Did Sophie Copy Princess Diana?

[ivana31]

The Countess of Wessex visits Ballet Schools, orders dresses by Cathrine Walker ( the late Princess Of Wales' favourite designer ), copies Princess Diana's hair style and charity concerns. I would be very curious to hear your competent opinion about this?

[Fireweaver]

I don't believe for a moment that Sophie is copying Diana. They're both blonds that married into the Royal Family, but they're leading very different lives and have made very different choices.
Sophie seems very happy with her place in the family, and Diana obviously wasn't.

[Martine]

i don't think Sophie copies Diana either, they look maybe A BIT the same but i think they are 2 different persons

sophie definetely got her own style!

[Claire]

I doubt there is a conscious effort to copy Diana. So Sophie likes the ballet and good British designers, so do most women in Britain. Anyway isn't imitation the most sincere form of flattering. If Sophie was modelling had to model herself on someone, why not Diana? She is a good example of what people want royals to be.

Who do you think Diana copied? Diffinitely Princess Grace and maybe the sisters of Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands. Diana was unique, but she learnt a lot by copying others. We all do.

Claire

[Elspeth]

Last I saw, Sophie had got herself a new hairstyle that makes her look a lot less like Diana than she did a few years ago.

As far as some of the charity work is concerned, someone had to take over the charity work done by Diana and Princess Margaret, and there aren't that many senior female members of the royal family any more. When William and Harry have wives or when Beatrice and Eugenie grow up (assuming they join the royal round), that might change. Until then, there isn't a lot of choice.

[ravenprincess]

Originally posted by Elspeth@Apr 15th, 2004 - 2:00 pm
Last I saw, Sophie had got herself a new hairstyle that makes her look a lot less like Diana than she did a few years ago.

As far as some of the charity work is concerned, someone had to take over the charity work done by Diana and Princess Margaret, and there aren't that many senior female members of the royal family any more. When William and Harry have wives or when Beatrice and Eugenie grow up (assuming they join the royal round), that might change. Until then, there isn't a lot of choice.

I agree with you,

I remember when Sophie was formally introduced to the world, there a ton of comparisons between her and Diana, from thier style, hair... you name it.. It even went as far as to say that she was trying to replace Diana in the royal family.

I think that Sophie has had to deal with trying tobuild a solid foundation for herself and her role in the family, while trying to be an individual while respecting Diana's charatiable contirbutions, and her memory.

I personally don't find anything wrong with the fact that they've used the same designer, that simply means that have good style. And so what that she's decided to attach her name to some of the charites that Diana worked with in the past, as far as I know those are worthwhile charities that Sophie wants to give her time to.

I think that more time should be looked at how she lived her life and the work that she does instead of rather or not she's "copying" someone else.


Just my two cents.
Raven

[Alexandria]

Originally posted by Elspeth@Apr 15th, 2004 - 4:00 pm
As far as some of the charity work is concerned, someone had to take over the charity work done by Diana and Princess Margaret, and there aren't that many senior female members of the royal family any more. When William and Harry have wives or when Beatrice and Eugenie grow up (assuming they join the royal round), that might change. Until then, there isn't a lot of choice.

I totally agree. I don't think Sophie is making any attempt to copy or imitate Diana at all. I think there are only comparisons because both women happened to have married into the same family. As for the short blond hair thing, well, coming home today I saw 20 other women with that same hair cut or similar to it and I don't think anyone ever said any of them was trying to copy the Princess of Wales.

I also agree with the comment about the charity. Diana and Margaret were each the patrons of probably hundreds of charities between the two of them. And with the York girls too young to be the patrons of any of these charities, someone had to pick up the slack in the royal family. The Queen and Anne are already the patrons for an extensive list of charities so probably did not have time in their schedules for more; Sophie was the obvious choice especially with stepping back from her PR company to become a "full time" royal.

[TheRoyalEmpressV]

I think that there is a resemblence between Sophie and Diana, I think that Sophie wants to be praised like Diana for her style and charity work but I don't think she is trying to COPY Diana too much. I think Sophie will grow into her own eventually.

[A.C.C.]

I doubt The Countess of Wessex is trying to imitate Princess Diana. I think she is tired of people comparing her to Diana anyway. If she takes on certain charities or causes, uch as ballet, who is to say The Countess wasn't fond of ballet from the start and it was already mentioned that since the deaths of Diana and Princess Margaret, many causes and charities are looking for Royal Patrons. On Sophie wearing Catherine Walker gowns, if Catherine Walker designed the amazing pink gown Sophie recently wore to a party at The Ritz, she should keep calling on her for clothes.

[H.H]

I think HRH The Countess of Wessex is very different to the late, Diana, Princess of Wales. Sofie is an intelligent independant woman who knows what she has to do and how to do it, she has style and grace and when you meet her she is charming and very much a person you are able to talk to. Where as the disaster that was lady Diana Spencer was none of these, as she was a very self obsessed woman who changed moods and used people to get her own way and God paid her back in the end. Having met both of these ladies on more than one occasion i have compared them and sofie is the better person.

[Bunkycat]

I don't know that she's necessarily copying Diana at all.

Both women married into royalty, and it's pretty much expected that they dress well, and do good work. So, Diana was the one who came along first and started the ball rolling. Sophie is now taking her turn, being the most senior royal woman in rank, after the Queen. She even steps ahead of Princess Anne, if I am not mistaken. (Please let me know if I have this messed up.)

She is expected to 'put on a show' and dress well, so it's no surprise that she's taking advantage of the talents of Catherine Walker. It's nice stuff! Who wouldn't want to wear it? And she is also expected to do her share of charity work, so there's nothing unusual about her visiting the ballet or anywhere else that may need a boost in donations and profile. More power to her. I hope she's doing it well and that her appearances benefit those charities financially.

I feel sorry for her in a way, especially about her hair. If she had been a redhead, everyone would have said she was trying to replace Fergie! I don't think she can truly win in this situation. Diana is a tough act to follow.

Bunky

[Lalla Meriem]

Much has been said of Sophie's involvement in the Ballet. I would just like to add that it was HRH The Duke of York who took on Diana, Princess of Wales' former patronage of the English National Ballet not The Countess of Wessex. The Duke has also take on a number of the other causes left behind by Diana. I think this was an excellent move on his part.

[Claire]

Sophie was never a red head. She was born with lightish blond hair which darkened to light brown as she grew elder. She started dying her blond in the eightys, before we (and her) even knew of Diana's exisitance. I think it was an eighties thing, we were all following Madonna.

Claire

[ivana31]

I think that Sophie has been immitating Diana very hard during the first years she has spent with the Royal Family. After all, Sophie has dated Edward long time before they got married and she probably needed to prove that she is a good choice for a British Royal Family Member. Now, she feels more confident and finds out her true style.

[nouwrein]

Originally posted by Claire@Apr 17th, 2004 - 1:56 pm
Sophie was never a red head. She was born with lightish blond hair which darkened to light brown as she grew elder. She started dying her blond in the eightys, before we (and her) even knew of Diana's exisitance. I think it was an eighties thing, we were all following Madonna.

Claire

Diana's existence was certainly known by the start of the 80s (i think even before Madonna had her first hit song, the virgin song i guess was in 1983), Diana was very popular in 1981 - around the time of her engagement and especially her marriage to Charles.

We dont know if Sophie did copy Diana's style, but that blonde hair do was very popular then, even celebrities had that hairstyle.

[Alexandria]

Originally posted by holly*anja@Apr 23rd, 2004 - 11:30 am
I don't mean to accuse Sophie of doing anything, but if you were her and you married into a family whose only real "star" (and really, one of the only truly respected members of the RF) had died and left a "vacancy" which the public was looking to fill, wouldn't you be just a bit tempted to take on some of that? Diana's legacy is a very powerful thing...I'm certain that in no way was Sophie disappointed by any press comparisons to Diana. I doubt that she's going out of her way to create resemblances, but I also doubt very much that she's doing much to quiet the ones that occur naturally.

Just a thought...

I think that no matter what Sophie did (in the early years after marrying Edward) she would've been compared to Diana, even if only for the fact that she is blonde and has a similar hair cut to Diana's. It was inevitable.

But I think Sophie had consciously tried to copy Diana's style of fashion, she would've gotten much flack about it from the press about it, for trying to ride Diana's coat tails and what not. As commented, Diana left behind a tremendous legacy and I doubt that Sophie would've tried to copy it. In fact, I think the opposite was true, that while dating Edward and while Diana was still alive I remember comparisions in HELLO! about the two women, and I think that if anything, Sophie tried to break away from the "Diana mould" rather than carbon copy it.

[Julian]

How many times has this great ballet lover Sophie Wessex actually attended the ballet? What is known of her past associations with ballet or any area of dance either personal or professional? Did she make time to attend ballet in Sydney/London or wherever else she was when she had plenty of time before lucking onto the RF?

Fact is, neither the English National Ballet nor any of the other charities that the PssoWales was associated with actually require royal patronage to function effectively and there have been periods where they've had to operate without any member of the RF giving nominal support. So Lady Wessex's deliberate associating with these things seems quite calculated.

Same with Catherine Walker. People always criticise the Pssof Wales for being too fashion conscious but it was she who brought media attention to Catherine Walker and if she was "too fashion conscious" and you make remarks about her Armanis/JimmyChoose/Catherine Walker then perhaps you should also declare those fashion labels off-limits for those Royals who in your estimation can do no wrong?

[Elspeth]

Fact is, neither the English National Ballet nor any of the other charities that the PssoWales was associated with actually require royal patronage to function effectively and there have been periods where they've had to operate without any member of the RF giving nominal support. So Lady Wessex's deliberate associating with these things seems quite calculated.

The Countess of Wessex isn't patron of the ENB; the Duke of York is. If the charities and organisations Diana was involved with decided they wanted to continue to have a royal patron, there isn't all that much choice at the moment. The Queen's pushing 80, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret are dead, Princess Anne's already very busy, none of the Queen's royal grandchildren are old enough to be taking on this sort of duty, and the general feeling around the country seems to be to slim down the royal family, which would rule out the Gloucesters and Princess Alexandra. Not really many options, especially when the Wessexes are looking to do royal duties full-time after their respective failures at private employment and when the Duke of York has left the Navy and has been criticised for spending too much time playing golf and not enough time working.

[Julian]

The Countess of Wessex isn't patron of the ENB; the Duke of York is

I never stated she was patron of it now did I? I was responding to other people's assertions that she had tried to associate herself with ballet interests.

However what I did state is a fact: none of these is going to go under just because the Duke of York or whomever isn't giving their nominal patronage one year or another.

[tiaraprin]

Sophie has had a hard act to follow in Diana. While perhaps she is flattered by the physical comparison, I believe Sophie wants to be her own person while perhaps continuing the trend to promote British designers like Diana did.

I do not think it is awful if Catherine Walker designs for Sophie. While Diana was alive, the Duchess of Kent was wearing her designs and still does! If Catherine Walker can make great outfits for Sophie, I think it is all good. I don't necessarily think by using Catherine Walker, Sophie is "copying" Diana, she is just using a great designer and boosting the British Fashion scene. If she is boosting the British Fashion scene like Diana once did, that is good too!! Keep the British on the map!! Just because Diana did it, does not mean Sophie cannot take up the baton on a few things and incorporate it into her public persona!.

As someone who loves Diana greatly, I think Sophie is inoffensive to Diana's memory and is doing well! People should leave poor Sophie alone about this and let her get on with her life!