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A united approach to uniform dressing was taken by the royal family at this weekend’s Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, marking the official birthday of King Charles.
This meant military regalia for the King, Prince William, Princess Anne and Queen Camilla, wearing a red silk crêpe Grenadier Guards uniform dress designed by Fiona Clare, but Catherine, Princess of Wales, adopted a different technique in her designer civvies.
The future queen wore a baby blue coat dress with contrast white trim from British label Catherine Walker, that was startlingly similar in style to another Walker creation worn by Catherine’s mother-in-law, Princess Diana, to Easter celebrations in 1987.
Driving the message of tradition home, Catherine wore a three-strand pearl bracelet that had belonged to Diana, along with a hat by Irish milliner Philip Treacy and pearl earrings by Cassandra Goad, first worn to the christening of Prince Louis in 2018.
In a rare case of royal mother-son co-ordination, a four-year-old Prince William was dressed in a matching blue and white coat when Diana wore her Catherine Walker ensemble in 1987. At this year’s Trooping the Colour, Princess Charlotte escaped a matchy-matchy moment, wearing an off-white dress by Alessandra Rich. Charlotte’s triple-strand pearl bracelet was the only double-up with Catherine.
Catherine’s nods to Diana’s enduring style are becoming as familiar as the sight of Princess Anne on a horse. Last year at Trooping the Colour, Catherine wore an aquamarine ensemble from Catherine Walker that closely resembled an outfit worn by Diana on a visit to Cairo in Egypt in 1992.
With Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, the daughters of disgraced former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, absent from proceedings, Catherine was the fashion focus at Trooping the Colour. Since the late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, participation in the pomp and pageantry, including appearing on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, has been confined to working members of the royal family.
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, played a supporting style role in a white short-sleeved Roland Mouret dress with a matching Jane Taylor hat. The only serious style competition for Catherine came from Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester.
The Danish-born royal, who turns 80 years old on June 20, wore a familiar navy and white polka dot dress with a ruffled collar that made an appearance at Trooping the Colour in 2022 and at the Westminster Abbey wedding of William and Catherine in 2011.
While Birgitte’s thrifty style deserves commendation, it was her clever touch of tiara that stood out. The diamond clips worn on Birgitte’s dress are part of a diamond bandeau tiara that the Duke of Gloucester’s mother, Princess Alice, received as a wedding present in 1935.
Camilla kept her tiara at home, instead wearing a Grenadier Guards brooch that was originally given to Queen Elizabeth on her 16th birthday in 1942. It was a Cinderella moment for Camilla, who had to return the brooch to an exhibition celebrating Elizabeth’s style at Buckingham Palace after the ceremony.
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