There were a few scene stealers at Britain’s Platinum Jubilee – and they weren’t Harry and Meghan, the couple who jetted in from California with grievances to air, but Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. On day one of the celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne , we saw the trio dressed like three peas in a pod (or a golden carriage) in matching blue – Prince George, 8, looked the most formal in a navy blue jacket and pale blue tie, while Princess Charlotte, 7, looked lovely in a blue chiffon dress by the Portuguese label Patachou. Four year-old Prince Louis wore a sailor suit – one first seen on his father, Prince William, for the Trooping of the Colour ceremony in 1985. While television viewers questioned how Prince William and Kate Middleton had kept that one piece looking quite so pristine after so long, children’s wear brands braced for a spike in demand for nautical tops. Google searches for “smocked dresses” and “formal boys’ shorts” and “nautical tops” have surged. Amaia Arrieta, whose label Amaia Kids was also worn over the Jubilee weekend, has seen a huge increase in demand for some of her more formal pieces, with parents choosing to dress their offspring in pieces their own grandparents might have worn. Old-fashioned children’s wear has experienced a revival this year, no doubt partly because of the royal children, but the trend has been difficult to source until quite recently. Edwardian-style designs have always been easily accessible in countries like Spain and Italy but harder to buy affordably in the UK and in many parts of Asia. Kate Middleton’s favourite outfits, and her habit of re-wearing them Arrieta got the idea for her business when she was in London and pregnant with her first child. She discovered there was very little she wanted to buy in the British children’s wear shops, which were either filled with gaudy slogan pieces or unaffordable designs – so she decided to plug a gap in the market. As Prince Louis showed at the Jubilee, royal children move and play and squabble as much as any others, so priority needs to be placed on comfort. “What they wear can’t be creasable, because some fabrics crease very easily, so you need to take quite a few things into account, which I understand,” Arrieta says. “They don’t appear in public that often, so when they do, they need to look nice and appropriate.” That’s ideal for the royal children – not least because the Duchess of Cambridge can’t be seen to be buying them excessively expensive pieces. In 2014, she dressed a 16-month-old Prince George in Amaia shorts for his Christmas portrait. Over the Jubilee, Princess Charlotte wore a white coat from the brand with pretty smocking. It’s thought that the Cambridges’ Spanish-born nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, introduced the family to Arrieta. One of few British brands Princess Charlotte is photographed in is Rachel Riley. When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the church service at Windsor Castle on Easter Sunday in 2022, Princess Charlotte wore a floral dress by Rachel Riley with a navy cardigan. She has also been photographed in coats and cardigans by the brand. Ralph Lauren is another favourite at Kensington Palace: Prince George has been seen in its jumpers a few times – notably a striped cable cashmere one he was pictured in at a Christmas pantomime – while Princess Charlotte wore one of its cardigans in the 2020 family Christmas card. Both pieces sold out immediately. They all sell out – except the dress Harry and Meghan’s daughter Lilibet wore for her first birthday party. That dress is impossible to buy because it was made by California-based designer Isabel Garreton, which went out of business before the picture was released (unfortunately, as there’s nothing like a royal photograph to get brand revenue going again). According to the company website, it was founded in part to “support the advancement of underprivileged women” and help to break “the cycle of poverty”. As with much of royal life, there are rules about what children can and cannot wear. While we have seen Prince George in a Gap T-shirt and Princess Charlotte in a dress from Mango and shorts from Boden, we’re unlikely to see her in a Frozen dress or either of them in a slogan sweatshirt any time soon. You may also have wondered why small boys can never wear trousers – and why even in midwinter Prince Louis is always photographed in shorts, much like his brother Prince George was until he turned eight. “It’s a very English thing to dress a young boy in shorts,” explained etiquette expert William Hanson to Harper’s Bazaar . “Trousers are for older boys and men, whereas shorts on young boys is one of those silent class markers that we have in England. “Although times are (slowly) changing, a pair of trousers on a young boy is considered quite middle class – quite suburban. And no self-respecting aristo or royal would want to be considered suburban. Even the Duchess of Cambridge.” It’s a rule that’s easy to follow in the tropical climate of Hong Kong – but less so in Britain … and with the UK set to experience a heating crisis this winter, let’s hope Prince Louis has lots of very warm and very long socks in his cupboard.