LIZ JONES: Why must we ALWAYS compare Kate to Diana? It's sexist…

LIZ JONES: Why must we ALWAYS compare Kate to Diana? Endlessly harking back isn’t just unimaginative, it’s sexist…

• Kate isn’t  Diana’s doppelganger and doesn’t spend all day thinking about her 
• Diana was NOT a style-icon. The famous ‘revenge dress’ was too short and opaque tights were wrong!
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When the new Princess of Wales emerged at the Order of the Garter Service at Windsor wearing an Alessandra Rich vintage tea dress with polka dots last week, I knew it would be mere moments before she was, once again, deemed Diana’s doppelganger. 

Diana wore polka dots too! 

The two Princesses of Wales have been declared sartorial twins since the moment they emerged into the spotlight. Diana wore a see through Laura Ashley skirt. Kate Middleton walked a runway in a sheer black dress. 

They were both gauche, shy, big-eyed. Both shopped on the King’s Road for ballet flats so, the saying goes, they could be twins!

When Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore polka dots to the Garter Service at Windsor, there were immediate, but misplaced, comparisons with Diana

Just because Diana wore polka dots from time to time does not mean Kate is her doppelganger, says Liz Jones. Here, Diana is pictured at Ascot in 1988

Liz Jones says here are no meaningful style comparisons to be made between Diana, pictured here in 1986, and Catherine, Princess of Wales

The Princess of Wales is very much her own woman and should be allowed to forge her own path. Kate is pictured here at this year’s Commonwealth Day Service

Body language experts have called Catherine a ‘perfect copy’ of the late PoW. When she emerged in tailored Erdem for Commonwealth Day, ‘The entire look felt reminiscent of Diana,’ a celebrity hairdresser told Newsweek.

Nooooo! There are no deep and meaningful similarities in their style, nor should there be. 

Yes, Diana and Catherine patronised Catherine Walker, Jenny Packham and milliner Philip Treacy. Both have worn a puffed sleeve, a bit of a shoulder. But this applies to all women who must dress formally on occasion.

There are only so many couture-level designers to go round. And, to be brutal, Diana wasn’t a style icon, whereas Catherine most definitely is. Not Di’s fault, as she came of age in the Eighties. She was often advised badly, not worldly at all. 

Even the revenge dress, worn to the Serpentine the night Charles revealed his infidelity on TV, was too short, teamed with black opaque tights. These looks should be relegated to history, and Catherine should be allowed for forge her own path.

Because she is very much her own person. 

Just because she might wear Diana’s brooch doesn’t mean she spends every waking moment thinking about her. 

She doesn’t live in the past and, also, what good would that do William, once quoted as saying sensibly, ‘No one is going to try to fill my mother’s shoes and what she did was fantastic. It’s about making your own future and your own destiny and Kate will do a very good job of that.’

To be myopic about what Catherine wears is like over-analysing Love Island: the blue of her Erdem skirt suit was compared by one pundit to the colour of the Commonwealth flag. 

I imagine, most days, Catherine just wants to look beautiful and appropriate. 

Endlessly harking back to Diana isn’t just unimaginative, it’s sexist. We don’t compare the cut of William’s suits to his dad’s; in fact, as Julie Burchill opined, let’s hope William is nothing like his dad.

But with women? We do it all the time. Even comparing Meghan to the late Duchess of Windsor, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Diana was not a style icon, says Liz Jones. Even the so-called ‘revenge dress’ was too short and worn with the wrong tights. Diana wore the Christina Stambolian dress to an event at the Serpentine Gallery in 1994

Some commentators like to point to similarities in choice of design and designer. Diana is seen here embracing William and Harry aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1991

But the truth is that there are only so many couture-level designers to go round, says Liz Jones. The Princess of Wales is pictured greeting Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden in 2018

Diana, Princess of Wales in Nottingham in 1992

Catherine, then Duchess of Cambridge, in Coatbridge, 2021

Mrs Simpson was so particular, she would have her sheets ironed having wrinkled them during a nap. She really was an ambassador for Dior, as the V&A exhibition proved. 

It’s as though women have no ideas of their own, that we must always copy. That we live in the past. We need our hands held.

Catherine is nothing like Diana. She exudes sunny optimism, stability, confidence. We used to fear for Diana. 

We thought, if she can’t be happy, what hope the rest of us? We look at Catherine and all seems right with the world.

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