Bethan Holt is the “fashion news and features director at The Telegraph,” and she’s written a new book about the Duchess of Cambridge and her evolving style. While I rarely admit this, Kate’s style has evolved from the cuter sportswear and inexpensive party dresses she wore as a single woman, to the first years of her royal life when she didn’t know what she was doing sartorially, to the pregnancy years where she was cosplaying her late mother-in-law a lot, to the current version, where she’s cosplaying Meghan a lot. Her clothing has gotten much more expensive, and much of Kate’s style can and should be viewed through the prism of “who is she copying and cosplaying these days.” Bethan Holt doesn’t say it that way, of course. Holt gave an exclusive interview to Vanity Fair about Kate’s style and what goes into putting together Kate’s wardrobe. Some highlights:
The Issa engagement dress: “Would any dress have had the same effect? No. There was something about the Issa. It made Kate look glamorous yet respectful; she wasn’t trying to seem more mature than she was, but nor did the dress depict her as a slave to fashion.”
Kate’s glam team: “She’s found this circle of people that she obviously really trusts. If you go to anyone in that inner circle they don’t want to talk about their relationship with her because it is quite a sacred thing.”
Holt claims that Kate’s wardrobe is nearly entirely composed from off-the-rack outfits from high-street brands. “Diana was often telling a story with her clothes, and she had a big evolution of her own personal life. Whereas the queen, the whole point of her is to remain basically the same. The public mood now is much less towards wanting royals that are very distant in their palaces. People want to be able to relate, and I think the royals realize that clothing is a way that they can do it.”
What Kate no longer wears: “It feels like a gradual change, but there are certain things she no longer wears. She doesn’t wear those big wedges anymore, perhaps because it’s more of a younger thing or doesn’t look quite as current. She has started wearing many more trousers, which lots of women, when they become more professional and confident in themselves, experiment with. She’s adding in interesting new things that signal she’s getting a bit older, a bit more sophisticated, and a bit more senior. Like any of us, we hope in our careers that we become more senior as we get older. She’s becoming more senior in her career as a princess.
The snoozefest India tour: “I also think it’s the scrutiny that these outfits are under, and I’m sure they read some of the feedback as well. One of the outfits that I really remember from that India trip was a £50 dress from a brand called Glamorous, and it looked like the kind of thing that you could have bought at a market in India. But obviously it was from a British brand. Because it was very inexpensive, thus possibly not with the best labor standards, there was a bit of an uneasy feeling about that. She was always really good, on that India trip, at incorporating Indian patterns, but I think the whole conversation in fashion moved on. We talk about cultural appropriation so much more in fashion now. it’s called out a lot more, which is a really good thing…. By wearing pieces designed by Pakistani designers, it was a very safe bet that actually looked very brilliant.
Kate’s stylists half-ass their job too: “I interviewed the owner of the boutique where they source a lot of the clothes, and the trip was in October, but the owner of the boutique only heard from Natasha [Archer, Kate’s assistant] in September. It was a really quick turnaround. When I interviewed Anita [Dongre, a Mumbai-based designer], she said, “It was just those few weeks, and it was such a rush working on it constantly.” I had always thought that these things were really planned far in advance!… They’re kind of like swans, aren’t they? They just make everything look so easy while they’re scrambling to pull a wardrobe together.
How Kate will dress when she’s Queen: “It probably depends on when it is, but when you think back, she has a lot of these plain block-colored dresses. Most of them were made by Emilia Wickstead, and there’s a lavender one that she’s worn quite a few times. The one I’m thinking about recently hasn’t been identified, but it was a blue dress that she wore to meet the Ukrainian ambassador in London in October. What you can see coming through is this very defined silhouette, kind of taking a lesson from the queen, who has that colorful coat that she wears. Kate you can see doing it with a nipped-waist, knee-length dress in a block color. I can imagine her having a whole wardrobe of those, which she wheels out for different occasions.
I feel like there’s some shady stuff in here, or at least “accidentally revealing the truth” stuff. “Nor did the dress depict her as a slave to fashion…” is particularly weird because Holt is trying to say that Kate is the biggest style influencer in the world or whatever, while simultaneously arguing that the silky Issa dress was not, in fact, all that stylish. And the stuff about how Kate’s style team is only planning ahead by a few weeks – lord, they’re as lazy as Kate. And Kate only began wearing proper trousers when Meghan did it. For those keeping track, Kate veers wildly between cosplaying Jecca Craig, Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth, Carole Middleton and Meghan. She just adds buttons and doily lace to everything and there we go! Oh, and Kate’s wardrobe is half High Street and half bespoke designer now.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Imagine having a huge machine behind you and media sychophants and they still don’t make you any more interesting.This desperation to make Kate trend and be this “influencer” is so cringe and unbelievable. Fashion is all she has going for her because everything else is so mediocre including her style but I digress. The telegraph practically begged Meghan in an article to start wearing designer clothes again in her zoom calls because of their boredom. You can’t tell me for a second they genuinely believe this garbage.
well at least they can talk about her clothes….what else is there?
I cannot believe someone wrote a book about someone’s else style! a whole book??? there is a market for this out there?
I am impressed I guess
I have a book (a coffee table book) on Grace Kelly’s style. But then she was interesting and actually stylish. I bought it at the V&A when some of her dresses were being displayed. I wouldn’t buy a book on Kate’s or Diana’s style (I went to KP when Diana’s dresses were being displayed and it was not worth the entrance fee. Not that the clothes weren’t beautiful but there were so few of them).
I saw the Grace Kelly exhibition and the V&A and it was quite something, she had so much style. This one, not so much.
When I read the headline, the first thing I thought was, “We don’t need a book to tell us THAT!” (I mean, unless a person is blind or something, then maybe the book is informational).
A book on Audrey Hepburn’s style, you bet. Kate’s, not at all.
Style is often driven by and a reflection of personality.(even through everyone has style influences) Kate seemingly has a wet blanket of a personality and few interests. Due to that it must be incredibly hard to dress her.
+1. Style is a reflection of personality, taste and the times. Just look at Jackie O vs Mrs Kennedy. But Jackie was interested and interesting. I have sad feeling that all there is to Kate is fulfilling her mother’s ambitions, staying William’s wife and her children.
There is nothing else. I wonder if her ‘laziness’ is a function her total obsession with keeping her status as William’s wife.
I think it’s sad that at almost 40 Kate has made no real impact, either at her job or at a bare minimum in the fashion stakes. The problem is that she is so forgettable. William wanted someone who would not overshadow him and now it’s a case of be careful what you wish for because you might get it.
Single White Kate is definitely leaning into the Meghan cosplay with professional separates. If she dons a messy bun and leather skirt I’ll be officially done.
In south africa when we cannot be more shocked
all we say is
SHAME.
and currently that is all i have
I’m thankful the Duchess of Sussex inspired her to dress in more modern fashion. She needs to burn all those sister wives frocks and whatever that green monstrosity was that she wore to Ireland.
Lol! Agreed.
I will say that her engagement look, with the simple blue Issa dress, was one of her best looks -her hair looked good – shiny and thick but not with the sausage curls, and the dress fit her well, simple but not really boring. (of course it was picked to show off the ring, but still.)
Besides that – this article is weird. Are we really praising Kate for “experimenting” with wearing trousers in 2021? And her stylists just pull together outfits for tours a few weeks out? Good lord, none of those people work, do they?
Also, looking at some of the pictures included in this post…..she has worn some UGLY dresses in recent years. I think I’ve blocked out some of them because they were so bad.
This woman is completely ignoring Kate’s recent Prairie Sister Wife aesthetic. Perhaps we are all better off not rendering those in our memories.
She looks so much better in separates than dresses. Does she not see the photos from her events?
Same. I liked her engagement dress a lot. It was simple, sleek and she looked good in it.
The simple blue Issa engagement dress is probably my all time favorite look. #2 on the list of Kate looks is the gown she wore for the EACH fundraisers hosted by “Rose Who?” and David Rocksavage at Houghton Hall.
That gown, to me, is an example of how Kate needs help from a real stylist. The first time she wore it, it didnt look half as good IMO – her hair was down, which hid the pretty details of the sleeves, her makeup was too heavy with it, etc – when she wore it for the EACH gala it was styled SO much better, I went from thinking it was a “meh” dress to really liking it.
Kate’s dress at the EACH gala was pretty, but Rose’s gown was a showstopper. All that embroidery and the gorgeous, vibrant colors.
@Becks1 – It is really hard for me to bitch about Kate’s style when IMHO she really has no style at all.
To me she looks like she is dressed by a “personal shopper” as opposed to dressed by a “professional stylist”. This to me is the real the problem as she always looks “dressed”. Nothing wrong with looking “dressed” if you are under the age of 15 but it gets old on major media figures. Clients of a good professional stylist never looked as if they were dressed by someone else.
The dress was fine at the EACH fundraiser with Rose, but she just looked so thin at the time that the dress just seemed to hang off her.
The white off the shoulder dress at her Baftas was one of the few dresses that looked good on her and she looked healthy.
She doesn’t have that full of a schedule on her tours; i can see why they think they’re can do it last minute.
Eh, average looking woman in a blue dress that was obviously picked to match the ring.
I have to admit it. The Issa dress was one of her best looks. It showed her figure and legs but was not immodest. The color perfectly matched that ring of doom. Her hair was nice and glossy. However, the engagement interview was awful. If only one didn’t have to listen to her struggle to make a point. I’ll never get over the fact that she – after dating William for so long – was not prepared to answer questions about Diana.
I agree. Banana Republic came out with a version of that dress and I still have mine. It’s hella flattering, even on someone who’s super curvy like me.
I mean, if your boss is half assing her/his responsibilities, you will too. Doesn’t pay to care and exceed expectations when the one employing you isn’t like that. I also fail to see how the Issa dress made her look glamorous and respectful.
Yes exactly. It reads not so much as a ding on the stylists but on Kate because they would need her permission to start sourcing things.
I still think Kate has never looked better than she did during the engagement announcement and the first few months of marriage. Though that Issa dress does take the cake for me, personally. It’s a shame she’s never worn it again.
Kate won’t wear Issa again because of the association with the Al-Fayeds.
delete
The Issa dress really was great. It’s one of Kate’s best style moments.
I thought Kate was beautiful when she and William were dating. Her clothes were fun and sporty, and her full face made her resemble a young Linda Carter. I think the overly tamed hair and extreme thinness gives me stepford vibes.
File under ‘Sad but true’ category.
After all the public flashing she did a few years ago, there was a brief story that the Queen had reprimanded Kate and ´suggested’ more pants and pencil skirts. And like, at Kate’s next public engagement she was in pants. Rolling my eyes at the comment that women start wearing trousers when they become more confident. No, women wear trousers to work because they know how to dress professionally when required by their job. And most of them know that because they have actually had to work a job, not just wait for a proposal for a decade and then spend three years figuring out what their jobs entails.
My favorite boss outfits are black skirt suits. You could certainly be and look professional in a skirt too. I never feel I look good in pants (I’m bigger).
Same. I greatly prefer skirts for work in a business setting as I look so much more polished in them than pants.
I also prefer skirts. Maybe because I’m on the short side, so a skirt that hits me just above the knee kind of gives me more length. I like pants for casual days, mostly jeans, but not so much for other things.
I dont think anyone is saying that skirts arent professional or that working women dont wear them, but its the tone of this article – that Kate has “discovered” trousers at almost 40 and is so daring for giving them a try! When most working women (and women who dont have a job) have “experimented” with trousers in a work setting (i.e. not jeans or leggings) many times in their lives before reaching the age of 39.
“Diana was often telling a story with her clothes, and she had a big evolution of her own personal life.”
Kate’s clothes do tell a story–a story about how she has no identity of her own, no sense of self, and no confidence. That’s why she has spent the last decade dressing like the queen, Diana, and Meghan, with a few Jecca and Rose outfits thrown in the mix.
Kate definitely has her own style of frumpy dresses and coat dresses. She must have some of the dresses customized because the over-fussy look isn’t in style.
“a story about how she has no identity of her own, no sense of self, and no confidence. ”
Her children’s clothes in photos show care and attention to detail. They never wear anything that could look dated years later, she recycles clothes from Harry and William to give the illusion they wear hand me downs, she color coordinates her family so the photos display them a unit.
That she cares about.
Thanks for the hilarious selection of photos to accompany this article.
Agreed!
“It made Kate look glamorous yet respectful; she wasn’t trying to seem more mature than she was”
The woman was almost 30 years old, she wasn’t a teenager or just entering/graduating university.
That’s all.
They have tried for years pretending that Kate at 29 was the same maturity level as Diana was at 19 and that was the start of the infantilization. Most women at 29 would have had a job for more than a few months by then. Kate was just supremely lazy and her character was formed at that point but no one wanted to admit it.
This is what is bothering me about this article: she was a grown ass woman She was 30 and looked 30. This man is acting like she was a damn teenager or something, describing her like an ingenue. And here we go with the gaining confidence charade. She’s nearly 40 now. Damn
I truly did enjoy Kate’s fashion from the girlfriend years up to about 2013. She had some great simple and sleek dresses during that time. Of course she had misses, but her fashion was something I definitely enjoyed watching at the time. From 2013-2015, it started going downhill but still it wasn’t bad. But after Charlotte was born, her fashion definitely regressed to where it is now.
Yes, something definitely changed in her style – while in the beginning (2011 to 2013) I didnt love everything she wore, and you could tell that some of the outfits were her trying to “dress like a duchess” without really knowing what that meant, overall there werent as many misses and even if she wore something boring, it usually wasnt awful. And she had some really good looks in that time – the black velvet dress she wore to the military awards is one of my all time favorite looks of hers, the dress she wore the first time she met the Obamas was a really good look (I think it was Issa though so we will never see it again), etc.
At some point she started leaning into the Diana cosplay and her outfits veered from either incredibly boring to incredibly ugly. Classic, simple styles work best on her but for some reason she stopped leaning into those kinds of styles.
She still experimented and you could tell even while she was doing her “duchess cosplay”, there was still a hint of Kate Middleton underneath it all. One of my favourite dresses is this MaxMara grey dress she wore in 2013. It won’t be to everyone’s taste and most people will say “it was an ugly dress” but I really wanted to wear it myself lol. Her lavender BAFTA 2011 gown was another fave of mine.
But now it seems she’s completely into the “Catherine/Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge” role which yes she is but there seems to be no hint of “Kate” left. She dresses the way she does now because I guess it’s how she thinks a Duchess is supposed to dress.
Did Kate quit wearing Issa? If so, why?
@Sofia – do you mean the faux wrap dress she wore when pregnant? I really liked that one, and it was a good example of a nice professional dress. And you’re right, there was a still a bit of “Kate Middleton” in most of her outfits and now that’s completely gone.
@Bay – yes, I’m going to get the details confused so I’ll just that its related to the al Fayeds. Dodi’s sister bought the brand or something? Like I said I’m getting it confused but there’s a connection there now.
@Becks1 yup that’s the one! It was a good dress and like you said, it was a good example of a professional dress.
And as for Issa, the brand was having a financial difficulties before Kate wore the dress and after she did, demand for it exploded and the brand couldn’t keep up with demand because they didn’t have money to produce. Dodi’s sister Camilla brought the brand to help the founder out but from what’s been hinted, she got too involved, was pushing the founder out and changing the brand which was upsetting the founder a lot so she quit. The brand itself closed down in 2015 although House of Fraser is showing me they have some clothes from the brand so maybe it came back in a smaller form.
If you google “what happened to issa brand” you’ll get a lot of articles about it.
@Becks1, that black velvet gown is one of my all time favorites on her. It was simple, chic, fit well, and she looked sexy as hell. And it was worn with that gorgeous ruby necklace that she never, ever seems to wear. Kate actually used to pull off sexy in a very subtle way in those first couple years of marriage, but yeah, somewhere along the line she decided that dressing like a granny was a better choice.
And Harry was at that military awards dinner. She was in her glory.
My theory is that once she had her kids, she started dressing for the job she really wants/is looking forward to: Queen Mum. I think she is super looking forward to the time when she has survived Will, George in on the throne, and Kate is the most senior royal with all the behind the scenes pull. I think this is what Carole is most excited about too (though it seems like Carole forgets she will probably die before William. Maybe she’s just excited for Kate) and why they pushed her at William so much. They want her to be the King’s beloved and respected Mommy, no longer needing to work, but absolutely being taken care of and respected by George. He’s probably the only one who actually will respect Kate and not think of her as some commoner interloper. And once she’s Queen Mum she can pull all the strings behind the throne, dictate who her kids and grandkids marry, push the BRF in whatever direction she wants, finally get back at the Institution that created William and that has completely beat her down into the pathetic excuse of a “working royal woman” we see now. Because it seems obvious that Kate is miserable and none of her in-laws seem to care.
I think it didn’t take her very long after her marriage to realize that William wasn’t going to change and being a Princess wasn’t actually as fun as she thought it would be and she’s not just an automatic Diana that everyone loves and is so excited about. So she threw herself into the motherhood aspect and is now just waiting for George to be in charge. She seems to spend most of her life waiting—she waited for William forever and it didn’t pay off quite how she wanted it to, but rather than actively work to fix her life and give herself something she’s passionate about to fulfill her, she’s now just waiting on the Queen Mum role. She is so passive. Expecting things to get better at some vague point in the future where “circumstances” will finally fulfill her. I think it’s why she suddenly jumped to dressing like an 80 year old conservative grandma.
The only thing she wasn’t passive about is landing William.
I realize that women keep evolving at all stages of their lives but this “gaining confidence” narrative for Kate really needs to stop. She’s pushing 40, White, relatively attractive, wealthy and a member of one of the most powerful families in the world. There’s no reason she shouldn’t have confidence or at least be able to fake the funk with education and training. She’s not some hard-luck underdog who we should be rooting for to come into her own.
It’s really embarrassing. They baby not only her but a lot of the royals including Harry. I don’t think they realize how embarrassing and unbelievable most of this drivel is.
The press want to write her as some shy, meek girl and she isn’t. She walked down a runway in a sheer dress to get William’s attention and she would constantly flash others at royal engagements because she refuses to put weights in the hems of her dress. She is the actress in that family, Meghan isn’t. We know who Meghan is as a person. Kate is whoever she feels like copying at the moment.
She’d be better off trying to gain a work ethic.
It’s really insulting at this point because Kate “learning” and “gaining confidence” is just a cover for how lazy she continues to be. After a decade she should actually know about the issues she pretends to care about. And really they are the ones pretending she actually worked on the survey for eight years so it makes them look even worse.
Mild epiphany: I think the BM would skewer her if she actually became mature, confident and self-possessed, and they would probably do it on William’s orders. BM and courtiers
infantilise her because it makes them feel superior and needed. It works for Kate, because her lack of impressive work ethic gets excused (especially since 2016…). There doesn’t seem to be any incentive for her to work harder, become impactful, become a truly confident woman. She can’t do it, but even if she could and did, she’d pay a price. The BM couldn’t handle a CP Mary type of woman, and neither could William or the palace. Kate is complicit in the system, and she’s a victim-in-waiting for it too. She must live in terror of it at times. She could burn it all down if they tried her, but then she’d lose out too. Man, I’m glad the Sussexes got out.
Nailed it!!
Well the public definitely got half,(if not full)ass Kate with all of her skirts flying everywhere.
Woman has no style. Period. Style is, in my book, defined by interests, personality and occasion. If one lacks interest and personality, what style could they have? I have more style working from home wearing ovesized shirts and without a hairstylist. Let alone a stylist. Who, lacks style too, in Kate’s case. How this can be a theme for a book is beyond me. Unless it is a guide on how to copycat and fail at it.
She doesn’t bring any substance, but she does have to clothe herself. Voila. Book topic!
I tried reading the Vanity Fair article. It was boring and didn’t really say anything except her style has evolved. Ms Holt is not being truthful in her analysis of Kate’s style though. Kate doesn’t not wear mostly off the rack from high street, she mainly wears high end designers most of which is bespoke and only started pants when Meghan came on the scene. Before she mainly wore jeans and jeggings.
And the only reason we havent seen the wedges in a while is because did very few in person events this summer. We all know the wedges will be back.
I have to take up for wedges. I do not like wedges but wear them often if I am going to shin-dig where I know I will be walking on grass and don’t want to wear flats.
I hate flats more than wedges. I own two pair of flats; a pair of topsiders and a pair of tennis (trainers in the UK) shoes.
Most of Kate’s stuff is now McQueen or Catherine Walker knock offs. She rarely wears High Street and it is a lie to say otherwise. The entire article is frankly trash.
Sarah Burton hit the jackpot with Tween Trainbridge.
Kate also continues to wear wedges despite what this book/article claims. She was wearing them when she went to plant trees at the children’s hospice during the summer. Why pretend she no longer wears them when it’s winter right now anyway?
Is it possible Willie’s her stylist? He gives the impression of wanting someone that’s the opposite of his mother. In every way possible.
Wow she has worn some fugly dresses. I think I blocked them from my memory. Is she subconsciously sabotaging her role?
I’m sorry but the part about her glam team not talking about their relationship because “it’s quite a sacred thing” made me laugh. You’d think she’s the Pope or something
Am really not into fashion. However am a reader of all things including a few fashion magazines. So it always disappoints me when an “expert” in a field doesn’t even know the basics of their field or the person the write a book about.
Why would this person lie about Kate and the clothes she wears? We’ve all seen the bespoke McQueen’s, we’ve seen the wedges. So what the hell are they talking about?
The fact that they wait till a few weeks before an event tells me that a) she is fickle and changes her mind b) that she does it to cosplay a person or event.
While it’s probably not happening now because most things are zoom events, for a while Kate would cancel a lot of in person engagements for reasons unknown. A few of the charities have hinted at many originally scheduled appearances being cancelled by Kate’s team and we know it’s not related to work because she doesn’t do much.
I think thats one of the reasons so many of her events became embargoed – and no one knew about them until after the fact. It went from that being the norm for Northern Ireland visits, but not really anything else, to really being commonplace for most of Kate’s visits – we would hear about them after the fact, sometimes up to a month later. I’m wondering now if that’s because she was cancelling so many events, that it was better PR wise to only announce after the visit had actually taken place.
If one has the confidence to parade in front of their classmates in a see through skirt worn as a dress I think trousers might be too tame.
I admit I thought Kate put a lot of effort into her clothes. It’s funny that even that is thrown together at the last minute.
You would think, considering shopping and tennis lessons are the only things she actually does. And she doesn’t even do the shopping properly? Gawd.
She doesn’t wear wedges anymore!? She has been pairing them with those ugly ass grandma dresses for whole summer!
Even her High Street is bespoke. She has them remake it with her weird specifications, highwaists, new belts, skin tight. Remember the disaster black mini skirt coatdress for the trip to Harlem? With the huge ugly tacked-on hem of 8 inches of fabric. Why? Because it wasn’t a dress, it was a jacket.
I just looked up photos of that dress/ jacket and my God! What the hell was that? She looks ridiculous.
And more performative photos of Kate with black children
She always has everything tailored too closely. I would have no problem if she purchased a wardrobe full of max mara separates and coats. They last forever and are made from more environmentally friendly and better quality fabrics and cost a reasonable amount of money for someone with moderate wealth. People wear high street bc they can’t afford better quality. Better clothing is going to last longer which means you spend less money replacing things. Kate purchasing cheap polyester isn’t relatable or frugal, it’s wasteful and pandering. If she really wanted to appear frugal, she would have already built a wardrobe of high quality, low key items and left the Zara and marks and Spencer and jigsaw crap to the plebs.
Yes ITA with you @AnneSurely. If you want to be environmentally minded with regards to fashion, you *don’t* participate in the “fast fashion” ecosystem (cheaply made clothes — often by severely underpaid laborers in the Global South — using cheap fabrics). Instead, you buy high-quality pieces that are built to last a long, long time. I thought if anyone would inherently get this, it would be the British aristos! They practically invented the whole bespoke-tweed-jackets-and-just-patch-the-elbows-when-necessary look!!!!!!!!! I know that Kate “needs” to wear different kinds of clothes b/c she is supposed to be a fashion plate representative of the Royal Family, but she could borrow high-end couture stuff for big events and then use a smart combination of mixing/matching high-quality separates for more everyday events.
Well if her not only wearing her grandmas clothes but also using her tablecloth and curtains to make them, them yes Kate style is definitely going somewhere. Probably to infinity and beyond because she sure isn’t dressing for this earth.
Her fashion has never made sense. She was so sexy and herself with her Issa engagement dress, and all her Sloany ranger items. Then her personality got sucked out of by all the expert advisors. Enter all the Diana 80’s references (blue dress post george birth, pink and black polka dots, giant white collars). Now that meghans clothes are popular she’s chosen to jock on her style too. These outfits have no consistency or real evolution because they are schizophrenic choices when examined as a whole. It’s really very sad and depressing to me that her stylists just give her clothing already widely referenced by others, without trying to develop an actual “Kate” look for her. And it’s depressing that Kate can’t see the forest past the trees trying to garner public affection via a dead woman’s clothing and a woman she’s deeply jealous of.
Kate was still wearing wedges last summer and she’ll pull them out again this year. Her stylist is lazy because Kate is lazy. There was some subtle shade in this article lol. Just another Cambridge sponsored puff piece.
She has no personal style except her love for the buttons, lace and coats. Then it’s a permanent cosplay:
– 1 cosplay : are the style of the girls of the aristocratic when she succeeds in integrating this circle.
– 2 cosplay: Jecca Craig after having managed to approach William
– 3 cosplay: After the breakup of 2008 and throughout the first years of engagement she channeled the style of Diana in the early 90s / Angelina Jolie for evening looks and red carpet / Carole Middleton
– 4 cosplay: After the wardrobe disfinctionnings, she started to cosplay the queen see the queen mother. Some time she try to cosplay the style of first lady Jackie Kennedy.
– 5 cosplay: Since the arrival of Meghan, she has only imitated her style
Damn. A full and accurate breakdown. *applauds*
The one photo from years ago where she is wearing the hat confirms that she got veneers. Not that there was anything wrong with her original teeth but they don’t have a straight even line at the bottom as her current ones do. I’m sure it’s part of why she can’t speak properly, but I have to wonder at why she would have done this.
And frankly this article talking about how she would dress as Queen consort is so very presumptuous. Two people need to die before that happens and it seems pretty crass to speculate about her outfits in a future that may be decades away.
“And frankly this article talking about how she would dress as Queen consort”
PwBT and Keen Trainbridge really have nothing else in their lives but their children and waiting to ascend the throne.
Yes, I was looking at that photo and noticed that too. I also noticed the band-aid on her thumb.
I also noticed how tanned her hands were. Just back from a vacay no doubt.
Its really obvious when you compare that picture with the hat to the picture directly below it, in the blue coatdress – her teeth are definitely different.
Nic919 as someone who has had a lot of cosmetic dentistry (and others) straight line teeth are not the ideal. The middle toe teeth should be slightly longer.
And her teeth were just fine back then. So unnecessary putting those giant veneers on.
Wow, I never noticed her veneers before because I am always distracted by her bad clothing choices or her wigglets. But I see it now and they were completely unnecessary, but stick with her vanity.
Kate needs to stop trying to make it as a style icon. If it was going to happen, it would have happened already. Her overall look just isn’t accessible to the everyday woman. I don’t think I have every seen anyone replicate her style, ever.
Kate’s look doesn’t really belong anywhere. That’s the problem and why no one is dressing like her. Where are you going to wear an ugly fascinator and coat dress to? I’ve mentioned on here before that she has literally no quirks to her personality to be able to pull off any unique style. Her looks are vintage inspired from the Victorian period and 40s and she doesn’t even see it. If she did and she owned her vintage inspired style, that would be great. But she doesn’t, hence why her style falls flat because she wears clothes in a staid serious way. It’s like she thinks that all young women are walking around in fascinators and ugly buttoned up coats.
Even my mum who thinks kate is wonderful (no matter how many times I tell her she isn’t) thinks her clothes are ugly and she dresses like a grandma. She’s convinced it’s because the palace force her to wear these dresses and that no one would ever actually choose to wear them.
To be a style icon and to pull of certain looks you have to have a “don’t give AF” attitude, like Diana’s revenge dress or meghans farewell wardrobe. Fashion is more that wearing clothes, it’s about making a statement too.
I think the problem with her “style” is like you said – it doesnt really belong anywhere, no one can really relate to it – AND she tries so hard to bury her personality. Good style is about personality and confidence – we saw that with Diana’s most iconic looks and Meghan’s farewell tour like you said. Diana and Meghan wear their clothes, Kate’s clothes wear her. She also cant figure out her style – we have been poking fun at all her cosplay over the years, but part of that is because she doesnt have her own style. Meghan has a definitive style – she likes monochromatic looks and clean lines, and then adds a dramatic element (like a leather skirt, or a cape) and it works. Kate doesnt have that. And not to get all deep and philosophical about it, but I think part of that is because at this point, Kate has been trying so hard for the past 20 years to be whatever William wants that she doesnt know who she is, and we see that reflected in her clothes. Its why she jumps around from a 1980s secretary to a Diana copycat outfit to a a Meghan copy etc.
Does she have a personality?
Can you imagine a life of dressing to please your 90+ year old MIL?
My granny, who I loved, always made comments on how I should always keep my hair how I wore it in my high school senior photo. I’m glad she wasn’t essentially my boss and the Queen of England.
I think that by the time Kate has a chance to be queen (if she lasts), her wardrobe choices will finally make sense. Granny.
Hahahahaha. This.
Kate’s so called style in the past 10 years will never compare to Meghan’s style on her farewell tour.
I am firmly in the minority here but I can’t stand her engagement dress! No way .
I liked the color, but it looks like a disco dress to me.
I think her bullet bra underneath ruins the look.
The color was the best thing about it. Beautiful ‘royal’ blue.
Same. It was tacky and ugly. That shiny fabric is awful and the skirt is an awkward length. She looked like what she is, a social climber with no taste.
She looks like his mother in the top picture.
The bright pink dress below is just… no words. Absolutely awful.
Then again, it’s what the rest of us Europeans would associate with conservative British frumpy dressing.
That pink dress with the polka dots is just about the ugliest dress I’ve ever seen. Seriously, just burn it.
Kate dresses in public her way to keep the image of thiftiness. She wore a McQueen dress in the 1000s to Pippa’s birthday at Pippa’s house for a small dinner with the family. Pippa doesn’t step out of the house without wearing 1000s of dollars of athleisure and coats. That’s how Kate really dresses in private, and how she would dress all the time.
Was that the red McQueen getup when the paps seemed to have caught her unawares on a London sidestreet and Kate was walking down the sidewalk hiding behind her hair? And it was obvious that Will did not attend Carole’s bday festivities? Then the next day Mike Middleton was papped leaving the house with tons of high-end label shopping bags. I always remember that as probably being what really goes on behind the scenes–Kate spends all her time with Pippa and Carole and they drop tons of money on their parties, gifts, clothes in their private lives together.
I was actually thinking of the floral one that was supposed to be off the shoulder that was too big for her and she pulled the sleeves up. Apparently it was to meet Pippa’s in laws before the wedding. But another example example from you.
Can it also mean they plan so late cos kp had to beg to be “allowed ” to go on tours since no one actually wants them and nod is just giving mere days to the tour ? Or maybe mr incandescent with rage always plan to go alone and kiki had to manipulate him to take her with him
her style is horrble, of an old lady she is not an icon AT ALL
I loved the engagement dress and I even love that 1980s pink nightmare dress, sue me. I think if she hadn’t had the sad poodle bangs, the dress would have stood better.
How hard is it to dress yourself in her role, when you have professional dressers working for/with you and basically and unlimited budget, plus a trim body? Don’t know how to do it? It’s not like you’re the first person to travel to India in a soft diplomatic role. Do some damn research. Personally, I’d reference (though not cos play) Jackie Kennedy in India 1962. Hell, reference your boss TQ’s outfits she wore there. Have a dress made by an Indian-heritage British designer.
And FFS weight your hems.
“trousers, which lots of women, when they become more professional and confident in themselves, experiment with.”
Is she kidding with this? Trousers are a staple in every woman’s wardrobe, at any age. Heck, I wear jeans almost exclusively, and have for decades.
This got me too. Trousers are an easy way to build a work wardrobe. When I got my first job after university graduation GAP carried this fantastic line of work pants in neutral colours. I bought 6 pairs (2 black, 2 navy 2 charcoal) and that was the base of my work wardrobe. I picked up shirts/blazers on sale and accessorized with some nice necklaces/scarves. I did this at 21. How is Kate just figuring out and experimenting with trousers at nearly 40?
I’m a lawyer and I wear pants nearly exclusively. When I’m not working from home, I’m running from appointment to appointment, in and out of cars, up and down stairs and pants are just more practical and appropriate. I’ll do midi dresses with loose skirts as an alternative some times, but knee length or above the knee length skirts and dresses are an absolute pain in the neck- as Kate has found out. Between her flashing incidents and all the weird ways she has to sit to avoid upstart angles, she should have started wearing pants a decade ago.
SAME!!! Are they kidding?! Like dresses are the norm for us delicate ladies and only when we are confident, we start wearing pants?!
This is so out of touch and tone-deaf. Poor Kate if this is her dedicated team.
It basically confirms how little Kate does any work. Even other royals like Anne and Sophie wear trousers frequently doing engagements and it was never a big deal. Kate just wanted to maintain the precious little girl routine as long as she could. Once Meghan arrived and got the media attention it showed just how dowdy “young” royal Kate was dressing.
I just don’t get her style. I guess I always chalked it up to her being from the UK which has more of a formal style than here in the US. I feel like people in the Midwest (where I’m from) think she is glamorous because she is pretty in a non threatening way and dresses feminine but for people from diverse areas who are more familiar with fashion, they aren’t impressed. That’s my American take. I mean I doubt anyone is impressed with my personal style either (currently lots of bell bottoms and crystal jewelry) so I guess I can’t really judge but Meghan definitely has better style IMO but she is also American so maybe I just relate to it more.
I think a lot of Kate’s current style trouble comes from the fact that she spent the first half of her marriage wearing short flyaway dresses and skirts, but had to change after she flashed her biscuit one too many times. So now she’s trying to dress like an adult with a job, but she doesn’t know anything about that, so she has to copy all the women in her life that seem to know themselves and know what they’re doing.
Kate may benefit from the Kibbe body type system. Or not. No matter what, people will see her as a clothes hanger.
But I’m just annoyed at how we don’t see Kate the human. We always see a woman who says vapid things and is a shell of herself.
With Meghan, she incorporates her personality into her style (not all of the time) and that’s why she doesn’t look jarring despite the clothes itself being mediocre. E.g. Meghan has a relaxed and approachable vibe about her so her clothes are generally not over tailored and stiff, makeup and hair looks undone.
Kate’s personality is hard to tell because she’s holding a lot back, but body type wise she would fit what Gal Gadot wore in WW 1984 imho compared to her boring tailored clothes imo. The problem is that her nervous, stiff and aloof personality may not match.
@ CC2-I’ve never ever heard of the Kibbe body type system, thanks!
At the age of 61, I’m curious about what type I am and what type of clothes would look best.
Fun!
It’s not a perfect system at all but it seems to work for most people!
Her style was pretty good during the engagement period and the first few years of marriage. Not everything was a knock-out but it was always passable. After she had George, it went downhill and she started wearing these high-necked, pussy bow, flouncy, and frilly dresses/tops that made her look like a schoolmarm from the 1800s. I looked up the outfit Kate wore in the meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador and it looks just like an Emilia Wickstead design, nothing exciting. I know it’s not fair to compare her to Letizia, but omg could Letizia give her some style lessons.
I mean Kate is almost 40 and she has every resource imaginable for fashion. I think it’s more than fair to compare her to other Royal consorts around her age.
God she wore those ugly beige wedges for like 10 years and now we’re supposed to congratulate her for moving on from a fad that peaked in 2004 with a lot more style.
And she didn’t even move on from them, she wore them all the time this summer just past. She’ll probably wear them all the time this upcoming summer too.
Here’s another point about Kate’s wearing “high street” clothing. Those dresses and jackets are still anywhere from $200-$700 US. That is still special Occasion or professional attire or 1-3 pieces a season for most people. She owns hundreds of them, if not thousands. She still buys hundreds of pieces a year for her “High Street” wardrobe.
How many field $300-500 jackets does one woman need?
She wore around 150k in clothing last year when there was a pandemic and no one was allowed to leave their house for most of 2020. While some of that was for the sad two day tour to Ireland, there was no reason for her to wear anything but repeats the rest of the year. But she can’t do that. She spends recklessly and is never checked, likely because that’s part of what keeps her quiet about the cheating.
And that accounting didn’t even TRY to put a price tag on all the bespoke stuff, just ignored it. So I think we can safely double the final bill.
Echoing what others have said, it’s really sad that after so many years in this role, there is so little substance that the focus always shifts to how Kate looks. There are many public figures, and several royals, whose style is bold (Queen Maxima!) but it’s a feature of their work, not the entirety of their work. It’s ridiculous that in 2021, a near 40-year-old woman would be praised for expressing her independence by wearing trousers.
And “Now, she’s finally starting to feel comfortable and confident in her role” will be added to every article about Kate until she’s 100 or the monarchy dissolves, whichever comes first.
Do I think Kate is a style icon? HECK NO. But I am a working professional, and while I cannot afford their looks, I am far more likely to wear day dresses and separates as royals wear in their daytime engagements vs Hollywood people who wear the super high fashion out there things I cannot pull off in corporate America. Maybe that is the fascination with royal fashion, and why I really miss Meghan. She helped me get dressed when she was doing these day events. She has really opened my eyes to monochrome/chromatic outfits that never occurred to me before.
Oh good lord, it’s so mortifying. I kind of have a sick, morbid love for the Daily Telegraph fashion department, it’s such a crazed sycophantic train wreck. ‘Kate the Great Delivers A Masterclass in Beige Shoes!”
I loved the Jecca Craig cosplay TBH. And I thought the Issa was a great choice, fairly timeless and wouldn’t look hideously dated in 30 years and the solid color worked well. And agree with some others evening gown choices mentioned above. I liked a bunch of her Smyth blazers too and even some of her tailored coats. But the frills and buttons and the awful Diana Cosplay? Ugh.
Pakistan. Is not. India.
No, that’s the editing in the article. They’re comparing the India tour from…..2014? 2016? With the Pakistan tour from 2019. Her fashion choices were MUCH better in Pakistan, she used actual Pakistani designers, etc. for the India tour she used Jenny Packham for one of her big formal looks, for example. The way it was edited it kind of runs together and seems like the comment about Pakistan is tied to the India tour but it’s not.
I recall Emily Andrews writing a very critical article following the India tour which included a critique of her bad fashion. The word she should have used was colonizer but that would be too radical. The wedges during a cricket game were a lowlight along with flashing at a memorial.
Her outfits for the Pakistan tour were a bit better, mostly because she used more local Pakistani designers, but she still used way too many British designers to make Pakistani style outfits which is frankly offensive but Meghan was now in the family and criticizing Kate for being an oblivious white British woman with privilege was not something any media would dare do in 2018. The arrival outfit I thought was in massively poor taste because using Catherine walker (or whoever inherited the company) to make faux Pakistani style designs is cultural appropriation in the most obvious sense.
I recall at the time many posters just wanted to praise her efforts for trying as if white British designers creating a costume from another culture was ok.
Her teams tries to copy off the most stylish modern Queen around, Queen Letizia of Spain.
The blue caped dress looks so much like Melania Trump’s dress at the Cheeto King’s inauguration. I can’t unsee it now.
I remember when she used to wear LK Bennet nude heels with dresses in every color of the rainbow. Back then, in her mind, “stylish dressing”= nude heels. It was painful; she literally thought nude heels went with everything.
I do think she was acutely aware of being the first commoner wife and wanted to appear “thrifty” and not “above her station,” so perhaps the confidence of which they speak is merely her accepting the fact that she can leave high street behind and embrace her access to bespoke pieces and haute couture.
Kate cosplaying Meghan ? OMG, are you serious ?