Kate Middleton vs Princess Diana: Fashion Icons from Different Eras [SLIDESHOW]

When Kate Middleton walked down the aisle in her beautiful Sarah Burton-designed dress, the admirers of beauty and fashion remembered yet another style icon... someone who walked down that same aisle 30 years earlier - Princess Diana Casper. Both women have been lauded as being fashion icons and trendsetters for their respective eras.

Read on, as IBTimes UK contrasts and compares the two beautiful women and their fashion styles...

The Wedding Dress:

The bridal trousseau for Kate and Diana were both spoken about very highly. Diana's dress was made of ivory silk taffeta and antique lace and featured an amazing 25-foot train. It contained 10,000 hand-sewn pearls and designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel said they "sewed her into the dress" for a perfect fit, according to She Knows.

Meanwhile, Kate's wedding dress was an English and French Chantilly lace gown designed by Burton (the Creative Director at Alexander McQueen), in addition to ivory duchesse satin shoes that were also handmade by the team at McQueen.

Comparing the two, what stands out is the puffy sleeve and elaborate neckline of Diana's dress, which was well in keeping with the fashion of the 80s. Kate's, however, is more evocative, in its sharper and starker lines, of the new millennium.

In Black:

Both women look stunning in black. However, without causing too much hurt, dare we say Diana represented a greater degree of royalty in a black gown that Kate does. It could be the latter's more youthful appearance casts a long shadow in this case; at least her first Remembrance Sunday ceremony as a member of the royal family, at the Cenotaph, suggests so much.

In Red:

According to Celebuzz, this glamorous and statement-making colour drapes well on both women, largely because of their fair complexion. While Diana in red looks striking and charming, Kate brings a more diplomatic look to a red outfit, lending it a loud but controlled sense of assertion.

In Casuals:

Once again, this time at the risk of angering fans of Princess Diana, we feel we should admit Prince William's mother doesn't seem to be able to carry of the "casuals" air as well as Kate does. The Duchess looks altogether more comfortable in casual wear.

In Formals:

The Duchess of Cambridge, once again, seems streets ahead of her later mother-in-law on this count. Diana seemed to follow a more typical trend in terms of formal wear, while Kate, according to some people, manages to look both trendy - that is, in keeping with the fashion styles of the present - but retain a sense of individuality.

We are, unfortunately, no closer to determining which of the two beautiful women is the better fashionista. While this is, of course, not a definitive analysis, we do feel we can say that at the end of the day, both Princess Diana and the the Duchess of Cambridge are stunningly beautiful women, each with her own well developed fashion aesthetic.

Check out these photos of the two royal women on different ocassions and in different fashion statements...