ON SPOTTING a picture in a national newspaper of Prince William watching an England match with Prince George, my reaction was one of disbelief.

“Would you take Ned to a football match dressed like that?” I asked my sister, referring to her football-mad son. “What do you think?” came her reply.

The poor young royal was wearing a suit on top of a shirt and old school-type tie.

Worse still, his attire - in my opinion totally inappropriate for the occasion (or, at that age, any occasion bar a wedding or funeral) - mirrored his father’s. The pair wore virtually the same outfit.

I can accept that Prince William might feel it necessary to don formal wear, but George is seven-years-old - he would have been far more comfortable cheering on England in a T-shirt and jeans or, the obvious choice, an England football shirt. As it was, he looked like he was about to chair a board meeting.

It reminded me of those disturbing images of Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees Mogg walking with his 11-year-old son, dressed like a couple of accountants.

But while I was expressing distaste for Prince George’s garb, others were praising it. Their ‘like father, like son’ combo is an example of the ‘mini me’ fashion trend of parents and children dressing in the same or very similar clothes.

Tennis star Serena Williams’s three-year-old daughter, Olympia was recently photographed wearing a pint-sized version of the red, pink and black jumpsuit that her mum wore to play in this year’s Australian Open. The pair have previously been snapped in matching 1950s-style outfits.

Alesha Dixon and daughter Azura, Beyonce and Blue Ivy, Victoria and Harper Beckham - they’re all at it. The parent-child copycat style is not limited to young children: Kate Moss and her 18-year-old daughter, Lila Grace sported very similar styles on a recent trip to Rome.

Am I missing something here? Is it normal to want to dress like your parents? My daughter’s would rather leave the house naked than wear any of my clothes. Were I to go one step further and suggest that we go into town wearing the same outfits, they’d think I’d lost my mind.

Of course, below the age of about eight kids will wear anything you throw at them, but why would any adult want to dress like their children?

Shops are cashing in on this mini-me craze and offering identical gear in different sizes, or, as Gap puts it, ‘matching family outfits for all’.

I can just see my husband strolling down our street wearing the same clothing as me and the kids.

When onesies first came into fashion I remember visiting a house where the whole family, mum, dad and three kids, had on the same teddy bear outfits. I felt like Goldilocks. They clearly thought it was funny, but I couldn’t get out of there fast enough in case they had one lined up for me.

Fashion is about individuality. We all have different tastes which reflect our personalities. I don’t even like to see twins wearing the same gear, it’s like moulding two people into one.

I think Prince George looked nothing short of ridiculous as a mini version of his dad. And if that’s how the Cambridges dress him for football, I dread to think what he sports for Henley.

One thing that I do like, is having clothing I regularly wore in my youth and couldn’t part with, become much-loved items in my daughters’ wardrobes. When I see them in my old tops it’s not so much a mini-me as a different version of me.