Emma Thompson’s reaction to people dissing her trainers is all of us

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Rex)

In this day and age, is it still ok to tell women what to wear? The answer, of course, is no. Much like when Kristen Stewart was dissed for wearing Converse on the red carpet in Cannes in 2016, and then again in 2018, Emma Thompson has now come under fire for donning Stan Smiths to visit the royals.

The actress accepted her damehood from Prince William at Buckingham Palace earlier this month, and for the occasion she wore a navy suit, paired with Stella McCartney for Stan Smith trainers - and she looked amazing for it.

But not everyone thought it was appropriate to wear kicks to the Palace, and a few unnecessarily voiced their opinion, a fact which was brought to Emma's attention when she participated in the My Dad Wrote a Porno podcast this week.

She said, 'But they were posh trainers… Was there a lot of controversy? What you have to understand as well as never listening to any… podcast ever, apart from yours obviously, I don't do social media, I have no idea, so when these things happen, 'Oh my god, you caused a stir' I'm going, 'Why?''

Alice Levine, who hosts the podcast, joked: 'Well let me tell you it was all the major outlets, and by that I mean Loose Women, and yeah they couldn't get enough!'

To which Emma replied,About whether it was appropriate? Oh that's so interesting… They were Vegan trainers. Stella McCartney, Stan Smith trainers.'

It's not the first time the actress has been a fashion maverick, as she once wore jeans to Cannes (shock horror). She said, 'I got into terrible trouble wearing jeans to Cannes once. I was very a very sparkly top and look, if you're wearing a sparkly top it doesn't matter what you're wearing underneath it, and their fashion police said, 'Oh my god! What is she doing? She is destroying the whole Cannes experience! Everyone is coming to see the beautiful Cannes actresses all dressed up looking gorgeous and look what she is doing, she's wrecking the whole thing!'

A woman after my own heart.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.