5 Times Princess Diana Absolutely Nailed Wedding Fashion With A Chic Guest Look

Being a princess comes with a seriously weird job description. You have your official royal duties — diplomacy, charity, general pomp and circumstance — but you're also kind of a professional party guest. The attendance of the royal family is both a major honor and a status symbol at a certain level of society, whether it's an everyday fundraising gala or, most importantly, an aristocratic wedding. When one of them shows up, you better believe all eyes are on them — and what they're wearing.

Diana, Princess of Wales, found that out firsthand when she married the future King Charles III in 1981. Every time she attended a formal event, her outfit was a hot topic, so she became an accomplished student of wedding guest fashion. Throughout her years as a member of the royal family and even after her separation from Charles, her matrimonial celebration garb was always on point, rivaling even her daughter-in-law Kate Middleton's chic wedding guest outfits over the years.

Over the course of her public career, polka dots became as much a wedding signature for Diana as the one she left in the guest book. She wore them again on a pink and white tulip-skirted suit at Lady Carolyn Herbert's 1985 wedding and again the next year in turquoise and black for the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. The first dot is the deepest, however, and the multicolored pattern she wore to the 1981 wedding of Winston Churchill's grandson and Charles' lifelong friend, Nicholas Soames, had a major impact.

What makes this high-necked, cinched-waist Catherine Walker dress so interesting is the layers of its print. Interspersed between tiny white dots are larger dollops of green and blue; if you look closely, you can see that the bigger dots are actually more like spiky splotches. Against a red backdrop, the effect is dazzling and delightful. Diana accessorized the dress with matching pumps and a Robin Hood–style hat, tying together a look fit for political royalty as well as the monarchy.

You've heard about mixing stripes with plaids, but what about mixing stripes with ... well, stripes? It can be done, as proven by the Roland Klein suit Diana wore to the wedding of Major Hugh Lindsay, equerry to Queen Elizabeth II. By flipping the orientation, the vertical stripes of the jacket contrast with the horizontal stripes of the skirt. A simple white blouse keeps the bold combination from getting too busy.

This was actually not the first time Diana wore this particular suit. She was seen a month earlier at the 1987 Royal Ascot in the same getup, right down to the pearl choker and wide-brimmed Philip Sommerville hat, proving there's no need to shelve an outfit you love just because you've already worn it. The next time you feel pressured to buy a new dress for a wedding, just remember that not even Princess Diana followed that tired old rule.

Bright colors are always a risk at a wedding. After all, the No. 1 rule of wedding guest fashion is "Do not upstage the bride," so anything that calls attention to itself is a potential faux pas. That included the green Catherine Walker suit that Diana wore to the 1992 wedding of royal cousin Lady Helen Windsor, but some strategic color blocking turned this venture into a victory.

Of course, the navy waist panel is the star of this look, but as was often the case with Diana's fashion, the real genius is in the details. The color palette extends to her navy hat, which is trimmed in the same green as her suit. A matching pair of gloves and purse ties the look together, while a red manicure provides another unobtrusive pop of color. The sweetest accessory, however, is the pair of diamond and pearl earrings that were given to Diana as a present for her own wedding by the Collingwood jewelry firm.

Later in 1992, Diana proved once again that there's no shame in being an outfit repeater. And why should there be? She looked stunning in this suit by — you guessed it — Catherine Walker. (She was the princess's favorite designer, after all.) She was photographed in the baby blue jacket and velvet navy skirt on a trip to South Korea and seems to have decided she loved the look so much that she pulled it back out a month later for the December wedding of Harry Herbert (Lady Carolyn's brother, for those trying to keep them straight).

It only took a few key changes — swapping the black pumps for matching navy ones and adding a matching oversized hat — to take this suit from everyday travel wear to wedding ready. Once again, Diana's eye for detail made all the difference. She must have known that the bold black stripes trimming the edges of the jacket and the brim and crown of the hat meant that it wouldn't take much to dress up this otherwise casual look.

If bright colors are a gamble, wearing a white dress as a wedding guest is enough to get you exiled in some circles. How did Diana pull it off at the 1993 wedding of Princess Margaret's son, David Armstrong-Jones? She made it part of the palette. Thanks to the white trim on her powder blue hat and jacket, it's not even obvious at first glance that the shift dress underneath is white.

Of course, with Diana, it was never enough simply to match a hat and a jacket. Her gloves and heels are the same powder blue, and a pearl choker picks up the white accents as well. The final effect doesn't scream "white dress" but rather whispers "muted suit." On top of looking polished, the thick knit seems cozy, too — a must for an October event. Even in white, Diana knew exactly what to wear (and what not to wear) to a fall wedding.