. Still, it wasn't their adorable interactions and hand-holding that hogged the headlines. Oh no. Instead, it was Meghan's jeans, which had a frayed slash on one knee. Gasp!

"Is ripped-jean fan Meghan Markle shreddy to be royal?" The Sun demanded to know. "The fact she chose a look more suitable for a pub was obviously purposeful," Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine decreed. "It was such a significant moment for the couple to be forever immortalised by her messy appearance."

Princess Michael of Kent, AKA Marie Christine, is no stranger to controversy and scandal, which she appears to positively thrive on. Still, she managed to excel herself in December 2017 by wearing a "blackamoor brooch" to meet Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, for the first time at a Buckingham Palace Christmas lunch.

Blackamoor items were all the rage in the 1600s when, you know, white supremacy was a given, and the immense privilege it afforded was never acknowledged, let alone challenged. However — in theory — that's no longer the case. In the 21st century, blackamoor is viewed as racially insensitive, rooted in bigotry, fetishizing images of slavery, and providing a needless reminder of the horrors of colonialism. So, yeah, it's unlikely that bi-racial Meghan was taken by Marie Christine's gaudy brooch. It's also unlikely that the latter was unaware of the brooch's significance, despite her claims to the contrary. "[The princess] is very sorry and distressed that it has caused offense," a spokesperson insisted (via the BBC).

Still, when you consider her past offenses, she's either completely clueless or totally clued up. In April 2018, Aatish Taseer, who dated Marie Christine's daughter, noted in Vanity Fair that Marie Christine once reprimanded "some noisy diners of color" who, she deemed, were ruining her dinner, telling them "to go back to the colonies." Oh, and she also once owned a couple of black sheep whom she named Venus and Serena in honor of the Williams sisters.

It's doubtful Sir Mix-a-Lot would've been impressed by Pippa Middleton's backside. "Shake that healthy butt! Baby got back!" the unapologetically '90s big buttock lover sang. However, the Brits are less padding appreciative, preferring a more delicate (or, as some might claim, flat) derrière. Or they were in 2011, at least.

If anybody has doubts, they need to look no further than Pippa Middleton. Her butt managed to even temporarily steal the public's fixation on Kylie Minogue's fabulous rear. "One newspaper ran a front page declaring it a national treasure. I really did laugh at that. It's not like it can actually do anything, except wiggle," Minogue told the Daily Mail in January 2011.

Pippa's butt (presumably) also had no unique talents. Still, the public obsession with it was so extreme it almost stole the thunder from her big sister, Catherine, Duchess of Wales during her wedding to Prince William, Duke of Wales. It wasn't like Pippa wanted her haunches to hog the headlines. But unfortunately, her gorgeous fitted bridesmaid gown, designed by Sarah Burton, creative director of Alexander McQueen, sent bottom-loving Brits' temperatures soaring and set the internet alight. Burton was thrilled with the design, but she admitted to Insider that, in hindsight, "I would have just given it a bit more room so it wasn't so clingy." Meanwhile, Pippa's posterior was the talk of X — spawning a slew of fan accounts, including "Pippa Middleton Bum" and "Pippa's Bum." So very British.