While she missed Christmas Day, the rave reviews this outfit received in the British fashion press were not lost on Harriet Sperling - who arrived for Sunday services sporting a brown plaid two-piece skirt suit that would have paired perfectly with the senior royal ladies who came before her.

Perhaps an early indication that she intends to play very much by the rules, she added a continuity to proceedings that few could have missed.

To quote the late Queen, 2025 is probably not a year that King Charles will look back on ‘fondly.’

While perhaps not quite the ‘annus horribilis’ that marked 1992 when the breakdown of two marriages and a fire at Windsor Castle created one of the most calamitous twelve months in monarchical memory. 

The family estrangement between the King and his second son has remained a festering wound that continues to dominate headlines.

The catastrophic fall from grace of the prince now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has had a domino-like effect calling into question the very fabric of institutional privilege.

With a looming inquiry into the Crown Estate’s property arrangements, an investigation that is likely to uncover more uncomfortable truths, it was imperative that at what is arguably one of the Royal Family’s most significant and most visible outings they make a case for themselves and their ongoing centrality in British national life. 

With a self-imposed silence that prevents them from lobbying their case, it is hardly surprising that it is to the power of fashion that the family turned – striking a note of sartorial unity that spoke volumes about what lies ahead for the monarchy in the coming year. 

Harriet Sperling arrived for Sunday services with her fiance Peter Phillips sporting a brown plaid two-piece skirt suit that would have paired perfectly with the senior royal ladies who came before her

The Princess of Wales was attired in an up-and-coming Italian label, Blaze Milano, known for its chic blazers and accessorized it with a Really Wild silk scarf she first wore in 2014

Modernisation may be knocking at the door of monarchy – but if the clothing is anything to go by - the aim of its members is to look firmly forward.

With a carefully calibrated mix of bright reds and muted brown plaids (which depending on the expert could have passed for a tartan that would not have looked out of place at Balmoral.) 

When the now Princess of Wales made her debut on the Sandringham ‘dirt’ carpet, she did so in the polished simplicity of a rich mulberry wool coat dress with a funnel neck showed off the impeccable tailoring of the independent British dressmaker (who remains unnamed) who had created the ensemble.