Pippa Middleton Will Never Live Down Her Outdated Wedding Guest Attire

Fashion is generally subjective, and people usually have vastly different opinions on what looks good and what doesn't. However, there's one thing most people can agree on, and that's what counts as outdated. One of the top examples of this is not only one of Pippa Middleton's most outdated outfits ever, but also one of the most lackluster wedding guest outfits we've seen on a royal. For Lady Melissa Percy and Thomas van Straubenzee's 2013 wedding, Middleton chose a black-and-white peplum dress with poorly fitted sleeves, barely any accessories, a feathered fascinator, and a clutch purse.

Suffice to say, nothing about this outfit looked good or was fashionable. Sure, no one would have batted an eye if the middle-aged lady next door wore this to Sunday service, but for a royal family member with access to stylists and a decent shopping fund, it was a serious letdown. Let's start with color. It doesn't get more boring than black and white, and not only were these the only two shades the outfit featured, but the hat, shoes, and purse were all the same color.

Samir Hussein/Getty

Then there's the pattern of the dress, an ink splatter motif that looked a lot like a high school student's tie-dye project. It's certainly not what one would expect at a high society wedding. And the cut of the dress was the final nail in the coffin. Peplum dresses weren't exactly outdated in 2013, but Middleton's chosen style was a bore even back then. That same year, a stylist described the outfit to the Daily Beast as lacking a "modern, flattering cut." Considering that Pippa Middleton's best wedding guest looks are nothing like this, we can't help but wonder what went wrong.

As it turns out, 2013 was not Pippa Middleton's year. Just three months after the peplum dress fail, she attended James Meade and Lady Laura Marsham's nuptials in a dress that was certainly not fit for a wedding guest. It featured all of the same boring-ness of her July outfit and made the same mistakes. One glaring repeated error was Middleton's insistence on having her entire outfit be the same color. Perhaps this decision would have made sense in the early 2000s, but in 2013, it was a well-known fact that every outfit needed at least one statement piece or a pop of color.

A difference in both outfits, however, was the pattern. The outfit Middleton wore to the September wedding didn't have a lackluster motif. Instead, it featured a cheap-looking lace fabric. We'd bet a pretty decent amount on being able to find a similar dress while thrifting. And while we absolutely adore thrifting as a sustainable way to update your wardrobe through body and style changes, weddings aren't the occasion for penny pinching, and everyone knows the royals aren't hurting for cash.

If we could rent a time machine strictly for fashion purposes, we'd certainly propose ditching the entire outfit and picking something more wedding-appropriate. However, if Middleton wanted to wear either dress to a different, not-so-formal event, we'd suggest the basics — adding color, statement pieces, and better shoes.