Finally, a glorious return to buttons! The Duchess of Cambridge was out and about today in Oxford. We’re coming up to the time where Kate really starts easing back her whirlwind schedule, because she doesn’t like to travel or do any events in the last month of her pregnancy. She’s due in April, but we don’t know when in April, and considering her visibility and the size of her bump, I’m thinking maybe late April? Who knows though. It’s also perfectly possible that Kate will be doing events up throughout her third trimester this time, because everything is different now that Meghan Markle is on the scene.
Anyway, Kate finally repeated one of the many maternity coats which were already in her closet from her first two pregnancies. This repeat is from JoJo Maman Bebe, and at the time it only cost £69. I have no memory of seeing Kate in this coat before, by the way, I’m just going with the Daily Mail’s comment that this is a repeat (they say she wore this to her Downton Abbey set visit when she was pregnant with Charlotte). Which makes me wonder… why hasn’t she been repeating more looks? She has tons of stuff in her closet which we’ve forgotten about.
Kate’s event was a visit to the Pegasus Primary School in Oxford, where she chatted with teachers and students about mental and emotional health. The school has some kind of charity program through the school. Kensington Palace even posted some barely audible videos of Kate being keen. There’s an aspect of performative keenness to this, but sh-t, I’ll take it. We’ve been complaining about her lack of work ethic for so long, the fact that we are awash in performative keenness feels great.
HRH chats to students Jodie, Zhara and Emelia about how 'Circle Time' helps them to talk about difficult issues and support their classmates. pic.twitter.com/Eu5qzsSyf4
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) March 6, 2018
Photos courtesy of Getty.
She really does pop very late, I think she looks lovely, a tad bit washed out but the colour but still lovely.
On another note I was reading an interesting blog take on why William and Kate have been out so much. The royal family was worried about the reaction to MM and so Will and Kate were set-up to be out an about much more to draw attention in case the reaction to the engagement and MM was negative. I am not sure if it’s true or not but I love a decent conspiracy theory.
I love a conspiracy theory. I think this one would only work if Will and Kate were team players with the rest of the BRF, and I’ve never gotten that impression from them.
That family can’t get it together to take over from Philip’s retirement in a coherent way, let alone deal with the Daily Mail’s racism toward Meghan. (And also W&K have never done anything non-selfish in their respective lives).
This coat looks amazing on her and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the buttons.
people here like to act like coats don’t normally come with buttons.
they do. she’s fine.
“performative keen-ness” hahahaha so true. so true.
I wonder if she used to speak with her hands as much before being a Royal.
You know, I tend to suffer from performative keenness so I can’t hate on her for that. There are people who are naturally effusive and I’m not one of them. I learned only in my late teens that people tend to take it as being in a bad mood or disinterest. So sometimes I think I may overdo it but it just doesn’t come naturally. Even when someone has excellent news, they may think I just fell asleep during their baby announcement.
She looks nice but the coat doesn’t really fit, does it?
The coat doesn’t fit now, she waited too long to bring it out.
I agree it doesn’t fit, but googling photos of the original time she wore it, I don’t think she’s waited longer, she’s just carrying the baby differently from how she carried Charlotte.
I think we should celebrate our Keen Duchess of buttons with some limericks!
Who’s with me?
I’ll start:
Our Katie’s keen at work once more
Her keenness at service being brought to the fore
She’s thrifty and tireless
Her work for the great and the good endless
No, it’s not true, that woman’s arrival has not shook her to her core.
Shocked at how busy she is these days. Wow!
Don’t remember the coat, but happy to see she is recycling. I’m glad to see she is stepping up. A lot of people seem to think it’s due to the coming of Meghan, but it probably has as much to do as Phillip retiring,
I always thought that they had a deal of a few quiet years with their young family that neither the Queen/Philip or Charles/Diana had (and possibly regretted) and then they would step up when Philip retired and the Queen started to scale back. William has been standing in for Phillip and escorting the Queen at events since last summer.
This early year deal is a madeup lie perpetuated to explain away their refusal to work in the early years.
Philip gave an interview in 2012 sayinghe would love to retire that year, but the young ones were not stepping up and thus he had to continue.
2012 was also the year that Philip had several health scares that required multiple stays in hospital and stepping away from duties yet that didn’t make William (or Kate) step up to help.
Not forgetting that Kate barely worked in her first year of marriage leading the palace to put out a statement declaring that she was researching her interests before coming up with a grand total of 5 charities which she’s barely visited since she was announced their patron.
Ditto lots of now-burried articles snarling about her shopping rather than working or visiting her charities.
In 2015, William gave that interview at EAAA which is best summed up as #whateverworkmeans and went as far as saying he was perfectly fine with the older royals working coz he was doing much more meaningful work which he hoped would continue to extent that he was only a part-time King.
lunde, thank you for your sane comment.
I agree with LAK, they avoided work like the plague and used privacy as an excuse. If I had their kind of platform, I would be out and running, giving voice to causes that’s dear to my heart but no, they used up more energy in avoiding work. Time will only tell if their work ethic has changed.
Thanks for saying it so clearly, LAK.
William did less work in 2017 than in 2016, notwithstanding the “full time since September 2017” and “taking over for Philip” BS.
Ah yes, the Malta Lie. Amazing how many fell for that excuse, magicked up by a press who had no excuses or reasons why these two refused to work.
If the work uptick had anything to do with PP’s retirement, they would be taking over more of his charities and commitments. They aren’t. Kate, in particular, is pushing mental health with most of her engagements and it’s the one passion project she’s been publicly credited for initiating.
Kate’s competitive. This is her way of ensuring that no one forgets about her when she’s home with a newborn while Meghan’s on the scene.
@Tina
The tours of Sweeden and Norway scheduled for late 2017 was postponed because of Kate’s HG. Had it not been postponed his 2017 numbers would have been higher than his 2016 numbers.
* was meant to say Sweden lol
September-December is four months, a full third of the year. The tour alone should not have made a material difference to the numbers. He’s just lazy.
She looks fine, nothing special, but it’s good she’s out and about.
It is good to see her out. I hope we see her work right up to second week of April.
I’m pregnant – a government employee get 8 weeks leave before birth in my country (Denmark). I work for a private company and we get 4 weeks.
How is it in England?
After my birth I (or my boyfriend – the weeks can be shared) have 46 weeks of maternity leave.
@ namasta
https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave
KP seem to have chosen mental health as ‘Kate’s cause’, which is great and she’s in a unique position where her visibility could make a real difference if she really goes for it.
She needs to dig in a bit more though going forward. Her comments so far have been skating on the surface and more of the ‘mental health is important, guys’ type, which is fine to start, but isn’t going to do anything if that’s as far as it goes over the coming years.
I’d love it if she got some education or employed a mental health professional as an advisor so that she could talk with depth and authority about the subject.
Don’t just talk the keen, walk the keen!
I think that would be asking too much and I don’t think that it would even be in her job description. Promoting the cause by showing up and acting interested is all that’s expected of her.
If she’s doing it for the sake of doing it, sure. If she’s doing it to be effective, she could throw herself into it and at the very least speak with depth and knowledge when she does give a speech.
She’s bringing awareness not pretending to be an expert. She’s educating herself by engaging with those in the know. Give her a break!
True, but I bet there’s nothing that would prevent her from getting more education around this issue. I finished my substance abuse counseling license last year, and it was 6 hours a week for a year – not too onerous, and some kind of certificate course for a license like that would really help her understand more and be able to discuss the issues much more clearly. And substance abuse and mental health go hand in hand – over 80% of addicts and alcoholics have a mental health challenge such as depression, anxiety, ADD, bipolar, etc.
I know she doesn’t have to and probably wouldn’t be interested, but it is actually a good idea for her.
Kate gets all the breaks. How many other women are allowed to live on taxpayer money and get close to 300k every year for new clothing. She knew that the BRF was expected to attend engagements and would have seen them doing it when she was a child in the UK. Asking her to actually care is a bit too much because it’s not like she cared enough about anything but shopping during the time she finished university and waited for the proposal. She had plenty of time to do charity work during those years but chose not to. She only does what she must and will not do more than that. You don’t change your character at 36.
I actually think that if Kate had done charity work during the waity years, she would be mocked here as having been insincere and desperate, in the same way that MM’s pre-engagement charity work is framed as self-serving by the Meghan haters.
Good point Beluga. She could take some online courses in psychology/mental illness after she has her baby. I took my masters after I had my first child. Only a day a week, the rest of the time I worked at home while he napped. Took a bit longer but I enjoyed the intellectual stimulation.
At this stage in her pregnancy, she gets a pass on repeats or no repeats or whatever. She looks great. That baby is coming soon. I am figuring that she is putting some “work” in before maternity leave. I am happy to see them out and about more. It makes them more interesting. Any guesses on names? My 6 month old is named Mary so I am going with that as my guess for a girl.
Aw, I fell in love with the name Mary this past year. It’s kind of become a really unique and pretty name these days; whereas, it was very common back in the day.
Do you think lately she is wearing clothes that are more affordable because of MM. Even recently at their first panel discussion Megan was wearing something that cost over $ 2,000 dollars and her dress was i think under $300.00
MM has all the hallmarks of someone who loves to spend on high end designer unlike Kate who leans towards high street good for KM I say
KM didn’t have access to designer clothing until she married. Sure she got freebies in exchange for becoming a walking billboard for those designers, but she shopped or borrowed and shared wardrobe with her mother to give impression of an extensive wardrobe.
When she finally leaned into the designer clothing, she went straight to the super expensive stuff that she wears just once. Or bespoke clothing that is equally expensive. And her jewellery collection of tiny earrings or pendants that retail at £3000 a pop when she’s being thrifty or £50K when she’s not.
MM has been able to afford designer for about 7yrs now and wears clothing that is not super expensive given what she can afford to drop. I’d say that she errs on the side of mid-range designers rather than KM’s super expensive designers.
To follow on from what LAK is saying, IIRC she (Katie Keen) used to rent designer clothes, can’t remember which website it was.
MM as a semi-successful TV actress would have either gotten freebies or massive discounts for her designer wardrobe.
MM wears Everlane and Aritzia. Both Meghan and Kate wear high and mid-priced clothes.
Generally, hasn’t Kate stepped away from the LK Bennett, Zara etc. looks lately?
Also, what are all the hallmarks of wanting to spend on high end designers vs.high street?
@Natalie S, I was wondering the same thing. “Hallmarks”? People are getting creative (SMH). Anyway, other than the couture gown MM wore for the engagement photos, I haven’t seen her wear much in the way of truly luxury or high end designers. There are the usual fashion blogs that chronicle her wardrobe, and I haven’t seen much there either.
That’s the narrative she is trying to sell. Oh look at me am so keen and thrifty. Nobody cares about the price of MM clothes because she has more to offer than just clothes which is more than could be said for Kate Keen.
Already this year she has worn a £2,000 Burberry coat, £1350 Stella McCartney coat, a £1,500 Jason Wu dress and an almost £2,000 McQueen suit. That’s pretty some pricy royal wear already straight out of the blocks and that isn’t including the new designer handbags and shoes she has worn. It wouldn’t surprise me if she wears £10,000 worth of clothing and accessories BEFORE she becomes royal.
Princes Charles is going to have to give Meghan double the clothing allowance he gives to Kate if she carries on the way she is going.
@whatever. Why are you counting Meghan’s money? She actually had a job and earned a paycheck. What’s the problem with that?
When Kate and William still went to Mustique every year, the argument was that the Middletons were paying and they were enjoying their success. If it’s noteworthy how Meghan spends her own money, what does that say about Kate who was a grown woman in her late twenties spending her parents’ money? Kate lived a pretty nice life for someone who almost never earned a paycheck. Rather undermines the theatrics of wearing the occasional item from Zara.
@whatever, “pricey royal wear” is exactly what Katie does wear, when she decides to work, so there’s nothing extraordinary or frugal about the money she spends on clothes. When she wears a low-cost, off-the-rack item like H&M, it is random and rare. But, you never know. “Work” may prove to be the relative and equalizing factor in both of their wardrobes. Only time will tell.
ETA: Agree, Natalie S. MM earned her money. Katie’s been living on OPM for years.
@Olenna, Natalie S
If she bought the stuff with her own money then fine but there is no deny Meghan has expensive taste, expensive taste that Prince Charles will be picking up the tab for after May 19th. In contrast, Kate was happy to wear LK Bennett, Zara, Reiss, Whistles etc..at the beginning of her Royal life. Her choices have changed now but it hasn’t always been like that.
And all this talk about Kate buying super expensive one-of-a-kind pieces; do you really think Meghan isn’t going to do the same once she is married so whats the issue with it?
Kate was happy to evict a charity from Apt. 1 A in 2011. Buy some Zara and insist on an apartment that is so large that it was presented as part of the gossip of how spoiled Princess Margaret was. All while telling people how normal you are. Smart.
Kate isn’t thrifty. She’s just strategic. Wear a massively expensive Cartier necklace, then show up in a cheap dress when there’s backlash.
Meghan has the hallmark of someone thats worked hard to earn her money and is spending it the way she wants. Her money not yours.Until she becomes a royal on may 19,it isn’t your business to be counting how much she’s spending with her own damn money.kate never worked,never earned a paycheck and lived off her parents.theres a difference there.Kate is also an expensive royal,she wears bespoke,has some pretty darn expensive earrings and clothes that we never see again after their first outing
@whatever, you ask “do you really think Meghan isn’t going to do the same once she is married so whats the issue with it?” Did you really read my comments or just react? And, what is the “issue” you speak of? That some people presume MM has lavish tastes that will exceed Katie’s, or that Katie has lavish tastes but not too lavish compared to MM’s, or they both have lavish tastes but it’s OK for Kate but not MM? Like I said, time will tell. For now, MM has my benefit of the doubt. Katie’s time has expired and, in relation to her work ethic, her clothing expenditures are barely defensible.
Meghan works for her money. She even had a line if clothing with a store group in Canada. She ran The Tig. She acted. (She did embassy and charity work, too, as we know.) She has been spending her own money.
Kate, as someone above noted, has lived remarkably well for someone who hasn’t worked. She is adept at avoiding work, and taking and feeling, apparently, no guilt.
There is a clear difference between these women.
On top of her earnings as an actress, retail spokesperson, etc., MM also recently sold a house in a Toronto neighbourhood where the average house was worth $851,722 in 2015 (not sure about now but almost certainly higher)… and she has no need to buy a new house. In fact, she doesn’t need to worry about investing or paying for things at all anymore. What she does need to invest in is her image. And since a big part of any famous woman’s image is her style, I’d say buying designer clothing makes sense, as long as it actually looks good on her.
I agree that after her wedding, it’ll be time to start keeping track of prices… but for now? Bring on the luxury, I say!
Btw, why do you guys think it’s wrong to spend your parents’ money? Why work when you don’t need to? It’s funny when people point that out as a criticism. That time is usually spent studying or partaking in volunteer/charity work and sometimes, a part-time job. The only thing I agree with is that Kate should’ve taken up a part-time role at a charity organisation. A few times a week wouldn’t have had any impact on her social/private life. It does speak volumes that she wasn’t interested in giving back, at that point in her life.
“That time is usually spent studying or partaking in volunteer/charity work and sometimes, a part-time job.”? Wow. I’m lucky enough to be fairly affluent now but I’ve worked since I was 17, part time in term time and full time in the holidays. That’s a pretty privileged state of affairs you describe.
@Ravine
The Toronto house was not hers to sell she only rented it.
To answer OP question yes this is what I think she is doing. It’s going to be interesting to compare Kate’s 2011 clothes total with MM 2018 clothes total.
Why are people getting so defensive? Meghan wears designers clothes, in the same way a lot of us do. There’s nothing wrong with wearing mid to high range designers. We spend the amount that we can afford. I still don’t understand why people make such a fuss over Kate’s wardrobe! She’s a Duchess… do you expect her to wear clothes from the high street, for official Royal events? I’ve seen normal pap/off duty pics of Kate – she usually wears Zara pieces. It doesn’t matter if you like the outfits or not, the nitpicking over her clothes seems silly. For the most part, I find her outfits lacking. She seems to stick to a certain style of dresses/skirts, but I don’t understand complaining about the price. Meghan hasn’t worn high street clothing and I don’t see anyone on here complaining! It’s unusual because most people moan about Kate’s wardrobe expenses. When Meghan becomes a Duchess, I expect her to do what Kate does. She’ll have a bigger allowance and judging by the haute couture gown, she might get carried away. I can’t recall Kate wearing haute couture.
Guest1, for both Kate and Meghan, after the wedding, the Duchy – aka the British public – pays their expenses for work, including all of their clothes. Kate’s clothing has topped over 200K some years, if I recall correctly, which is absurd considering how little she has worked. I think she is being thriftier now to look like Thrifty Kate compared to Meghan.
Meghan does have expensive and good taste, but when the public picks up the cost, it will be interesting to see what she does. There is a story on the DM that her wedding gown cost over $500,000, so here we go again.
No offense Trixie, but knowing how you feel about MM, I wouldn’t rely on any information you or the Daily Fail present about her as fact.
Just a quick check on the Fail and they have quoted her dress as costing circa £400k. And now, even that unreliable figure has crept up in your comment to £500k…..lol.
Bellagio, if you weren’t so quick to take offense on behalf of Meghan, you would have read correctly – i said $500,000 – dollars – not Euros. I was off a bit, as 400,000 E is 496,000 dollars.
So much for my fake facts!
/math is fun lol
Wait a minute……..
I know I only have the intelligence of a fruit-fly, but I was addressing a comment TRIXIE made…….why are you now responding as VERONICA??!!
Do you have 2 aliases??!!
Ok, so let me get this straight. Trixie said, “There is a story on the DM that her wedding gown cost over $500,000, so here we go again”. No one else in this thread before her/him mentions the $500K. Then, Veronica said, “Bellagio, if you weren’t so quick to take offense on behalf of Meghan, you would have read correctly – i said $500,000 – dollars – not Euros”. So, the $500,000 question is, who said it first, Trixie or Veronica? LOL! The one that doth protest too much about IP addresses and multiple names or Veronica? Sorry, but I’ve gotta LOL, again!
Oh, and just to further some people’s opinion that I can be an unrepentant asshole: Trixie/Veronica, you’re busted!
@ Olenna
Lol….you really can’t make this stuff up. 😀
Bellagio,
Veronica didn’t work for a while, so I used my middle name. Nothing cloak and dagger about it. It started working again. I can’t explain it. /shrug
And you still can’t read or do math.
🙂
Veronica Trixie D
Would you like my last name, too??
@Bellagio, IKR! [still laughing]
I called it!!!!! Trixie IS Veronica. I can’t stop giggling.
Ok, that’s actually funny. (Also, the DM makes things up out of nothing, so the precise figures out of their imagination are not worth arguing about).
Haven’t laughed so much in a long time…..Veronica/Trixie and all her past monikers is funny….LOL. Doesn’t take IP addresses to bust someone. LOL
I bet that she has been wearing less expensive clothes on purpose!! She wants to be known as Thrifty Kate, while the media plugs Meghan as Spendthrift Meghan, even though Kate spends a fortune on clothes!! It is actually smart, and I see the hand of Carol behind this.
Meghan’s clothes have all mostly cost in the thousands, which is probably what she is used to spending. Kate seems to be going less and less expensive. It is smart optics, although kind of funny considering what she spent last year on clothes.
Yeah, I’m not buying it either katie keen is known for her love of shopping and expensive tastes. Trixie is probably right, Carol or someone else is advising her on this.
She’s in the last stages of what is probably her final pregnancy. I’d be very annoyed if she came out in some £5k Alexander McQueen bespoke coat.
KM has worn multiple custom new coats in the last 6 weeks, Tina.
Nota, sigh. No words at this point.
not a big fan of this coat. It looks like they altered the length and the seam is very messy.
I’ve never understood the poor tailoring and alterations that have been made to some of her clothes over the years. That pink coat she wore to a racing event sticks in my mind. It looked like someone, NOT a tailor or seamstress, hurriedly moved the buttons just before she walked out the door and forgot to press it.
Its been speculated that she buys them off the rack then gets her amateur stylist to alter them, hence its usually a bad job where you can see the stitching. High end designers never sell anything where the stitching can be seen PLUS if the fashion house alter it themselves I can guarantee a top notch job done.
For Katie Keen, bespoke is altering an already made design/dress/coat to her requirements which are usually, moving the waist up and/or shortening the skirt/coat.
It’s weird–she looks less pregnant in that coat. And it’s white.
She looks ok. I’m not getting the warm fuzzies over this look. It’s blah. Maybe the color is wrong. I do like her in more vibrant colors. This look is drab at best.
And yes Kaiser, she should wear more clothes out of closet (I refuse to call it recycling. We serfs wear clothes we have in our closet and so should she) because so many of her looks are forgettable.
Her actually working lately seems to have warmed me up. I saw her in this buttonified luxe lab coat and thought, “She does look good these days”. Curses. What will I complain about?
Top for Kate: when trying to engage with children, don’t ask yes or no questions. As for her look, eh, she’s fine. I’m really interested to know if she keeps up this pace.
My feelings too. She looks fine and still needs to sharpen her skills some but no complaints.
I’m hoping the baby girl arrives on 21 April and they name her Elizabeth, of course.
Charlotte’s middle name is Elizabeth
They can do it, especially if they wish to go all Victorian. Besides, it would undoubtedly bring joy to QE2, and even more joy if Kate chooses to give birth at BP but I don’t think that’ll happen.
Is she wearing panty hose? I think black tights would have looked better.
A repeat coat which only cost £69, what not to love about that? To answer Kaiser question, I’ve noticed she has re-worn quite a lot of stuff from her previous pregnancies in this pregnancy but listing it all would be time-consuming…ain’t anybody got time for that!.
She may have recycled some coats, but since January she has worn a whack of never-seen-before blue coats. Many are not that different from what she already had, but they are new coats. Considering that most of them are maternity and will probably never be seen again, I find it wasteful. IMHO.
She already re-worn one new coat she first wore in January, at the Royal Forum thing last week …so there is that.
That’s actually not correct. Someone on Twitter made an edit of all of her outfits since the announcement and this is only look #7 to be repeated from her previous pregnancys. Everything else has been brand new and if not specifically maternity, it was custom made. She spent oodles of money on her Sweden/Norway wardrobe and is yet to repeat anything.
Even without looking it up I know its more than 7.
She’s pregnant, in the public eye, looking lovely. Nothing wrong with her outfit at all. I think she looks pretty and glowing. *shrug… ?
I think she looks fine. A little button-y, but we expect that by this point. Her hair looks nice, etc. It’s a bit of a blah look but whatever. I’m glad to see her working like she has been over the past few months. I know conventional wisdom is that she will completely stop for the rest of the year, so it will be interesting to see how things go.
I love some extra weight on her, she looks more like uni Kate, pre-wedding!
She should take some notes on how to repeat outfits from Tiffany Haddish. Until I see her wearing some of her most expensive pieces at least three or more times, I’m not giving her any points for recycling anything lmao.
Sigh. I’m going to resist the urge to debate and overthink and just say that Kate looks nice. It’s good to see her out and about.
Not much controversy here except the unmasking of Trixie. lol
The only thing that would make me in anyway excited (or even interested) in yet another of KM’s godawful coats would be finding out she’s wearing an Iron Maiden or GnR tee-shirt underneath. Preferably unwashed and covered in cat hair.
Then she’d be relatable. Until then she’s just boooooring… 😂