Why Princess Anne always wears gloves for royal engagements - even in the summer!

Princess Anne always wears gloves to royal engagements, and in true Princess Anne fashion, there's a pretty sensible reason behind this decision. 

• The Princess Royal is one of the busiest working royals in the family.
• This means that she must attend a huge number of engagements throughout the year.
• In other royal news, Prince William and Kate Middleton's family annoyance they are resigned to being 'stuck with'

On Monday, June 12, the Princess Royal attended an imporotant engagement for Carers Support in North East Lincolnshire. The event took place during a heatwave in the UK and although the Princess dressed for the weather in a white and blue dress with a light navy cardigan ontop, fans were confused by one of her accessories - a pair of gloves.

"Just an observation, but the gloves seem a bit over the top for daytime. Is it a hygiene thing…?" asked one royal fan on the comment section of the page. So does the Princess have poor circulation? Does she just like the look? Why is she wearing gloves in the summer?

The answer to this is rather simple and pretty understandable. As a Princess and public figure, Anne is constantly shaking hands with people when she is introduced to them - and as one of the busiest working royal, that's pretty much all the time!

To combat any potential hygiene issues, the Princess reportedly chooses to wear gloves to avoid any direct contact with the people she is shaking hands with. This means she can avoid any germs or bacteria that live on people's hands.

Creative Director of luxury glovemaker Cornelia James, Genevieve James, commented that wearing gloves is something that the late Queen chose to do too. Genevieve explained that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was rarely seen without her gloves on for two main reasons. 

The glovemaker previously told Good Housekeeping, "They’re number one: stylish. Number two: practical. They’re necessary because if you’re the Queen, you’re shaking a lot of hands, so they protect her hands as well." 

So perhaps wearing gloves is another way that the Princess stays connected to the old traditions set by the Queen. Genevieve explained, "The Queen wears gloves because they’ve always been part of her style." She added that they were an integral part of the Queen's image, "The mind’s eye picture of the Queen is the white gloved hand waving."

In contrast, Princess Catherine and Duchess Sophie of Edinburgh don't wear gloves on a regular basis and only wear them when the weather is cool or for very formal events. These royals are younger than Princess Anne and have been within the Royal Family for considerably less time, this could be why they are less concerned about continuing this tradition, and instead emulating the new royal era heralded by Princess Diana.

Eleri Lynn, curator of the Kensington Palace exhibit Diana: Her Fashion Story, previously told People."She [Princess Diana] abandoned the royal protocol of wearing gloves because she liked to hold hands when visiting people or shake hands and have direct contact."