Well well, the Duchess of Cambridge has done two fancy events in two days’ time, make a note of it on your calendar. In truth, all of the royals are pretty active this time of year – May and June are big months on the calendar because of royal garden parties, Trooping the Colour, Order of the Garter, horse shows and of course, Royal Ascot. This year, Duchess Kate stepped out for the first day of Royal Ascot. She was joined by the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Eugenie, Princess Beatrice, Prince Charles, Prince William and the Queen. Also in attendance: Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who are apparently enjoying a nice few days of British society.
Kate wore a new frock and my lord, I will never understand her choices for Royal Ascot. Remember when she wore two really similar white lace dresses in consecutive years, one more “doily” than the other? So, she deserves a golf clap for at least not wearing another white lace dress. But this Elie Saab look… well, it’s on-brand for Kate. I actually love the color, I just think the sheer with the lace with the bow with the polka dots with the high collar is all too much. It’s Edwardian cosplay. Maybe she’s just really excited about Downton Abbey. Her hat is by Philip Treacy.
Wow, everyone but Camilla wore blue this year. Did the Queen send a memo or something?
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Awful dress
It’s funny how subjective fashion is! I usually hate everything Kate wears but I think this dress is lovely, season and event appropriate, and flatters her nicely.
I agree. I really like it and the colour is great.
I love this dress! What is happening?! Maybe I need more coffee.
I agree. Normally this is not something I would like at all, but for whatever reason I actually think she looks nice and the color is beautiful.
Maybe anything is better at this point compared to the giant Victorian doily she wore a year or so ago.
I like the occasional thing Kate wears and some of the things she wears are just terrible but I really do love this dress. The fashion comments on all of these articles just go to show that you should only ever dress to please yourself because you can never please everyone else.
i agree – i too think it’s lovely!
I adore the dress, the hat looks like hell
I love my Elie Saab pieces, he can do no wrong in my eyes. I love this look on Kate, the colour suits her and softens her. It’s very Kate with the lace & frills, which his recent collections have been full of. Nice of her to wear ES. She looks very happy, too.
My gosh yes this is the worst. I’m not as strongly against lace and the “doily” look as Kaiser and a lot of commenters here and most of Kate’s choices are not offensive to me, just boring, but this is just ugly IMO. Add in the silver pumps and ugh.
The dress is too fussy for me, but if she likes it…
But the shoes. Silver pumps?? Are you kidding me? No. It’s like she walked into a thrift store and found a dress from the 70s and some shoes from the late 80s.
I do think silver was a nice choice – but a pump? No thank you. A t-strap would have looked great.
It’s like a Frankenstein dress made out of the leftovers in the sewing room.
It’s so BAD. I hate it!
How on earth did Kate manage to find a bad Elie Saab dress. It’s plain bad.
Elie Saab is usually stunning, This manages to be just bad,
I agree, its soooo bad, far too much all in one dress, too frumpy, too busy, just no… (but the colour is lovely).
And why isn’t the hem the same length all the way round?
I dislike it intensely.
It’s very grandmother-of-the-bride.
This is hands down horrid (in my humble opinion). Hate everything about it, including the spaceship hat… and Eugenie’s fascinator is a dreadful lemon – literally…
Looks like Eugenie strapped on a yellow frisbee
Pincushion + suspenders
What I the world? That’s all I have to say.
I like it. I like the original version more, but if I got dressed up as often as K I might sport something fussy and layered and insane all in one dress too. The color is GORGEOUS.
I think what’s mosy awful about it is the length.
I was all set to defend Edwardian cosplay, but dear Lord, that’s a terrible dress! See through/prim is not a pleasing combination.
Imagine this dress on Jennifer Connelly or Emma Stone with modern make-up, straight hair and edgier shoes/ boots. It’s such a great look. Unfortunately, Kate makes it look mumsy.
Imagine this dress on Jennifer Connelly or Emma Stone with modern make-up, straight hair and edgy shoes/boots. It’d be a great look. Unfortunately Kate makes it look mumsy. The same way she makes Erdem look like my granny’s go-to.
It looks like a combination of notions I would find in my mother’s sewing box.
Cosplay for sure!
This dress is horrible, she looks like a grandmother (actually that’s insulting to grandmothers) Hate it.
She looks 90yo in that thing.
It’s horrible dress. The bow has me gagging. I don’t understand it.
Right?!?
All that money and access to fashion and this is what she chooses. Yikes.
Yes, it’s mostly the neck bow – ugh! Although it is a beautiful color.
Oh no. No. No. This is ridiculously bad. While I like the colour and hem length, this does nothing for her. That’s it-I’m going to set up a go fund me for a new stylist.
*sigh* I feel…I feel Kate is now doing this for attention. There is no way she thought this would not be a headline.
If you wanna be known for your clothes and nothing else fine, but this, just…no.
She’s wearing a blue lace full dress…for attention? To get headlines? OR maybe she likes the style because we all have different taste.
All of the royal ladies have on blue dresses or blue accessories. Maybe it was the theme of the day?
Camilla, Anne, and Sophie aren’t wearing blue. I think it was just a coincidence.
Megan is right. All of the younger Royal ladies were coordinated in blue with the Queen. That is not coincidence dressing.
I think she looks lovely. Say what you will about the ruffles and frills, that is a very popular look now. It is not a look I would wear, but I think she looks great here. (The ruffly dress at the garden show too. Very right now.) I like seeing her take style chances.
She will get headlines no matter what she wears, it a public, well covered event.
… Buttons?
Needs more buttons.
I love the color and the lines look good on her lean body. However, it is really cos-play looking. I don’t hate the dress, but it does age her. I MUCH prefer this over her tween-skirts that fly up in the breeze so this is appropriate for the event for me!
I feel she is always cosplay – harkening back to Edwardian or WW2 eras. As if she says, yes that looks like something the Queen could have worn then. I think this would have been better without the bow and I hate the shoes. They are screaming take me to the disco… top is screaming, “I want Downton Abbey”
except for me her cosplay is all over the place. One second she’s cosplaying Diana circa 80’s, next its twee 90’s girl, then its Edwardian. Other than for some reason she likes frilly doily looks for her work events (she doesn’t appear to wear this in her non-work stuff).
I much MUCH prefer her non-work style than this bizarre cosplay on how she thinks aristocrats dress.
Omg….hahahahahahahahah 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Will somebody please kill the pussy bow resurgence? They looked awful in 1978 and they still look awful.
Lady Mary wore it better!
Hey Kate has been wearing all these pricey new designer outfits lately now with Megan on maternity leave – I don’t see the outrage over it like whenever Megan wears something new. Geez….(sarcastic obviously) I wonder why that is.
Shhhh. We are only allowed to compare if Kate comes out on top.
Really? This site is very positive toward Meghan!
Yes, but usually there are lots of comments about how we shouldn’t compare, this site is so biased, etc. if Kate wins though those people don’t say that lol
How much is Duchess Doolittle Spending on Designer Duds? There, wrote the headline for them even.
Both duchesses have a pricey wardrobe cut from the same cloth, shrug.
Really bad, and will someone please help Beatrice and Eugenie?!
@ Minx : from your lips to God’s ears (as they say).
This is so terribly dated.
LMAO tragic!
It was muuuch cuter before she altered it:
https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/resort-2019/elie-saab/slideshow/collection#49
I LOVE it without the fussy sleeves!
The hat choice also makes a big difference there. With the more casual hat it’s 1970s rather than 1870s.
Something about the shape of her hat has a Handmaid’s Tale vibe. And then she’s altered the dress to be extra long with long sleeves and has taken away all the fun accessories. The bow is giving me Handmaid Tales cape vibes, where the cape would close in the front, she has a big bow. And the dress is too big on her. The sleeves look huge. The wrist closure isn’t supposed to hang like that. So many of her clothes look big on her lately.
The boho styling with the short sleeves is so much better.
Agreed – it is wonderful, I love the styling of the belt.
Now that is nice.
Good Lord she utterly ruined this didn’t she? Also goes to show how styling and posture are really everything.
What really strikes me is that Kate seems utterly unable to decide on what she wants? If she wanted to dress ‘classic’ and have her sartorial choices not be a topic she is going about it ALL WRONG. If she somehow thinks she is actually making ‘fashion’ statements with her looks then she got utterly lost on the way.
If it’s supposed to be a ‘uniform’ I guess she is successful at making herself look consistently dowdy, dated and boring.
Oh, I completely agree- especially with the chunky belt- it has an overall kind of boho feeling. Post -alterations, it’s just frumpy.
The original is better but she does this a LOT. She often alters the original design to make it look worse. She has ruined many lovely outfits with her bespoke alterations.
I agree. WHY does she do it?
Thanks for posting this! The original was MUCH better!!! Kate’s alterations are awful.
Yes, what a huge difference! I can even tolerate the neck bow in the original design because the belt pulls it together and shorter sleeves makes it less fussy.
+1,000 for the original (incl. hat choice).
Yes! Even the bow is so much better on the original because it’s longer and hangs more than being and actual bow.
Kate is dressed like a very wealthy, very elegant octogenarian.
I normally love Elie Saab but this….It doesn’t even feel like Elie Saab to me.
The Queen looks fabulous
She looks so cute and so happy. I’m here for it.
Its funny watching Kate and thumb “working” at fun events. Meanwhile the irrelevant harry is working on Diana’s charity of landmine clearance in Angola.
All royals do a mixture of fun and serious events. Were you upset when Harry was playing polo for charity a few weeks ago? It makes the queen happy when her family attends Ascot.
Oof. I hadn’t seen a pic before this post and Edwardian cosplay is right.
I like the color, and the skirt is a good length and I think it’s pretty (the skirt). But no no no to that bow. It ruins what might have been an okay look. The whole thing ends up looking like a costume.
I would take those white doily dresses over this any day.
It’s beyond awful. I hate when Kate wears those lace dresses, so unflattering. Lace looks nice as a detail on a dress but when it’s the whole dress, it can look like curtains unless the cut is streamlined, like a lace sheath dress. As for the rest of them, well the Queen looks nice.
I don’t hate this – the skirt is actually lovely. But the top has a LOT going on. Why do her dresses always have five different design elements going on at once? They could have left the bow out of it and made a nice v-neckline.
How does Beatrice have a job in New York yet she is always in London attending parties & doing minor royal stuff? Eugenie has a job in London but must have the most understanding boss in the world because she is always doing royal stuff on weekdays. I don’t get it.
She tells the boss “another royal event eyeroll” lol
She has something worked out with her company. She goes between NY and UK, wouldnt be surprised if they have a Uk branch one of these days. I assume she can take her work with her, they suport her charity work/royal events. Her job often have events spearheading women at work in the tech industry, which Beatrice is a part of as well and I would think part of her job is to be seen so to speak what good is hireing a princess if she cant be seen? 😛
Love the color, it’s the bow that’s throwing me off. Different neckline and maybe it would be better.
Agree. I like it (color, shirt, etc.) minus the bow. I feel like we’ve seen that bow on other dresses she’s worn lately.
I guess it’s a trend? Not one I would wear though. I can’t stand fussy necklines!
Oh Kate. Umm, she looks comfortable. That’s all I’ve got.
Sophie, Zara, and Queen Max were the best dressed to me. I like how Max fully leaned into ‘wear a crazy hat’ to Ascot.
I love zara’s Shoes.
I went on IG to see better pics of the other royals and Maxima’s dress is once again my favorite, the hat is bordering on cray but it’s the ascot and British. I’m becoming a big fan of hers.
OMG —Sophie with the twee patterned dress with the matching hat? NO…just no.
@TG I think for Sophie it makes a big difference when you see it in motion. It looks like it’s tailored well. And bonus jokey mike Tindall!
https://www.instagram.com/p/By2rxFYlmpW/?igshid=v02k2rf5a1cy
Too doily for me.
Bea has the worst lace, with an unflattering sleeve length to boot.
QE looks great in that hat – so much better than her usual short stovepipes or whatever they are, like the green one she wore at Harry’s wedding.
That dress is just horrid on Eugenie. She looks like Daphne from Scooby Doo.
When you have a big chest, that silhouette is just a no no…
Hello Granny. What an awful look from head to toe.
Kate is beautiful in blue. The dress is a bit fussy but that’s her style. She loves buttons and lace. And she’s actually “working!”
Oh Kate!!!! I can’t believe anyone likes this dress, but I guess to each his own. Now the bottom and color isn’t that bad, but the top with the ribbon tie, really. It just looks so dated. I guess it may be “in” but can it go “out” again.
Also, where’s Queen Maxima and the amazing hat!!!!! I think the British fascination with fascinators is weird, and totally incomprehensible to this American, but Queen Maxima’s hat of flowers which almost hits the Queen of England in the carriage is the bomb!!!!
I really like Maxima’s hat, too…..and she’s a beautiful woman with the most amazing smile. But gf needs to work on her makeup game —she always looks orange and greasy/shiny.
Wow, I can’t believe how many people hate this! I’ve wanted Kate to wear Elie Saab forever and I think it’s gorgeous on her and right for the occasion. There are some genuinely great photos of her today, so she’s clearly feeling herself too, haha. And metallic accessories!
I think the queen’s dresser does send out a memo so the family can coordinate. Usually it’s just Camilla and Kate, but it’s nice to see the whole family
Yes, love everyone in light blue. Eugenie sticks out in her bright blue though. Not to mention the unfortunate wrinkling in the chest of the dress! Yikes!
I wonder if she did a brighter blue so that she and Beatrice weren’t too match-y.
Kate all smiles.
William looking miserable, tense. He must be fun to live with.
Maybe he’s worried Rose will publish a book called Prince in Love?
There are plenty of photos of Will smiling and looking happy at this event. He and Mike Tindall seemed to be joking around at one point.
Kate looks like Kate.
I am not a big fan of prints but I love Zara’s dress and Queen Maxima is the shit! Zara has upped a dressing game in recent years.
Bea and Eug need a redo!!!
The dress is actually very stylish, NO buttons! she just can’t wear it. This slouching ugh..
I think that dress is gorgeous! I’d wear it in a heartbeat if I could afford it (and had a place to go). The sheer keeps it from being dowdy (IMHO). Sadly Philip Treacy is really doing such awful hats these days. I get it, he’s pretty much the official milliner of the royals so maybe he has to do these boring horrors? He seems to have lost his sense of humor and fun.
Completely dreadful.
Kate got bored after creating a garden for Chelsea garden show so her new project: recycling old curtains from the late Queen Mother’s bedroom into Ascot dresses.
😂🤣😂🤣😂
Conservative doily coming back. Kate does the conservative backlash and the buttons are a personal touch. The blouse? jacket? is a bit too much. Nice knittwear or nice linen jacket would have been waaaay better. She lets Meghan wear the modern saggybaggy metropolitan stuff.
I think that that dress/skirt part isn’t really royal ascot. It is too much summer evening party and not enough formal summer royal ascot.
Holy Mother of Dowdy. This is the worst she’s ever worn.
Ditto so horrible
I wouldn’t have barred an eye if you’d told me this was Erdem, and that’s all I’m gonna say.
I like this dress on Kate. to me it’s more 1940’s bridesmaid than Downton Abbey.
Poor Camilla was left off the Blue Dress memo? That QEII is such a Regina George! lol
The Queen looks radiant. I can’t get over how peaches and cream her complexion is at her age.
The York sisters look absolutely miserable in that pic above. Cheer up, you’re rich and riding in a fricken carriage, ffs.
Empty Barrel…this woman is vacant. My guess is Rose Hansbury dresses in a similar manner.
This is a totally gratuitous comment. Everyone here is being judged for their fashion,this IS a fashion event,but Kate is the empty vessel?
Hate the dress, really like the hat (if the flower was a bit smaller I’d LOVE it). The ladies this year all look very nice in blue – wonder if that was done on purpose?
Ascot is a sort of Edwardian event – large hats (no fascinators in the Royal Enclosure) men in morning dress etc. I like the dress – it fits the occasion. She can’t style it in a boho manner, with a big casual belt and hat. That would be inappropriate for her position. I never worry if a dress is old-fashioned. One of the things I loved about early 1980s styles was that after the aggressively “modern” 1970s, we could just wear a pretty feminine dress again (thanks early Diana!). It is fun!
I would cosplay too for Ascot,lol. I would have liked this better without the bow,but for THIS constume-y occasion everything works as it is. She looks great and not boring in the least.
I think sometimes people underestimate how Kate dresses for “the occasion”. I like it,lol.
I would never wear a lot of what she wears for her formal occasions,but in the right context what she wears works.
I will say this. I would cosplay like crazy if I was in her shoes. Hollywood golden age gowns, 50s sweaters and skirts, Edwardian, Victorian, some Versailles thrown in. And my vintage costume art deco collection of jewelry would rival anyone in the room. Although, I suppose it would be real and not costume with Charles’s money 🙂
So I like her dress. I don’t think this ages her. She looks like a 30 something wearing an old fashioned dress. The only time I’m not into her clothes is when they are high waist a-line (ie look too little girly), or 80s reminiscent. The 80s make her look dowdy and with her slim figure, she should never look dowdy.
It’s so great. Ellie Saab you’re a genius. The Duchess is a really stunning woman
I mean, isn’t the purpose of Ascot basically Edwardian cosplay?
Exactly!
So over the top I love it.
I love love love this dress. Kate looks gorgeous.
+1
Meh. It ages her but it is nowhere near Bea and Eug bad. The nipples ack!!
The York sisters’ looks are confusing to me In some pictures, they look quite pretty. And in other photos, they seem less pretty than everyone else. Maybe it depends on what they’re wearing.
I know right in some pictures they look great and in other pictures I’am wondering what were they thinking?
Perhaps on another woman and or different styling and at a different event but my god what the heck is this? The Duchess starves herself to retain her 25 year old weight and size and chooses to wear these frocks?! Does she not—how does she—ugh! She’s tall and thin why does she struggle? So this is what puzzles me: the dress isn’t ugly but on her and the styling it’s so dated and fug.
Nah, her look at 25 was sturdier/more athletic than her look today. I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually weighed less now compared to back then.
Maybe it’s just me, but Kate seems so jovial and everywhere lately I can’t help but think she’s loving the limelight with Meghan on maternity leave.
That Kate hogs all the BRF fashion budget for her ugly cosplay, robbing Bea and Eugenie of a few coins to buy decent clothes and matching hats. Maybe it’s Andy who drops all the secrets of the Toffers.
Kate watched Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady to pick Ascot outfits, for years now she’s done this. That silver shoe is not the look. The dress with a different shoe, understated hat, and a better posture could have worked.
Except Eugenie and Beatrice’s clothing is not paid from the same budget as Kate’s. Kate is funded by Charles and the Duchy of Cornwall, the York princesses have no support from that fund and never have.
Yup. Andrew pays for Eugenie and Beatrice & they also have their own trust funds, like many of us. I just don’t get the York girls hate. Nobody’s hogging anything and there clearly isn’t a royal fashion budget, lol! If there was, we wouldn’t be seeing haute couture and bespoke designer at every event. Don’t be silly.
My first reaction was ‘Jesus Christ’.
This girl really WANTS to look like somebody’s grandmother. Except William’s grandmother wouldn’t be caught dead in a horror like that.
I think overall Kate looks very beautiful. I am generally not a fun of long or 3/4 skirts, but on this outfit I don`t think it would work any other way. The work she has had done on her face- I do not know whether to like it or not. At times it looks very beautiful, other times her face looks clownish. When I look at Kate the thought that comes to my head is photo- op, could be because of the everlasting grinning and laughing when everyboby else is just smiling. This seems even more exagerated when she is with William.
Beatrice and Eugenie seem such nice and well brought girls. I do not why one gets the feeling of them being mocked and laughed at. I do not know whether Beatrice was paid to wear that dress, but what a dress or is it kimono !!!!!
Love them though they miss the mark sometimes when it come to fashion, they are certainly always interesting.
If you go look at a bunch of pics of the day and what people were wearing, Kate’s dress isn’t nearly as bad. Most of the rest of the Royal family were a fright. Sophie was a disaster, the York sisters looked like they’d lost a bet and Zara needs to lose the loud prints. At least Kate’s dress looked like it was fit properly.
Am I the only one getting huge pregnancy vibes from Eugenie here? Especially from the pictures where she talks to Zara and Kate and also when Zara’s husband gives her a big bear hug… It just reads as if it is the first time they all see her after being informed about her pregnancy and everyone is just so happy for her
Kate’s dress: Fussy, matronly and down right hideous. What is she ON? You’d have to be out of your mind to wear that!
It’s a horrible look! Some of the elements would be nice but altogether they combine for an awful dress.
She’s the worst dressed in a crew that includes toilet-seat hat Bea. That says something.
I love her look here. She’s gorgeous and happy and the colour suits her. Compared to the rest of the royals she looks pretty fab and we know She loves lace (I do too it’s so feminine ) get over it already you guys!!
I liove the York princesses but I realy dont like Beatrice’s ratio hats she wars at ascot events though I do like the out outfit in some pics . It would have been better with a different type of hat i thnk
Eugenie looks like she has the top of a hamburger bun on her head.
I like it for THIS venue — anywhere else it would have been too stuffy, I love the big flower under the hat brim. As a stand alone it is meh, in context with the other event goers it grows on me.
Honestly I hated that pinky coat dress she wore to the garden party a lot more.
Same here. She was chanelling Camilla.
So I guess people here have never attended Ascot? They all look appropriate and formal. It’s always such fun picking out your outfits & designing your hats!
Ohh, someone on the other post said Kate’s hemlines are going up, against the Queen’s wishes? Uh, okay. With comments like that, now I see why Kate dresses the way she does; conservative coatdresses, and frumpy at times. If she’s had a telling off in the past she’s overcompensating now with the matronly outfits she wears sometimes. Gosh, I can’t imagine being told you need to show less leg. The horror! Clutches pearls!
Duchess Cambridge looks beautiful in that dress, I like it. I’m not a big fan of bows/ties but I love the paneling of different textures on this dress and the color is to dye for (see what I did there lol). Also Duchess Cornwall’s hat looks amazing I love that style on her and the color is also fabulous! Too bad Duchess Sussex did not attend, they might have been the trifecta of fashion at Ascot this year. Oh well maybe the three duchesses can coordinate next year.
I would cosplay too for Ascot,lol. I would have liked it better without the bow, but for THIS constume-y occasion everything works. She looks great.
I think sometimes people underestimate how Kate dresses for ” the occasion”. Honestly, I like it,lol. I would never wear a lot of she wears for her formal events,but in the right context it works.
I really like this! I get where people could think it’s “fussy” but it looks so pretty on Kate. I don’t have the build to pull it off, but I admire those that can!
I’m coming in late, but–oooh. This is just the worst combo of everything that I dislike from Kate’s style. I know that Ascot is a frou frou event of the highest order, but even with that, this is just bad. It doesn’t come with the irony that some of the other Ascot fashions come in because you just know that Kate takes every element of this dress seriously. Oh well.
Whats the dress code at Ascot again? I heard they are very, very stricts but I can’t quite remember.