You won’t believe how much Princess Charlotte is making right now

Harper Beckham better watch out

princess charlotte
(Image credit: Rex Features (Shutterstock))

Harper Beckham better watch out

Move over Harper Beckham, there’s a new fashion influencer in town, and even though you've trademarked your name, she's already made a heck of a lot of money. For the UK that is.

We’re of course referring to Princess Charlotte. Now we all know about the Kate Middleton effect, where anytime the Royal wears something nice (which is always tbf), it sells out in minutes.

But it turns out the Princess Charlotte effect is now a thing too, and it started pretty much the minute she was born, as the GH Hurt & Sons shawl she was wrapped in sold out instantly.

A couple of years on, and she’s got a net value of £3 billion, according to Brand Finance. Yep, £3 billion.

This means she’ll rake in more than Prince George (he's only bringing in £2.4b, poor thing), though still less than Kate, who’s contributing £4.7b to the economy each year.

But don’t feel too bad George. Brand Finance’s marketing and communications director Robert Haigh says there’s a simple explanation.

'This is actually as simple as the relative size of the men’s and women’s fashion markets, by which I mean that Charlotte’s endorsement effect will likely be felt across a much broader range of products and brands or types of clothing than will George’s, allowing a greater scope for the monetisation of her ‘brand’ and hence a higher value,' he says.

That’s just the beginning too. Imagine what it’ll be like when Charlotte starts wearing teen and then adult clothes. We bet she'll make a frock sell out faster than any decent fashion influencer could.

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.