Three times Duchess Kate channeled Princess Diana on her Pakistan tour
Last night, Prince William and Kate Middleton landed in Pakistan to begin their five-day tour, which will end on 18th October.
According to their statement, 'The Duke and Duchess’s programme will pay respect to the historical relationship between Britain and Pakistan, it will largely focus on showcasing Pakistan as it is today – a dynamic, aspirational and forward-looking nation.'
The visit is all the more important as it's the first time royals have visited the country since Prince Charles and Camilla in 2006. Princess Diana also visited the Commonwealth country in 1996 and 1997, and it certainly looks like Kate was inspired by her late mother-in-law's wardrobe.
The Duchess stepped out of the royal private jet in a baby blue kurta with floaty scarf, which bore a striking similarity to an outfit Diana wore in 1996 when she visited a hospital in Lahore.
She late changed into a second, cobalt blue outfit, this time with an intricated pattern embroidered on the bodice, which again was reminiscent of a floral kurta Princess Diana wore in May 1997, when she was given a tour of Imran Khan's charity cancer hospital with Khan and his wife at the time, Jemima.
Today, Kate was picture in her third outfit of the tour, this time a green button down coat with an embellished scarf draped across her left shoulder. Princess Diana wore a strikingly similar one in May 1997 for her visit to help the Shaukat Memorial Hospital in Lahore.
Like Diana, Kate has made a point of wearing outfits by local designers, something she always does when visiting countries on official visits.
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With four more days left of the visit, I'm sure this isn't the last time the Duchess will channel Diana in her wardrobe.
Prince William also paid tribute to his mother as the couple visited a school yesterday. A student told him that the girls in his class loved Diana, to which he replied, 'You were, really? Oh that’s very sweet of you. I was a big fan of my mother too'.
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.
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