Whoever thinks royals aren’t keeping up with the latest runway trends hasn’t seen Queen Letizia’s most recent outfit. While tending to her royal duties today, Spain’s ever-stylish queen offered an elevated take on fall 2024’s It color: burgundy. The queen slipped into a luxe pantsuit to host Spanish Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the El Pardo Palace in Madrid. The look was reminiscent of a suit worn most recently by another royal favorite: Kate Middleton. For a surprise appearance last month, the Princess of Wales donned a merlot suit believed to be the same one she wore while visiting Greentown Labs 2022. But while Middleton first styled her ensemble with a lighter shade of shirt, Letizia paired her precisely tailored suit jacket and trousers with a black pussy-bow blouse and another fall staple, leather loafers.
Both women’s choice of wearing the deep crimson hue signals their fashion bonafides. Burgundy has quickly become the go-to hue for everyone from Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner to Sarah Jessica Parker and Rihanna this season. But the queen of Spain has long been a fan of shades of red from deep oxblood to bright scarlet.
Letizia’s burgundy outfit is a relatively simple formula to follow for fall, which might explain why she wore almost the exact same outfit for another royal engagement the day prior. But instead of pop-of-red dressing, she achieved a pop of blue through a double-breasted coat and slacks. She again layered a black top underneath her blazer and sported black shoes with the tiniest kitten heels. Maybe the queen’s aware that pint-size heeled lady pumps are bound to be a major spring 2025 trend heading into next year.
Considering Letizia adheres to a certain set of royal protocols when getting dressed, it’s quite the feat that she’s able to package so many current styling tricks within one look. Whether or not she’s keeping a close watch on runway trends—say, for example, Gucci creative director Sabato De Sarno’s infusion of “Gucci Rosso Ancora” in all of his collections—her co-sign of burgundy as the color of the season is further proof of its staying power.