SHE’S been labelled the ‘cost-for-wear’ poster girl and, although her average designer outfit is worth more than a week’s wages for many folk, the Duchess of Cambridge does appear to be a champion for clothes recycling.

She was seen in the same maternity wear during all three of her pregnancies and often repeats outfits for Royal engagements.

Even the suit she wore for Harry and Meghan’s wedding was said to be one she’d worn before. Kate’s thrifty approach extends to her children too; Prince Louis, in his first official photographs, is wearing clothes that Princess Charlotte wore as an infant.

It’s good to see the Royals embracing frugality, but it’s nothing new. As a child, most of my clothes were hand-me-downs or from jumble sales. I’ve still got clothes I’ve had for years. A black denim mini skirt I wore in the 80s now belongs to my niece. She calls it ‘vintage’. I call it a distant memory.

* MY Auntie Mary’s serving hatch was a thing of beauty. Or at least it was to the seven-year-old me.

She was a neighbour who picked me up from school. We watched General Hospital together (she was in love with Adam Chance) and I marvelled at the splendid decor of her home. As well as the serving hatch, she had a beige trimphone - much nicer than our plain black rented ‘phone - which sat on its own little table, seat attached, with a wooden money box bearing a pithy verse...“Pay for your call, it keeps the bill small”.

In her bathroom was a fluffy blue rug around the toilet base, with a matching cushion on top of the seat. It goes without saying that this was a house of the Seventies, and I thought it was the height of sophistication.

Now I think: Why was it ever a good idea to wrap a bit of tatty fabric around the bottom of a toilet?

Not surprisingly, the loo rug has been named the biggest interior design crime of the last 50 years. It tops the list of the worst interior trends in Britain, based on a Samsung survey of 2,000 people and a panel of home design experts. Other ‘crimes’ include rag rolled walls, tribal carvings, ‘inspirational quote art’, round beds, living-room bars, professional family portraits, stone cladding, wallpaper borders and shabby chic. One of the judges, Daniel Hopwood, president of the British Institute of Interior Design, blames TV shows like Changing Rooms for popularising “tacky” trends such as the feature wall - or, as he calls it, the “wall of fear”.

I agree - Changing Rooms has a lot to answer for. Inspired by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s floral wall stencilling, I once tried to stencil a trail of ivy creeping up my bedroom wall. It looked like the set of a school play...hardly the bohemian boudoir ambience I was aiming for.

According to the survey, the 1970s was the dodgiest decade for interiors, following by the ‘80s. But some of today’s trends are naff too, not least the flatscreen TV on the wall which I think strips a room of its soul.

The design crimes top five includes invisible technology; a device Hopwood endorsed for concealing a television set. Now you can get TVs which blend with the wall - a trend that already looks dated. I’d rather have Hilda Ogden’s mural on my living-room wall than a huge flat TV screen failing to look invisible.

Interior decor is a fickle beast. Today’s invisible technology is tomorrow’s fluffy toilet rug...