Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton paid subtle tribute to the Commonwealth with their outfits

(Image credit: Rex)

Yesterday was a big outing for the Royal family, as Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as well as the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla attended a service at Westminster Abbey to celebrate Commonwealth Day.

The service was to honour the 53 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, most of which used to be part of the British Empire. And in a way, the Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex wore symbolic outfits, as they both chose British designers.

Kate Middleton wore a red button coat, by royal favourite Catherine Walker, who was also one of Princess Diana's go-to designers. She previously wore this coat on her tour of New Zealand in 2014, which is one of the original Commonwealth countries.

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Meanwhile, Meghan looked very Jacky O-esque in a printed dress, courtesy of Victoria Beckham, also a British designer. She paired it with a cream coat and pillbox hat. Earlier in the day, she was spotted wearing a coat from the Erdem AW19 collection, which was just shown at London Fashion Week in February.

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It's not the first time Meghan Markle paid homage to the Commonwealth, as she famously chose to embroider flora from each country onto her wedding veil.

Colour blocking was clearly the order of the day, as the Queen wore head-to-toe purple, and Camilla opted for dark blue.

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.