How Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton paid tribute to Princess Diana with fashion: 7 times the duchesses of Sussex and Cambridge mirrored the Princess of Wales’ sense of style

A statue commemorating the late Princess Diana will be revealed on July 1 – the date that would have been Diana’s 60th birthday – in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace.
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Be it coincidence or a deliberate homage, here’s a look at when Kate and Meghan dressed just like Diana.
Meghan Markle

Diana wore this black and white saucer hat during a few occasions, including in 1986 when meeting Queen Sofia of Spain at Heathrow Airport in London.

At Meghan’s Royal Ascot debut, she wore a hat by millinery designer Philip Treacy – who is also one of Kate Middleton’s favourite hat designers – which was reminiscent of Princess Diana’s.
While attending the Diamond Ball in aid of schizophrenia at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in 1990, Princess Diana donned a sequinned dress by Catherine Walker. The dress was one of her favourite numbers and a piece she wore on multiple occasions.
The photo “still haunts me”, said Meghan during the interview. “We had to go to an official event. We had to go to this event at the Royal Albert Hall, and a friend said, ‘I know you don’t look at pictures, but oh my God, you guys look so great.’”
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During her visit to Bristol while pregnant with Prince William, Diana wore a green coat designed by Bellville Sassoon with darker green detailing, and a hat designed by milliner John Boyd.

During a Commonwealth Day event when she was pregnant with Archie, Meghan chose a similar dark green wool coat by British designer Erdem with sequinned black flowers.
When Meghan visited the town of Birkenhead, Merseyside in England with Prince Harry in 2019, she repped two Canadian brands: a red coat from Sentaler on top of the purple Babaton dress by Aritzia – quite an unusual colour combination.
But she wasn’t the first royal to wear such a palette. Just look back at Princess Diana’s outfit when she visited India in 1992, standing in front of the Taj Mahal for her famous solo portrait.
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Kate Middleton
In 1984, Princess Diana posed with Prince Charles in front of St Mary’s Hospital with newborn Prince Harry wearing a combo of red and white fashion.

Kate Middleton gave birth to her third child and second son Prince Louis at the same hospital in 2018. She sported a red outfit with a white lace Peter Pan collar by British fashion designer Jenny Packham – which was notably similar to Diana’s 1984 look. A sweet and subtle tribute by Kate, perhaps?


Both Diana and Kate went for white-on-white fashion with local cultural motifs for their visits to Pakistan, in 1996 and 2019 respectively.
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- For an event at Royal Albert Hall – mentioned in her bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview – Meghan wore a sequinned dress reminiscent of Diana’s Diamond Ball look
- A statue of Diana will be unveiled at Kensington Palace on July 1 in a ceremony that will reunite brothers Prince William and Prince Harry