Kate Middleton And Mom Show Up Dressed Weirdly Alike, Ripped By Fashion Police For Faux Pas

Kate Middleton doesn’t usually commit fashion mistakes. In fact, with her sartorial style now imitated worldwide, even by movie stars, it seems that if Kate wears it, then by definition, it is not a mistake.

But the fashion police couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow when Kate Middleton, 32, and her 59-year-old mother — the former Carole Goldsmith — showed up at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium last Thursday wearing almost identical dresses.

The photo above shows the remarkable similarities, that made it appear as if mom had raided daughter’s closet — or the other way around. While there was no positive ID on the make of the Carole Middleton ensemble for the evening, Kate wore a floor-length Diane von Furstenburg lace gown.

The older woman proved the more daring of the mother-daughter pair, however, as Carole’s hemline stopped midway down her calf, exposing some skin and giving the assembled crowd a full view of her silver, high-heeled sandals.

What made the evening even more awkward was the fact that, as one royal-watcher put it, “apart from actually living with mommy and daddy throughout most of her marriage, Kate made the evening out with William a double date with her parents.”

The fact that Kate’s mother showed up looking like an older version of her daughter only made the proceedings more unusual.

Apparently, however, last week’s outing — at which Kate Middleton shook hands with members of the boy band One Direction — was not the first time that the Duchess of Cambridge shared similar attire with her mother. According to Britain’s Daily Mail, the two have been spotted wearing an identical, red, lacy Collette Dinnigan frock — and on different occasions, the same blue Reiss dress.

It would appear the mother and grandmother of England’s future king also share a taste in headwear.

The difference from those previous instances of Kate and Carole Middleton appearing to ape each other’s fashion sense — despite their 27 year age gap — is that last week’s One Direction concert and gala marked the first time they have attended the same public event dressed in identical, or at least nearly identical, style.

There was no official explanation offered for the matchy-matchy mother-daughter ensembles. Whether Carole simply didn’t phone Kate to ask what she was wearing, or f the two were making some sort of statement about Middleton family unity, the curious combination of evening wear is one of the rare occasions when the Duchess has left fashion mavens with their heads shaking.