Duchess of Cambridge and Crown Princess Mary’s royal fashion battle

The Duchess of Cambridge should chat with Crown Princess Mary ahead of her trip to Denmark to make sure they don’t wear the same thing, Kerry Parnell writes.

When Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge goes to Denmark this week, she’ll feel right at home — it will be like looking in a mirror when she meets Crown Princess Mary.

Not only do Catherine and Mary look the same, with long wavy brown hair and whip-thin figures, but they dress the same.

Throw in Queen Letizia of Spain and you’ve got a royal hat trick, as she’s indistinguishable from them too. So, what’s going on; are the Euro-royals repliKates, or is Catherine emulating her older peers’ style?

Mary, 50, has a decade on Catherine, 40, and seven more years in the royal game, as she married Crown Prince Frederik in 2004, compared to Catherine’s wedding to Prince William in 2011. Letizia is 49 and also married King Felipe VI in 2004.

Catherine will be in Copenhagen on Tuesday and Wednesday, for her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, where she will meet Queen Margrethe II, 81, and carry out an engagement with Tasmanian-twin, Mary.

Princess Mary and the Duchess of Cambridge often dress alike.

But who is the leader of the style pack? There’s always one – back in the days when we put smart, OK, any, clothes on to go to work in an office, as opposed to piddled about in a puddle of jogging-bottoms at home, there was a style queen who set the tone for each workplace.

Sometimes it was subtle, sometimes obvious, like the Sydney PR company where every employee became a blonde mini-me of the owner.

Catherine, Mary and Letizia’s style has evolved through the years until they have perfected a kind of royal uniform of midi-dresses and glossy tresses, suede heels and pussy-bow blouses with blazers and wide-leg trousers.

They often wear the same items, especially Catherine and Mary, such as an identical blue-printed Beulah London dress and pastel Emilia Wickstead frocks. Even Karl Lagerfeld noticed, once dubbing them “royal sisters”.

I like to imagine they receive a posh catalogue through their letterboxes every few weeks, a kind of Royal Boden, which they thumb through over a coffee, ordering belted shirt-dresses and gelato-coloured cashmere, with free delivery.

Queen Letizia of Spain rounds out the royal fashion stakes, with a similar style to Catherine and Princess Mary.

Or perhaps they follow each other on Insta, like Royal Influencers, scrolling through their feeds in bed, zooming in on nude pumps, headbands and mini-handbags, before making impulsive late-night purchases from Palace-a-porter.

In reality, it’s a lot duller than that. The royal women know every outfit they wear is going to be scrutinised to the minutest degree, so they need to be sartorially safe, smart and stylish at all times.

And what better way to check if something works than to see it on someone else doing the same job — much more practical than a catwalk.

I just hope Team Catherine and Team Mary WhatsApp ahead of their imminent catch-up, as there’s nothing more awkward than arriving at a do to find you are sporting the same outfit as the host. Especially if one of you looks better in it than the other.

Still, at least that part won’t worry them in the home of the master of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, because with this princess and duchess, there’s no way the mirror could say who’s the fairest of all.

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Originally published as Duchess of Cambridge and Crown Princess Mary’s royal fashion battle