Goodbye, Gloves! Princess Diana Ditched This Royal Fashion Rule For The Sweetest Reason

The royal family is famous for sticking to their traditions, and that includes their dress code. Sure, some of their fashion rules make sense, like bright colors to be easily seen, but others, like wearing gloves for public outings, are more controversial. For royals, wearing gloves is done for hygiene purposes and to show formality, but Princess Diana decided to ditch that fashion rule for the most touching reason. "She abandoned the royal protocol of wearing gloves because she liked to hold hands when visiting people or shake hands and have direct contact," explained Eleri Lynn, who curates an exhibit dedicated to Princess Diana's fashion, in a 2017 People interview.

Princess Diana often used her street style to send a message to the royal family, and losing the gloves made it clear to them and everyone else that she wanted to really connect with the people. Touch was an important way for her to do that. She even once said (via The Telegraph), "I touch people. I think everyone needs that. Placing a hand on a friend's face means making contact." Princess Diana famously didn't wear gloves when shaking hands with an AIDS patient in 1987 either, as a way to speak out against its stigma. "HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug," she said (via People). It's obvious why she was the "People's Princess," and her decision to eschew wearing gloves so she could touch people was a big reason. Princess Diana broke other royal fashion rules too though, and for good reasons.

The former royal had such great style that we're still trying to recreate some of Princess Diana's most iconic '90s looks. And while she followed some royal fashion rules, she often broke them, and in more ways than just not wearing gloves. Princess Diana also ditched hats, despite them being an important staple of royal fashion. Eleri Lynn claimed in her 2017 People interview that Diana said the reason she stopped wearing hats is because "you can't cuddle a child in a hat."

Although Princess Diana stole the show on the red carpet, she also often thumbed her nose at the royal expectation for formal attire, opting for casual clothes instead — especially when meeting with children. "She dressed to communicate approachability and warmth — to encourage informality — as she did by wearing cheerful, less formal clothing to children's hospitals," Lynn said in a separate 2017 interview with BBC. One such look was the blue and colorful floral-patterned dress that she wore while visiting a children's hospital in Brazil. The dress was very different from the solid pastel looks that royals typically wear on outings. But as you can see, Diana's vibrant outfit and lack of hat and gloves enabled her to make meaningful connections with the children.

Princess Diana broke royal style protocol for personal reasons too, like when she wore black outside of mourning with her iconic "revenge dress" after her split from Prince Charles. "The revenge dress was a triumph for Diana. She told the world in the most dramatic way what she felt," royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Reader's Digest in 2025. As far as we're concerned, those are all solid reasons to break royal fashion rules, and of course, she looked great doing it.