Look through any album of royal photographs from the late 1980s and one detail jumps out: Prince William and Prince Harry were very often dressed exactly alike. Matching blue coats at Easter, identical pale yellow shorts and white jumpers stepping off a plane in Aberdeen, the same white shirts, green shorts and navy jackets at the Royal Tournament. As Vanity Fair Italia points out in a new look back at the princes’ childhood wardrobe, Diana was hardly the first mother to coordinate her children, but for her the habit seems to have meant rather more than a sweet fashion moment.
A quiet statement about equality
According to Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell, quoted by Marie Claire and cited by Vanity Fair Italia, the matching outfits were her way of showing that, in her eyes, there was no difference between the two boys. Palace life naturally revolved around William as the future heir, and Burrell has said that Diana disliked any sign of staff treating her elder son better than her younger one. Dressing them the same was, in his telling, a visual reminder that her sons were equals. He added that the boys themselves did not enjoy it and could not see why they had to look like a pair.
What the princes made of it
Harry has confirmed that with good humour. In the 2017 ITV documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, made for the twentieth anniversary of her death, he joked that his mother clearly enjoyed putting both boys in the most bizarre, usually matching, outfits: odd shorts and little shiny shoes with clip-on fastenings. Looking at the photographs now, he said, simply makes him laugh. He also recalled the moment William, as the older brother, decided he no longer wanted to be dressed the same, while Harry, fearing he would be left as the only one in the outfit, found the whole thing ridiculous. Hello! magazine reported the same remarks at the time. Years later, in his memoir Spare, Harry returned to the story, writing that William hated being treated as a package deal and found the identical blazers and shorts an ordeal, whereas Harry barely noticed what anyone wore.
Today the brothers dress very differently, yet the pictures still charm. Coordinated family dressing is now a familiar royal tradition, and the gentle version works for grown-ups too: a shared colour, a similar coat, or matching pieces such as jewellery sets, twin bracelets or a pair of earrings and a pendant necklace chosen to echo each other. For brothers, fathers and sons, a well-made piece from our men’s bags is a smarter way to match than identical shorts.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia, “Lady Diana vestiva William e Harry in maniera identica, anche se a loro non piaceva” by Laura Scafati (30 October 2026); Marie Claire, remarks by Paul Burrell (as cited by Vanity Fair Italia); Hello! magazine, “14 times Princess Diana matched with Princes William and Harry”; ITV, Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy (2017); Prince Harry, Spare (2023).
