Sometimes Kate Middleton is
subtle in her fashion nods to late mother-in-law Princess Diana—but sometimes,
like at Royal Ascot this week, she is blatant in her Diana homages.
Not only did the Duchess of
Cambridge pay tribute to Diana’s own horseracing event—while Kate
wore the polka dot look to Royal Ascot, Diana wore her look to the Epsom Derby
in 1986—she also wore a pair of Diana’s South-Sea pearl earrings, PEOPLE reports.
Kate made her 2022 Royal Ascot
debut alongside husband Prince William, taking part in the carriage procession
at the iconic horse race on Friday. Kate’s brown and white polka dot dress by
Alessandra Rich—a new favorite of the Duchess—was offset by a hat with floral
details on top by Sally-Ann Provan. Polka dots have been a go to for Kate in
recent months, as she wore the pattern for Prince Philip’s Service of
Thanksgiving in March and again to a Platinum Jubilee celebration earlier this
month.
Kate chose to accessorize with
Diana’s South-Sea pearl earrings, which the Princess of Wales wore on many
occasions in the 1990s, including an English National Ballet Gala performance
in Budapest in 1992, where she paired the earrings with the Spencer tiara,
PEOPLE reports.
Diana’s own polka dot look was
worn in 1986 at the Epsom Derby, where she wore a white dress with the classic
pattern by Victor Edelstein. Her similarly dotted hat was by Frederick Fox.
Kate’s appearance at Royal
Ascot comes in the midst of a heatwave, with temperatures reaching 90
degrees—heat so pervasive that, for the first time, men were allowed to remove
their jackets and ties, a first for Ascot.
