Catherine’s Trooping the Colour Outfit Was a Direct Quote From Diana’s 1987 Wardrobe

The coat dress is getting all the headlines, and fair enough, it’s a beautiful piece of tailoring, ice-blue Catherine Walker with white piping and those sharp, pointed lapels that photograph like a dream in June light. Catherine Walker has named it the “Lafayette”, and it’s new, bespoke, made specifically for Saturday. But the coat isn’t the interesting bit. The earrings are the interesting bit, and we’ll get to why in a second.

First, what the whole outfit actually costs.

The full look and what each piece runs

• Catherine Walker “Lafayette” coat dress — bespoke, no published price. Catherine Walker doesn’t disclose bespoke pricing, but their ready-to-wear coats start north of £2,000, and a one-off commission for the Princess of Wales is going to sit considerably above that
• Philip Treacy saucer-brim hat in matching blue — bespoke, Treacy’s made-to-order millinery starts around £1,000
• Cassandra Goad pearl flower stud earrings — £7,245, available from the Sloane Street shop right now
• Irish Guards Regimental brooch — ceremonial, not commercially available, worn as a nod to William’s role as Colonel
• White dress underneath — designer not yet confirmed

The total outfit value is comfortably five figures, potentially pushing toward twenty thousand once the bespoke coat and hat are accounted for. But the number that matters is the earring price, and here’s why.

Why the £7,245 Cassandra Goad earrings matter more than the dress

The family vault is full of pieces worth significantly more than would have worked just as well with a blue coat dress. The Bahrain pearl drops from Commonwealth Day in March, the sapphire earrings she’s recycled several times, and diamond pendants from the late Queen’s collection. She had options that cost nothing and carried centuries of weight, and she went with a contemporary British jeweller you can walk in and buy from on Sloane Street.

That’s not an accident. Catherine has been pulling the jewellery choices away from inherited pieces and toward modern British luxury more and more frequently, and choosing Cassandra Goad for the biggest ceremonial event of the year makes the direction pretty clear. Whether you find that refreshing or unnecessary probably depends on how you feel about the monarchy generally, but as a fashion decision, it’s deliberate and confident.

The Diana parallel isn’t subtle anymore

Caroline Leaper at the Telegraph identified the coat immediately. It’s a near-exact reference to a Catherine Walker coat Diana wore to Easter service at Windsor in 1987, holding the hand of a young Prince William dressed to match her. Put the two photographs side by side, and the silhouette is unmistakable.

This has gone past coincidence. Catherine has been wearing Diana-echo Catherine Walker pieces with increasing frequency and decreasing subtlety, and it works because Catherine Walker was Diana’s most trusted designer for formal royal work, and the house carries that association naturally. The house continues under Said Cyrus, Catherine Walker’s husband, and there’s something genuinely touching about the same design studio dressing two generations of Princesses of Wales.

George nearly sneezed during the anthem, and it was the best moment of the whole parade

Prince George is fighting a sneeze through the national anthem, face scrunching, very nearly losing the battle. His mother noticed and couldn’t keep a straight face. The giggle she failed to suppress was the most human moment in a ceremony designed not to produce human moments, and people will share that clip more than anything else from Saturday.

Everyone else on the balcony, briefly

Camilla wore the same red Fiona Clare coat dress and Philip Treacy beret from Trooping 2023. Nobody minded. She’s built her wardrobe reputation on quiet consistency, and it suits her.

Charlotte continues her own Catherine Walker streak, having worn a bespoke butterscotch coat from the house at Christmas and Easter. The ten-year-old is being dressed with the same designer relationships her mother uses, and the fashion press has started tracking this as its own story.

Royal Ascot opens on Tuesday. If Saturday’s anything to go by, the Diana references aren’t done for the season, and honestly, neither is the appetite for them.