Britain's Duchess of Cambridge is preparing to travel to Denmark this week for a solo overseas visit to the European country.
As well as keeping an eye on Kate Middleton's style during her two-day visit, royal watchers will be looking out for twinning opportunities with Denmark's Crown Princess Mary.
The two are notably similar — they both married into their respective royal families and are in line to be queen consort, and have slim frames, athletic interests and long brown hair.
Not only do the pair look similar, aesthetically, they have been known to twin sartorially in the past, having worn identical dresses by the likes of Beulah London, Jenny Packham and Emilia Wickstead.
Scroll through the gallery above to see the Duchess of Cambridge and Denmark's Crown Princess Mary's twinning style.
Whether its exact replicas, or the same pieces in different colourways, the two royals have complimentary fashion sense, which means the Duchess of Cambridge's trip to Copenhagen looks set to be a style sensation when she steps out with her Australian-born Danish counterpart, Princess Mary.
Whether its for informal engagements, or black tie events that call for formal eveningwear, the two royals have stepped out in very similar outfits.
They are so similar, in fact, that late Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld once described them as “royal sisters”.
For a photoshoot to accompany a Financial Times profile released earlier this month, Princess Mary wore a champagne-coloured Jenny Packham gown. The Duchess of Cambridge has worn the emerald green version of the same dress on two notable occasions — once during an official visit to Pakistan in 2019 and the second time for a Royal Variety Performance on November 18, 2021.
They have also been known to wear the exact same dresses, styled a little differently, of course. They have each worn blue floral-print shirt dresses by ethical brand, Beulah London. Princess Mary first wore the piece during a visit to Indonesia in December 2019, while the duchess wore the informal piece to visit Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn as part of the NHS birthday celebrations on July 5, 2020.
Why do the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Mary dress so similarly?
There is, of course, no exact answer when it comes to analysing the style crossover between the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Mary.
The duo don't share a stylist, but they do, in a sense, share a job. While a working royal doesn't have a uniform, there certainly is a dress code that should be adhered to for official engagements, which will explain why the royals, and their stylists, are drawn to conservative but colourful pieces, which are cut below their knees, with shoulders covered, long sleeves and higher necklines.
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Men from Barca's class of 99
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MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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