Adorable history of Princess Charlotte's little red shoes

Royal fashion watchers have spotted a special pair of shoes on little Charlotte's feet. Photo / Getty

Did the red patent, bar-strapped shoes that Princess Charlotte wore as the Cambridge family touched down in Poland yesterday look familiar to you?

Royal fashion spotters were quick to point out that they were not a new pair from M&H, Rachel Riley, Peppa & Co. or another of the childrenswear labels that the Duchess of Cambridge likes to dress her two year-old daughter in. They were in fact a hand-me-down pair from Charlotte's uncle, Prince Harry.

Charlotte wore uncle Harry's shoes in Poland. Photo / Getty

Harry was first pictured wearing the shoes at the age of two, back in 1986, playing by the swimming pool in the family's garden at Highgrove House and in a portrait taken at Kensington Palace.

It's not the first time that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have dressed their children in pre-owned family pieces - Prince George has worn his dad's old clothes on several occasions.

Prince Harry wearing the red shoes as a toddler growing up at Highgrove House. Photo / Getty

For last year's Trooping of the Colour the toddler wore a Peter Pan collar shirt and blue shorts that Prince William first wore to Prince Harry's Christening in the early 1980s, and at the ceremony the year before, he also was dressed in a blue frilly romper that William had worn to the ceremony as a two-year-old.

Many items of royal clothing are carefully preserved, stored away afterwards for potential exhibits, but also in case anyone from the Royal family may wish to reuse them.

Kate favours a traditional style of dress when shopping for clothes for the children. "They have chosen a very traditional look and are a traditional family," Rachel Riley, a designer who has dressed Prince George on several occasions, told The Telegraph.

"We have been doing very similar things for 18 years in that our collection is classic. The reason why I design clothes that way is because if they wear very simple things, it's about the child, and it's timeless in that you can't really date a specific photo or put them in something that seems out of date. I think they are going for clothing that is classic and timeless, rather than clothes that draw attention to them."

Perhaps now Kate's thinking; why by new versions of retro clothes, when you can just as easily revisit the real thing?