Diana Vs. Kate: A Style Comparison

Looking through iconic photos of Princess Diana on the anniversary of her death on August 31, 1997 reminds us, once again, of how lovable she was. How photogenic, how stylish, how fully alive and still real she seemed in the firestorm of publicity that surrounded her. Her successor, Kate Middleton, now Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is enormously popular as well, and seems to have achieved some of her departed and dearly missed mother-in-law's grace, adding to it her own tough, polished aplomb. If Diana was a romantic princess, Kate is a professional princess. And if Kate struggles with her weight or her inlaws, none of us expect to hear about it the way we did with Di (and Kate's husband, and his father, and his father's mother are probably thankful for that). Kate Middleton and Princess Diana have both also achieved status as style icons, in very different ways. Their signature looks for some of the same occasions and milestones tell us worlds about both their personalities, the style of their respective decades and the changing faces of womanhood.--Valerie Isakova