My theory is that every woman has a “superficial thing” that they’re really invested in. Some women are really into shoes or purses. Some women are really into makeup or buying the best skincare products or paying top dollar on hair stylists. Maybe your thing is a particular label or style. But the overwhelming majority of women have that one thing. The Duchess of Edinburgh really doesn’t though. I never look at poor Sophie and think “oh, she’s a shoe girl” or “she really invests in skincare.” Like, Princess Kate is really into buttons and hairpieces, Princess Anne adores a particular hat style, Camilla loves jewelry. It’s not that Sophie is unkempt, she’s just never looked like she knows what she’s doing at any level of presentation. Boring dishwater blonde (for which she probably pays a lot), frumpy but expensive clothes, forgettable shoes and purses. Well, Sophie is trying to change it up! She had an event on Wednesday at the Groundswell Festival and she debuted a new bob. It honestly looks like she had her husband cut her hair with some gardening shears.
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, debuted a fresh look for the summer season on Wednesday, as she arrived at the Groundswell Festival sporting a brand new bob.
Known as the ‘Glastonbury of Farming’, the festival attracts the great and the good of the countryside set to Hertfordshire, with a series of sessions and speaker panels providing a forum for farmers and food production experts to discuss regenerative agriculture.
The diligent Duchess, who attended the event last year, certainly dressed the part this July, sporting head-to-toe Penelope Chilvers. From her silk blouse to her brand new denim skirt and gold-embroidered cowboy boots, Sophie turned to the royal favourite designer for the majority of her outfit. She paired the ensemble with a pair of sunglasses from Sting Eyewear, her treasured Giulia Barela hoop earrings and Asprey oak leaf bracelet, and a glitzy watch from Loewe.
But it was her new haircut that truly caught the eye of royal watchers. Over the past few years, fans of the Duchess of Edinburgh have seen her wear her blonde hair in ponytails or updos, but now, the royal has gone short, opting for the style recently dubbed ‘the Princess bob’ by Tatler.
Beloved by the likes of Princess Olympia of Greece, Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, Lady Amelia Windsor, and Sofia Richie Grainge, the bob is the ultimate display of it girl chic – and it suits the Duchess of Edinburgh to a T.
It’s not that drastic a change – previously, her hair sort of fell just below her shoulders, not that she ever styled it beyond a vaguely twisty updo. Now it’s just a sort of lukewarm bob. It would be more striking if she went for a more severe cut, and maybe flat-ironed it super-straight. I’m not saying that would suit her, but it would be a much bigger change. But whatever – as I said, I don’t think Sophie is a hair person, a shoe person, a clotheshorse or a makeup girl.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
-
- The Duchess of Edinburgh visits Groundswell in her capacity as Honorary President, Linking Environment And Farming, will attend the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival at Lannock Farm, Weston, Hitchin Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Weston, United Kingdom When: 01 Jul 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- The Duchess of Edinburgh visits Groundswell in her capacity as Honorary President, Linking Environment And Farming, will attend the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival at Lannock Farm, Weston, Hitchin Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Weston, United Kingdom When: 01 Jul 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- The Duchess of Edinburgh visits Groundswell in her capacity as Honorary President, Linking Environment And Farming, will attend the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival at Lannock Farm, Weston, Hitchin Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Weston, United Kingdom When: 01 Jul 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- The Duchess of Edinburgh visits Groundswell in her capacity as Honorary President, Linking Environment And Farming, will attend the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival at Lannock Farm, Weston, Hitchin Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Hitchin, United Kingdom When: 01 Jul 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- The Duchess of Edinburgh visits Groundswell in her capacity as Honorary President, Linking Environment And Farming, will attend the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival at Lannock Farm, Weston, Hitchin Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Where: Hitchin, United Kingdom When: 01 Jul 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
The bob is fine, if not particularly eye catching.
I just went through various pictures of her to see if I could pick out what’s off about her looks and I think her looks are fine, in a Talbots 2025 catalogue kind of way, which fits who she is.
What’s dragging her down is her eyes. She has dead eyes … no life, no spark.
I have the same haircut. To me it looks fine but clearly I’m no expert. Should I rethink what I pay my hair stylist in favor of having the landscapers do my hair? Anyhoo, what bugs me about her appearance is the dowdy wardrobe which makes her look at least a decade older than she is. She needs to toss all her clothes out and get a stylist to help her with an age appropriate look that still feels fresh.
When I was younger and could wear slender looks, I was a Talbots girl all the way. Now my job is lucky if I wear loafers instead of sneakers with my jeans. 😂😭
And I do have a bob. I wouldn’t think I have much in common with this woman but your Talbots reference made me laugh.
more like in the Sears catalogue end of the 90’s in the western style pages.
It’s okay but she should lean into her angles. The puffy cuts and florals fight her natural look. And yes, a little personality would help too.
I agree on all counts. The puffy sleeves that so many of these women wear are just awful. Why are they so obsessed with looking like little girls? And those puffy shoulders/sleeves look good on almost no one. Sophie loves the large floral prints, too – again, almost universally unflattering.
I desperately wish that designers would stop with the drop shoulder and puffy sleeves – can we go back to smart, tailored clothes as some point?? I feel like it has been a decade since it was easy to find a sweater or blouse that did not add 10 pounds.
A couple years ago, I read a comment on a fashion blog that said all the ruffles and tiers and dropped shoulders/waists and poufs were how manufacturers were cheaping out. No need to invest in fit models to properly place a waist seam—just drop it and call it stylish. You don’t have to make a precise placket that lays flat when you can just slap a pile of ruffles over it. There’s no point in finding a flattering skirt length and fit when you can just put a bunch of tiers on the skirt and call it a day. Fabric isn’t nearly as expensive as tailoring, and, as an added bonus for clothing manufacturer bean counters, adding furbelows to a piece scales across size ranges—unlike having to precisely place a shoulder seam.
When I read that, my heart sank, because I knew I’d never again find tailored pieces at anything approaching affordable prices.
Honestly? My husband actually did cut my hair for me in the early years of the pandemic, and he did a damn sight better job on my stacked bob than Fiesta’s expensive stylist. And he’s not trained as a stylist!
Also agreeing with the above wardrobe comments, Fiesta’s enduring obsession with dressing like an aging Prairie Dawn muppet gives me the everlasting ick.
She and I are about the same age and as teens, the prairie look was BIG. Come to think of it, she often wears Gunne-Sax-like dresses, the other look that was big around 1980.
Those puffy sleeves are the worst – they are so bad I can’t even look at her hair! Plus the dowdy length of the skirt. And the fact that the blue tones clash with each other. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have taste…
I think she looks fine, but to tell the truth, I don’t remember what her hair looked like before.
This exactly. I kept looking at the top pic trying like crazy to remember what her hair looked like before (and I’m too lazy to google), and I just couldn’t. 🤷♀️ If “meh” were in the dictionary, her pic (any one of them) would be illustrating the definition.
The outfit is appalling. The skirt might be salvaged with a crisp white shirt and different boots, but the puffy, blousy thing she’s wearing is painfully unflattering.
I don’t remember her hairstyle either, this looks the same to me she has those pushed to the side bangs that look horrible to me with her face shape.
I like it! She looks good and summery..☀️
She looks so much better with that cut, however, that outfit is atrocious! The top is awful and doesn’t go with the skirt at all.
Muttony.
I like the haircut. It suits her. This style would work for Kate too and would certainly be an improvement.
I also like the denim skirt but the puff sleeved blouse doesn’t work. It makes her arms look chunky.
I like it, it makes her hair appear much healthier, the ends were too thin before.
Quick question, why is she wearing suede boots in a heatwave?
I have gone to those British agri shows and believe me, you want to wear boots or wellies.
It’s better than the scraggly mess before, but a shorter more modern style would look so much better.
Note to Tatler, None of those people are real princesses. 🤷♀️
She used to have her hair in a similar style when she was younger, I think during the Diana years, but with more layers. She has actually always mainly had shorter hair. It’s only in recent years that she has really gone for longer hair.
She looks dowdy, I want to say frumpy (my housekeeper would say “mumsy”), but again, THIS is what the average British white woman (and certain aspiring British women of colour) sees as “fashionable”. She is dressing like her peers, and indeed, like many in her circle above and below her age.
As to the hair, it’s almost as though she didn’t quite trust herself to go with a proper and more fashionable blunt cut, which would have really knocked it out of the park, so instead we get this half-measure, which, while perfectly fine, is just… dull and uninspiring.
In the Diana years, at least in the beginning, she had Di’s haircut (as did a lot of women around the world lol). Frankly, I think that a short cut like that suits her way more this mop. She should just go short again: it’d bring out her bone structure.
I like the hair & the outfit. She looks happier in these photos than recent ones. She’s lost a bunch of weight.
She’s 61 years old. She looks like an older woman with a common hairstyle in clothes she likes. She looks nice.
Now that youve pointed out how old she is, I think she looks good. I didn’t realize she was 61 (although I should have, based on how long she’s been in the royal family – duh).
I’m just about to turn 70. I wouldn’t be seen dead in those outfits!
I guess I thought her face looked good. She doesn’t look bad in the face to me, imo. And I think her hair looks okay enough. It could be worse, since she’s a member of the royal family. I can see why her outfits wouldn’t be appealing to people though. I can’t really picture her in any other type of clothing though as maybe I think she’s always dressed like this? Or maybe not. Who knows. She’s not exactly the most memorable member of the royal family.
I’m 82 so I wouldn’t be caught dead in this outfit. This woman has an attractive face….shorter bobbed hair, yes. And I’d LOVE to dress her as her girly style with dresses wouldn’t see the light of day or night. So much work to do in this family….
It’s maybe not the best version of a bob but it does refresh her look. I don’t want to discourage any of them from changing up their hair, the women of the BRF all seem to cling for the rest of their lives to whatever hairstyle they had when they first appeared on the scene, even if that hairstyle is 30-50 years old now.
I like it on her, definitely an improvement if not particularly striking! Sort of suburban soccer mom. Just no to those sleeves!
I think her hair looks quite nice. I personally thought the short hair she wore when she and Edward first started dating looked good, but she got too many comparisons to Princess Diana, so she grew it longer. I appreciate that she never added wiglets like Kate to make it look thicker.
She’s always been a bit boring-looking. I believe that’s her thing. Even when she had the Princess Diana haircut she was boring looking and that hairstyle was something only Diana could make work (everyone else who copied it, including news anchors and a few actresses) failed.
There nothing wrong with being boring-looking though. The majority of us aren’t going to pop in appearance like JLo.
She looks like she shops off the rack at Marks & Spencer. Her look is pleasant but dull, kind of schoolteacher-ish (apologies to schoolteachers).
Hair looks better than the wispy would-be long hair. Looked best when she first married and it was short and angular. Someone tell these royal women that puff sleeves make you look fat, frumpy, and childish.
Next up, Anne!
I hadn’t noticed the puffy sleeves (since maybe I look at things too quickly), but now that it’s been pointed out, I can’t unsee it….
It looks age appropriate….. Now if she could just convince her sister In law to let go of the long wigs…….
I think a choppier bob would be cuter instead of turned in but it’s fine. Outfit is actually fine too. I could do without the puffy sleeves but I like the full skirt length with boots
Kaiser she is heavily invested in clothes, accessories ( see her mega expensive watch collection), shady jewelry gifts taken on foreign tours, and her overall image as “fashion forward”.
She wants to be seen as cutting edge in fashion. One of her patronages is related to fashion design. See the laughable outfit she wore for Harry and Meghan’s farewell tour. Meghan stunned in that green outfit and Sophie was a hot mess in some asymmetrical color block disaster.
Her hair has been a struggle for years. Like Charlene she has fine thin hair that doesn’t do much, no matter the effort you put in.
why is she dressing like its October
Because after the insane heat wave can confirm it’s like fall weather (high 60’s, low 70’s) for most of England
It looks so much better than her longer hair! I think older women look ridiculous with long hair unless they wear it up. She looks good for 61! The clothes are frumpy but what seems to be common right now. My 22 year old coworker comes in in outfits that are frumpy, too. I wish Kate would cut her hair – it would make her face look so much better.
It’s lovely, and she looks lovely, unassuming, and non-threatening…that’s all I’ve got.
Yes, I love it for her. Sophie is William’s aunt by marriage. His uncle Edward married her. So she is a married-in, no blood relation to Willy. I know it will never be so, but I’d love these two to have an affair (at least if) he won’t divorce Kate and marry Sophie. I said what I said.
Sophie was and is a racist bitch towards Meghan. In person and in public ( “Oprah who?”).
William would be trading one racist Meghan hating bitch for another one.
More likely any in-family affair would be ( or is or was) with cousin Lady Gabriella.
I happen to think her outfit is ghastly, but I like the cut. But I do like the cut. Anything. She needed it, and I think it helps.
She had more style when she worked. SHe’s another one that leans into the Euro Trad wife meets Warren Jeffs Sister Wife style.
Sophie’s thing is expensive designer clothes. Her new hairstyle looks ok.
So I just looked this event up and it looks like a really sweet country agriculture fair. I don’t fault her for wearing boots. It was weather and event appropriate
Irisrose, I stand corrected. Comment withdrawn.