Princess Charlotte, as she often does, stole the show yet again at Trooping the Colour on June 13, which marks the public celebration of the monarch, held in mid-June each year.
Along with her baby blue Catherine Walker ensemble and coordinating Philip Treacy hat, Charlotte’s mother Kate Middleton wore Princess Diana’s three-strand pearl bracelet, which she’s worn twice in the past month: to a Buckingham Palace garden party on May 8, and just last weekend, to the royal wedding of Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling on June 6. Charlotte wore a bracelet that looked markedly similar to her mother’s at Trooping the Colour, a nod to the 11-year-old princess often being called her mother’s “mini-me.”
Diana’s pearl bracelet was designed by Nigel Milne, and the former Princess of Wales originally wore the pearl and diamond bracelet at an event for the Birthright charity in March 1989. In October 1989, she wore the bracelet to attend a performance of The Masked Ball at the London Coliseum, and, perhaps most famously, the bracelet was on her wrist in November 1989, when she wore her iconic “Elvis” gown by Catherine Walker—along with her favorite tiara, the Queen Mary Lover’s Knot—for a banquet in Hong Kong.
After Diana’s death in 1997, Prince William inherited the piece, which he later gave to his wife.
In addition to her elegant pearl bracelet, Charlotte wore a stunning white dress adorned with blue details, which perfectly coordinated with her older brother Prince George’s baby blue tie as he sat next to her in the carriage on Saturday.
Longtime royal photographer Chris Jackson told Page Six that Charlotte—the only daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales—has “great poise.” Royal commentator Sharon Carpenter echoed this, telling Us Weekly that the preteen has grown “into a smart, confident, and funny girl who knows how to hold her own both in the spotlight and outside of it.”
“She’s the boss of the family,” a royal source told the outlet. “Charlotte rules the roost.”
Royal historian Marlene Koenig added that the Princess of Wales has described her only daughter “as independent and ‘the one in charge,’” she told Us Weekly. She added, “As she gets through her teens, there will be talk of her being an asset and the secret weapon for the royal family.”
READ: Prince William’s Secret Motorbike Habit Revealed — Despite Kate’s Concerns
“She’s following closely in her mother’s footsteps when it comes to her princess style, and she’s now regarded as a major child fashion icon,” Carpenter said, noting that Charlotte is “a crucial member of the royal family and is expected to play a pivotal role in the monarchy.”
Palace insiders have described Charlotte as having a “strong character, almost wise beyond her years” (per The Telegraph), and royal commentator Phil Dampier noted the princess’s “poise and maturity.”
“Not only does she look like her great-grandmother [Queen Elizabeth], she also seems to have inherited her calmness,” he said, per The Telegraph.
“She’s a natural and has taken to royal events like a duck to water,” a palace insider told People.
English