WHEN Carole Middleton walked into Westminster Abbey alongside Lady Gabriella Windsor last month for her daughter Kate’s Together at Christmas carol service, fashion pundits immediately recognised her white Max Mara coat.

The Princess of Wales had worn the £580 coat nine years earlier, when she visited the headquarters of Ben Ainslie Racing Portsmouth Old Town, in December, 2015.

But it was not the first time that Carole - who celebrates her 70th birthday on January 31 - has swapped clothes with her daughters Kate and Pippa.

In fact, the trio are cut from the same cloth as the late Queen Elizabeth II, who regularly recycled her wardrobe and shared outfits with her sister Princess Margaret.

Although the Queen was one of the richest women in the world, she grew up during World War II and came from the Silent Generation, which was notoriously thrifty.

She used to pass on her hand-me-downs to senior staff, some of whom sold them through dress agencies - they were caught out when a TV mini-series bought some for an actress who was playing the Queen.

Later, the two sisters, who were both petite - though at 5ft 1in Margaret was 2in shorter - were often snapped in the same clothes. While the Queen tended to co-ordinate her outfits, Margaret was more flamboyant.

The Queen wore an emerald green Hardy Amies coat and matching hat to visit RAF Finningley, in Yorkshire, during her 1977 Jubilee tour, then Princess Margaret teamed the same coat with a white hat to commemorate VE day in May, 1995.

Again, Elizabeth co-ordinated her orange Hardy Amies coat and hat when she visited the Houses on Parliament on May 4, 1977, while Margaret chose an ostentatious white creation for Trooping the Colour in June, 1995.

Although Carole was born after the war,  she is from the Baby Boomer Generation, she has taught her daughters to be conscious of the cost of living.

She, Kate and Pippa regularly swap clothes - she even loaned her wedding dress to her future daughter-in-law Alizée Thevenet when she married son James Middleton in 2021.

‘While talking about dresses with Carole and sharing ideas during lockdown for inspiration, I tried on her wedding dress and fell in love with it,’ the French financial analyst said afterwards.

‘It fitted me perfectly and was exactly what I wanted. It always troubled me that wedding dresses are only worn once, so it was amazing to give such a beautiful dress a second lease of life.’

It was on March 19, 2012, after being appointed patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, that the Middleton family proclivity to sharing clothes emerged.

When she formally opened The Treehouse, a hospice in Ipswich, and made her first public speech, Kate wore a £139 blue Reiss Trina dress, which Carole had worn to Ascot, on June 19, 2010.

She has since recycled the dress, shown in an online video she posted on the Kensington Royal Instagram page, on November 26, 2020, in which she made a landmark Early Years Speech.

Two years later, the mother and daughter wore the same £450 shocking-pink dress by celebrity favourite Me+Em.

Kate first wore it to meet cancer leukaemia sufferer Mila Sneddon, who captured her heart during lockdown. The couple met at Hollywood House, in May, 2021, and both agreed to wear pink dresses.

Since then, Carole wore the dress to Royal Ascot in June, 2022, while Kate chose it for her appearance at the Chelsea Flower Show on May 22, 2023.

However, it’s not just dresses that Carole shares with her daughter: both she and Kate have been snapped in a pair of Robinson Pelham pagoda earrings worth a staggering £14,300.

Carole wore the white gold earrings, which are set with blue topaz and diamonds to the evening reception after William and Kate’s wedding in April, 2011.

Then Kate wore them to meet James Bond stars Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux and Monica Bellucci at the premiere of Spectre in October 2015.

Even Pippa has got in on the act: both she and Kate have been spotted in a white Issa dress, Kate watching Andy Murray at Wimbledon in, 2008, and Pippa, three years later, while shopping in London in September 2011.