Pippa Middleton wears a £385 Tephi dress at Wimbledon: cute or tragic?

Pippa Middleton on day seven of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships

I’ve been surprised by the lack of Duchess-ing at Wimbledon thus far. The Duchess of Cambridge came out for Day 1 of Wimbledon (last week) and she hasn’t been preening in the Royal Box since. Perhaps she’s saving up for the last rounds. I feel certain that she’ll put in an appearance for at least one of the Men’s semifinal matches, and the final on Sunday too. It would be great if she came out for some of the women’s matches, which have been pretty exciting in the vacuum left by Serena Williams, who is on maternity leave.

While we have to contend with Kate’s absence (for now), her mother and her sister have been putting in some time at the All-England Club. On Monday, both Carole and Pippa Middleton came out for some Center Court action. Roger Federer beat Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets, in a match that was hyped to be super-competitive but Dimitrov kept shanking balls right and left. You know what was interesting to me? Pippa and Carole didn’t sit together! They were seated about ten seats away from each other, although they were in the same section, the seats just behind Roger Federer’s box. Anna Wintour got to sit in Roger’s box. The Middletons did not. Hey, at least they weren’t in the Royal Box this time. Oh, and the Daily Mail says that Pippa arrived so late to Wimbledon that she missed almost all of Andy Murray’s match against Benoit Paire. Which doesn’t surprise me – she probably just came for Federer.

Pippa chose a pale green dress by Tephi, designed by “independent British designer Chessie Grievson,” according to the Daily Express. This looks very… homespun. It’s not what I would choose for a day spent in the sun, watching tennis. The cost of the Tephi dress? £385. Seems expensive for what is basically a dated bridesmaid’s dress from the 1970s. Also: Pippa and Kate share one important trait: they have ZERO shoe game. Here’s a better look (you can see more photos here):

As for Carole, I don’t have an ID on her blue dress. She looked nice enough. I would rather wear her dress than Pippa’s. Also notable: Michael Middleton didn’t go to Wimbledon on Monday. Danger zone! It’s fine, Pippa’s husband, Terribly Moderately Wealthy James, didn’t go either.

Carole Middleton on day seven of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships

Carole Middleton, Anna Wintour on day seven of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships

Photos courtesy of Getty and Pacific Coast News.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

42 Responses to “Pippa Middleton wears a £385 Tephi dress at Wimbledon: cute or tragic?”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Lainey says:

    You know Kate’s fuming she doesn’t get to go everyday. She’ll attend men’s matches. Doubt we’ll see her at any of the women’s.

    • Snazzy says:

      But she could if she wanted to, couldn’t she? Why wouldn’t she go more often?

      • Tina says:

        The tabloids would crucify her if she went too often, patronage or no patronage (the Queen was patron for years and almost never went, as she “f-ing hates tennis.”)

    • Llamas says:

      Or maybe that was the queen’s plan the whole time; turn Wimbledon into work and Kate won’t spend all her time there lol.

  2. Beth says:

    The dress is kind of basic and shouldn’t be expensive.
    I love playing tennis, but watching a game is a bit boring. Almost as boring as watching golf

    • graymatters says:

      Nothing is more boring than watching golf. My father used to “watch” the golf game and we knew not to disturb him because he’d be napping.

      I kinda like Pippa’s dress. The color is meh, the clutch is bleah, and the shoes are ew. But it fits her well and the neckline is fine. Carole looks age-appropriate.

      I think it would be good if Kate wanted to attend every day. Especially if she didn’t wear new clothes for every appearance. And if she went to matches featuring up-and-coming British talent (of both genders). The royal presence is one thing that differentiates Wimbledon from the other tennis tournaments.

    • Honey says:

      Watching tennis, golf, and car racing make me fall asleep with boredom

  3. Steph says:

    Pippa’s dress looks like a bridesmaid dress for a rag doll.

  4. milla says:

    I love the dress. For a wedding or coctail evening…so its a fail.

  5. Danielle says:

    I thought this was one of Pippas better dresses, but wrong for the venue. It looked like a dress for dinner, not for sitting out in the sun. I liked the simplicity of it tho. And the shoes were bad.

    • Janetdr says:

      No lace, so that’s a plus. If it weren’t for those sleeve ties, I would like it.

  6. D says:

    Your monikers for people always crack me up “Terribly Moderately Wealthy James” and “Emperor Baby Fists”, it’s funny 🙂

  7. Pumpkin Pie says:

    Tragic !!!
    She’s got an exhibitionist streak like the royal sister, apparently.

  8. Rice says:

    These people always remind me of the Kardashians, except their social climbing is more subdued. And by subdued I really mean sneaky.

  9. slowsnow says:

    Damn, I’m craving mint chocolate chip ice cream now.

  10. Sensible says:

    It is a bit of a british upper middle/aristo thing to be whippet thin but to dress in a very dowdy way. Evidence? Look at the photos of guests at Pippa’s wedding and the latest Geldof wedding too.

  11. Kristi says:

    Pippa needs a bra – those puppies look sad 🙁

  12. Digital Unicorn (aka Betti) says:

    I loved the Fail headline which was that they had been ‘outsed’ from the Royal box – they have been shading the lot of them over Wimbledon and its funny.

    I like what both Queen Carole and Duchess Pippa is wearing even tho Pips is a bit over dressed for the tennis.

    • Nem says:

      Have they really have been banned from royal box? That may explain the big lateness and the thirst from these terribly moderately unappropriate naked Middleton-james shoulders to avoid that kind of gossipy attention and shade…
      They didn’t even succeed in getting places in other vip s box

      • Tina says:

        They haven’t been banned from the royal box, they just weren’t invited. Anyone can buy debenture seats in Centre Court but to sit in the royal box, you have to be invited by the All England Club. They don’t tend to invite non-royals more than once in a tournament, so in years past we have seen Bradley Cooper sitting in the royal box one day and in normal seats on another day.

      • Nem says:

        @Tina
        Thanks for the info.
        But the shoulders stay attention whoring, i remember better dresses from her disastrous trip to roland garros years ago (when french aristocrats threatened police with false revolver when she was in their car)

      • graymatters says:

        She’s not at church. The shoulders aren’t shocking anyone, even if it looks a little too sexy-try-hard for tennis.

  13. Karen says:

    A fitted off the shoulder silk dress to attend a tennis match? What if you sweat?

    At the US Open one wears shorts, capris or cute skirt. Why does she dress like attending a wedding with a clutch handbag?

    She is a real attention seeker. Otherwise she would wear something discreet.

    • Jane says:

      There is a stricter dress code in the royal box. Wimbledon is much more ‘fancy’ than the US Open

  14. Cleo says:

    I think it’s actually really cute! I especially love the color, but it would look terrible on me as I’m very pale; on Pippa, it compliments her complexion.

    • JustJen says:

      Same here!! I can’t wear peach or coral either. Looks ridiculous. On her though, it would look great.

  15. JustJen says:

    I know I’m in the minority, but I **love** her dress. I love the color, and the basic-ness of it. The shoes look like something a church granny would wear in the 80’s though. Doesn’t she have some nude pumps somewhere?? Carole’s dress is ok. It’s not that great, but not awful. She could have gone with a slightly longer dress, just to the knees. It would be more flattering.

    I always wonder why the British dress up for tennis matches, yes I know it’s Wimbledon but still. I was audibly giggling when I looked around at the DM pics and saw numerous people wearing tank tops, jeans, etc.

  16. NotSoSocialButterfly says:

    The color is okay, but the chunky, off the shoulder ties and spaghetti straps do nothing for me. All together, it is a boring dress, a miss.

    The shoes are atrocious. Again.

  17. Reece says:

    Those are some well sewn spaghetti straps.

  18. SoulSPA says:

    I don’t care about her lack of style anymore and cannot make sense of it when there are so many women dressed way, way better including at the Championships. What annoys me is the fact that she enjoys the attention. Never seen any one doing that with so much perseverance other than Z-listers but at least they have some sort of merit for appearing in the showbiz. Even WAGS don’t get that much coverage anymore. She looks straight into the camera and smiles wildly, so pleased with the attention. All the time! Never seen her shading a photographer/pap. Never!

  19. seesittellsit says:

    Tragic. It ought to look nice but it doesn’t. It’s a nice summer dress, it’s a nice cool color, it’s just – I dunno, Cheesy. And for all the DM supposedly being a Middleton mouthpiece, it was crowing yesterday about the non-royal seating Carole and Pippa got.

    I think it’s the sexed up top of the dress that’s off. If I were meeting a date at a rooftop summer party I’d like it – but just out with Mom at a tennis match, it’s sort of halfway between “Look how sexy I am with the off the shoulders and low neckline” and “Picnic” and it fails on both.

    If it had a scoop neck and cap sleeves it would have been fine. It’s the top that’s cheesing it up.

  20. Cerys says:

    Wimbledon is classed as a patronage for Kate so maybe it seems too much like “work” for her now.

    • SoulSPA says:

      Why does she not show up more if she has the patronage? Mind boggles. One appearance for an on-going event in the last what – 7-8 days? Patronage does not entail much I see – what will she do other than making an appearance so far, and the one for the final(s) to offer the trophies? Such a lazy person giving out the trophies to people that actually achieved something, with tens of thousand of hours of effort, sweat, recovery from injuries and I could go on. Such a shame, really. She is so unworthy of yet another role.

      • Cerys says:

        Agree. She seems to be giving Wimbers the same level of attention she gives to her other non-Ainslie patronages.

  21. Deedee says:

    I wonder if this dress is “honeymoon leftovers” as something she was given to wear on the trip, but the weather didn’t cooperate.

  22. KiddVicious says:

    Pippa looks happy. Horrible dress and shoes, though. I like Carole’s dress, I think it’s fine for a tennis match, non-royal box sitting. She’ll have to step it up for the Royal box. The shoes are not good. Both pairs of those shoes look like they should be worn with thick support hose halfway falling down. They spent so much on their dresses they had to buy their shoes from the dollar bin at Walmart?

  23. Starlight says:

    Carole – go girl – short dress for her age – pretty colour nice hat – squeezed in the middle Monday they did well to get tickets. Pippas dress mm! Not sure a good idea to wear a bare shoulder number but she likes to get a free tan.

  24. Lana 234 says:

    I actually like this dress maybe not for Wimbledon. I hate the shoes. Carole doesn’t look bad

  25. Polly says:

    The dress looks good on her. I don’t think wearing an off the shoulder frock = exhibitionist. This neckline is everywhere at the moment and it’s perfectly appropriate for summer. The shoes are awful.

  26. meh says:

    My favourite part is how easy it is to locate Pippa in the wide crowd shots because she’s so incredibly orange.

  27. Ravine says:

    I’m guessing that Michael Middleton and TMW James Matthews weren’t at Wimbledon on Monday because they have businesses to run.