What's with Prince George's 'Daddy-and-me' look?
He's too young to know the difference but Prince George of Cambridge's many fans have noticed: He's being dressed in clothes his daddy wore 30 years ago — sometimes the very same clothes.
It was catnip chatter on Twitter.
What's that all about? First, it's not about the celebrity Mommy-and-Me dress-alike habit taken up by the likes of Kim and North, Katie and Suri, JLo and Emme, Beyoncé and Blue Ivy, etc.
So is it a royal thing? A British thing? A tribute to George's late grandmother, Princess Diana? Maybe all of the above, say the experts. But let's recap:
On Sunday, at the christening watched round the world, George, who turns 2 on July 22, made one of his rare and eagerly anticipated public appearances at the baptism of his baby sister, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, with his parents, Prince William and Duchess Kate, at his great-granny Queen Elizabeth II's Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
It was the first time all four Cambridges were seen in public together, pushing Charlotte in a vintage British pram down the lane from Sandringham House to an historic church where 2-month-old Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was christened in a private ceremony for close family and friends.
As the cheering crowds whipped out thousands of camera phones, British royal reporters with long memories concluded that George was wearing old-fashioned toddler togs that looked almost exactly like what Will had worn in 1984 when he was taken to the hospital to meet baby brother Prince Harry for the first time.
And last month, after the annual Trooping the Colour parade, when George was brought out onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace for the first time, he was wearing the exact same thing that Will wore when he made his balcony debut in the arms of his father, Prince Charles, in 1984. Indeed, the palace confirmed it was the same romper.
Imagine it: 31-year-old baby clothes preserved well enough to wear again.
But why? As the song from Fiddler on the Roof goes:Tradition!
"It immediately struck onlookers as being similar to the outfit William wore for Harry's christening, and we agree; it certainly was an intentional nod to the family history," reported an American blog that tracks the prince's clothes, PrinceGeorgePieces.com.
"The cornerstone of the royal family's very existence is continuity, that's why you see historical traditions and customs at every event. They are doing things as they have been done before," says Victoria Arbiter, CNN's royal commentator who grew familiar with royal habits as the daughter of the queen's former press secretary, Dickie Arbiter.
The christening was a blend of such traditions, modern media management and lots of sentimentality. Even the pram signaled tradition: The 1950s-era baby carriage was the same one the queen used to tote her two younger sons, Andrew and Edward, when they were babies, the palace said.
George's red shirt and smocked white shirt with red details was from the British label, Rachel Riley. Few remembered who Will was wearing back in 1984, but the key thing is that some royal baby clothes change little over the generations, no matter the label.
George has worn Rachel Riley clothes before, as in blue shorts-and-shirt-and-sweater set he wore to meet Charlotte at the London hospital where she was born on May 2, and in the smocked dungarees he wore in New Zealand last year.
Arbiter says Will and Kate may have seen the cheery little outfit as a way to include both the lost Diana and the absent Harry (he was in Africa on a conservation mission) in the family christening.
There were other such tributes aside from the baby's third name, including the fact that Diana herself had been christened in St Mary Magdalene church in 1961.
But recycling the balcony outfit was probably deliberate, Arbiter says. For one thing, Prince Charles was pictured in his father Prince Philip's arms wearing the same kind of romper — in 1952.
Since Sunday, the British media have dug into their archives to contrast and compare which royal kiddies wore what and when. The BBC found all sorts of examples going back five generations in which royal children are dressed in clothes we can still see on royal children today.
"When William wore that (baby-blue romper) for his first balcony appearance, I'm guessing it was immediately whisked off and preserved right away,' Arbiter says. "The royals (believe) they have a responsibility to maintain items for future generations...they know people are going to appreciate it in 200, 300 years from now."
Many Americans preserve their baby clothes and wedding dresses, but the royals have platoons of historians and curators who preserve everything from baby rompers to coronation gowns — and they are "skilled in that art form," Arbiter says.
The rest of us? Not so much.
"I kept my son's baby clothes, he's 8 now, but eventually there was no more room so I said just get rid of it," Arbiter says. "Of course, there's no storage problem when you're a member of the royal family."
