In recent months, it feels like the old Embiggening Kate rigmarole thing has entered a new phase. Back in the day, we would get hype pieces about Kate for days before and after her events, praising her hair, her clothes, her jazz hands and her busy work projects. But recently, the hype just isn’t there. I don’t know if the British media is just biding their time or if they don’t have the energy to hype a button-covered dishrag or what. Take Kate’s big keen Jazz Hands At Christmas concert last week. One would think that such a big event would get wall-to-wall coverage for days, right? But all Kate did was cosplay a Christmas present and show up. She didn’t even make a speech, which Rebecca English appreciated. Another royal commentator – Tessa Dunlop – decided to really go for it though, suggesting that Kate’s matronly style finally suits her now that she’s almost 40. OUCH. From Palace Confidential:
As we gear up to Christmas, Rebecca English joins us the day after the Duchess of Cambridge’s carol concert from Westminster Abbey. Sharing a glimpse of the programme, she praised Kate for the family focused affair, saying that while she wrote a message for the programme, the duchess ‘made sure it wasn’t all about her, which isn’t always the case with members, or ex-members, of the Royal Family’.
For Tessa Dunlop, though, the focus was on Kate’s classic red dress, which shows how the duchess is coming of age when it comes to her fashion choices. She said:
“For about ten years, she styled herself as older than she is. So now she’s entered her fifth decade, and it’s like ‘wow, she is rocking that look.’ And it’s a very clever strategy: queens are old for a very long time, most of them. Like the Queen Mother, in our head, she was always an old woman, like our current queen, Queen Elizabeth. And Kate, rather than us thinking ‘Oh, the flower of her youth has diminished,’ it’s almost as if she’s growing into her look and her role. I think she’s pitched it perfectly, actually, to give her credit… For years and years, she was lamb dressed as mutton; now, at last, mutton is where it’s at.”
This is called damning with faint praise. And maybe Dunlop didn’t even lie. I’d point out that in her first five or six years of duchessing, Kate actually had a problem of veering back and forth between matronly and way too young. She had a habit of wearing twirly miniskirts well into her 30s, and she wore them to professional, serious events too. I’ve long believed that Kate truly had no idea how to dress as a modern duchess in the 21st century, so that’s why she cosplayed the Queen, Diana and Carole so often. But yeah – Kate has never dressed her age, so basically Tessa Dunlop is like “well, it was all some amazing strategy to make her look like a Victorian septuagenarian at the age of 33!”
Photos courtesy of Instar, Backgrid and Avalon Red.
LOL, wow! That is some shady complimenting!
The duchess of cosplay has a serious brand identity problem. Almost 40 and the only faintly good thing anyone can say is that she finally dresses her age somewhat?
Lol! Mutton Duchess.
LOL. Kate is the Mutton Duchess and Meghan is Madame Duchess.
I was speechless there for a moment. This is the meanest shit I’ve ever read!
I thought Kaiser’s Headline was extemporizing. NOPE!!! It’s lifted straight from the article. Holy shit!
extemporizing…i learned a new word today. interesting.
Lol I didn’t even use it that well–the better word would be plain old paraphrasing?
Wow. That is some of the shadiest shade I’ve ever read. The BM know she’s dull, that they’re stuck with her dullness, and they’re starting to say it out loud.
(Kate, you in danger gurl, but you earned it.)
Ii thought she was extemporizing too, lol! I would hate to read that about myself, mutton is not my favorite food to say the least. And the word. Mutton, you look like mutton! Oh. Thanks.
^^ But if you look at the linked MailOnline YouTube video, where I guess the blond is the writer, Tessa Dunlop, who is speaking to the host and the other guest (I don’t know any of these particular rota ratchets), it sounds like they are being sincere about this.
It doesn’t come off as being shady when you listen to Dunlop actually saying this out loud. Dunlop and the host just sound as if they are reaching desperately to prop Kate up, and failing big time!
When is it okay to compare a woman to a piece of meat? Epic fail on the part of the writer….
I’m thinking this is an English saying? I remember reading Margot Fonteyn’s memoir, and she wrote that when the much-younger Rudolf Nureyev was first suggested to her as a dance partner, she said, “Oh, no! It would be like lamb dancing with mutton.”
This is definitely an old English saying, it means when an older woman tries to look young, and is compared to mutton dressed as lamb. It’s not comparing women to meat, it has never been about that, though I’m pretty sure in this day and age that throwing shade like this is definitely comparing Kate to a market commodity like at a butcher’s shop…it’s shade. But the saying was never meant that way. My mother used to warn us against being “mutton dressed as lamb” as we aged; she always said that as you grow older, more weight and less makeup, not more makeup and less weight!! She was right!!
Ouch. She’s not wrong, but still.
Guess in the year 2021 we’re not over directly comparing women to meat!
Kate Middleton is trash. She dresses poorly and I find that extremely weird when she can always hire someone to make those decisions for her. But any lamb/mutton comparison is really rooted in seeing women as commodities that lose their worth as they age and I don’t like that.
@A…same here.
I have to agree. Not a fan of Kate’s by any means, but the comparison dehumanizes all women.
Mutton dressed as lamb is historical snark, from the days when a woman was an old maid at 20, but that doesn’t make it any better. Odd how the writer was trying to turn it into a compliment!
She’s a vulture, always waiting for death.
One day her grandmother-in-law will die and she’ll move up a peg. Then one day her father-in-law will die and she’ll win her prize. The prize will be that she gets to play-act being Queen. All of the pretty dresses and jewelry. None of the personal sacrifice.
She isn’t known for what she does, because she does very little. She isn’t known for her charity because she allows her association with charities languish. She isn’t known for hard work, for academic achievement, for being compassionate, for fighting for equality.
She’s purposefully made herself known as not being black, as being a (white) “English Rose”, as a victim (the black woman made me cry), as being a tailor’s dummy for button-y dresses, and for taking up space, waiting.
I don’t know what we should call that, but “mutton” seems to be tame in light of the fact that she purposefully and repeatedly sells herself as a (known, safe) commodity to racist windbags.
@Anners, E X A C T L Y!
@Bunny
No one here likes Kate Middleton. Absolutely no one would defend her actions, or most of her fashion choices. I am not defending Kate Middleton. What I am saying is it’s misogyny even when we’re talking about a woman I don’t like. Any time someone compares any woman to a piece of meat it’s degrading and misogynistic. A woman’s worth is not dependent on her youth or her f-ability. If one woman is judged by that standard, every woman is judged by that standard. If we accept misogynist criticism of Kate Middleton, we create room for misogynist criticism of other women. Do you think Dunlop and the Daily Mail reserve this kind of criticism just for white royalty? Or is it more likely she’s even worse towards WoC and non-famous, non-rich women?
I’m not going to give the Daily freakin’ Mail, of all papers, a pass on misogyny just because they aimed at a woman I dislike for a once.
@A I get your concern. But the fact is, this is nothing compared to what was written about Meghan and she was hardly at fault in anything. So, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the press rip her, even if right now it’s just subtle shade, just like they did to Meg.
Just in case you forgot, she didn’t chase William because she was in love with him, she chased Prince William,son of Diana,who would one day become king.
It may be a misogynistic comment but Kate also wields misogyny and misogynoir as a tool against other women, most directly her own sister in law. She’s not just a random woman but someone who helps perpetuate a patriarchal racist system that damages all women. She can’t even pretend to be passive in these attacks anymore. So if she’s being hoisted by her own petard that is unfortunate but it is also part of the risk of playing this game to keep her position. Her hands are not clean in this fight. And we can say this is misogyny and shouldn’t happen again, but unless Kate herself uses her position to stop all misogynoir, this is just a cycle that continues.
I agree…Not acceptable.
“One day her grandmother-in-law will die and she’ll move up a peg. Then one day her father-in-law will die and she’ll win her prize.”
If for some reason, William would die before Charles ascends the throne, Kate would remain the Duchess of Cambridge for the rest of her life. Wonder how Kate & Ma Middleton would feel about her future daughter-in-law, George’s future wife, outranking her from the start?
Footnote: I wish no malice or bad tidings on anyone.
Yeah, pretty much eff this whole article. There is plenty to criticize, they really don’t need to make these types of digs. Honestly, I’m kinda sick of everyone feeling like they can tell women what they can and can’t wear based on their age in general. This, to me, is no different than the Ariel Winter bullshit.
@JanetDR: it’s not about “when a woman was an old maid at 20.” Yes, it’s an old time snark, but it’s about old women trying to look young…that they’re an old sheep trying to look like a spring lamb. This is reverse in terms of Kate, that she’s always dressed older, and now she’s matching her age…
Truth!!!!
Same goes for the hair – her hair looks so much better when its shorter and it flatters her better.
Agree. She would probably look more youthful and fresh if she got a bob look similar to the one Pippa had in 2014.
Lambchop grew into her dyed in the wool fugly attire. Congrats?
Wow! This is incredibly shady!
“No no you see it’s GOOD that Kate is invisible and we should keep paying for her lavish lifestyle BECAUSE we never see her do anything!”
@Belli: and people fall for it!! That’s the scary part— it actually works. SMH
I’m a few years younger than Kate and her “work” wardrobe is laughable – no one our generation dresses like that in any professional setting – her choices look dowdy, school-marmy and old (not vintage inspired which I think is what she tries for) it’s just bad. The only reason people prop her up about fashion is because she is tall and skinny, if a shorter, slightly curvier woman dressed in such bad clothing they’d be racked over the coals continuously…
You know, pre-Meghan I was a very passive royal watcher and when Kate would make it on my radar (for tours, mainly), I thought her coat dresses were a modern take on what the Queen and Diana wore. I really didn’t think too much of it, just “eh, royalty have to dress differently and she’s making the best of it.” Post-Meghan, with more scrutiny of the royal operation and a greater understanding of the fact that royals are really just celebs (or trying to be), as well as how confused Kate’s branding and public image is I’m now wondering why she has SO MANY coat dresses, why she’s so committed to them, and why she has no style over her own other than benefitting from being tall and thin. All to say, if they hadn’t gone after Meghan I wouldn’t have had to think deeper about Kate’s style and she wouldn’t come out so lacking.
Tl;Dr They shoulda left Meghan alone and the “mystique” of royalty and Kate would have continued.
+1 on the comment about her figure and the impact it has on how her style is viewed.
but hey, let’s not (or let’s) talk about Kate’s eating disorder.
If you saw her in person you’d be shocked.
I’m almost sixty, (genetically) built like her, and I would never wear what she wears – neither would my mid-80’s Mom. Way too fussy!
I thought her concert outfit made her look like a granny.
Which is apparently good? Because queens are old and Kate will be a Queen so Kate should look old because it will make her look queenly? This piece seems to be all about how old queens are the thing in the UK, they want their old AF queens, so good for Kate for leaning into the old look. But my god, maybe it’s not a *good* thing in the 21st century, when you’re desperately trying to appeal to a younger generation, and so much of your outreach to said younger generation is on social media, to be *trying* to go for an old granny look. What is wrong with these royal reporters? “Oh good, she’s finally all the way looking old, dressing old, acting old, embracing her inner granny, that’s what will make her a valuable member of the royal family!” Seriously? They—the reporters but also the family—are so out of touch. “Well the last couple queens were elderly, and people seemed to like/respect/accept them, so let’s make sure that the youngest woman in the family dresses like an 80+ year old woman.” How is this a good strategy?
And it so encapsulates the BRF thinking to miss the point and to glom onto some nonsense about why people like certain people or what people want in their royals. People respect the Queen because she’s the Queen and she worked hard, and she did her duty constantly. But the BRF/reporters are like “nope, must be just cause people like extremely old people who dress in extremely old fashioned clothing!” And with Meghan, people liked Meghan because she was so charismatic, she radiated light and love, caring and kindness, she had such interesting projects that made such a clear and immediate difference. But the the BRF, Kate and the Middletons, and the royal reporters are like “maybe it’s the colors she’s wearing? Maybe people just really like when women wear red? Or trousers? Could it be the trousers? Kate should wear red dresses and trousers! It’s obviously the thing that the people most like about Meghan!” They’re constantly focusing in on things that are completely incidental or superfluous to why we like certain royals. It’s not because they dress like old ladies or wear trousers. Those things are even contradictory to each other (modern trouser suits and old lady conservative coat dresses), so it would seem obvious that it’s not those things.
to be fair, what else do they have to work with? you can’t make a mean girl nice but you can put her in a pair of trousers! SMART goals, people
Alla dis
“you can’t make a mean girl nice but you can put her in a pair of………….”
Ancient diamond and sapphire earrings that belong to her husband’s great-grandmother.
Let’s face it. Having that many coat dresses as a “uniform” just says that she is unfashionable. Nothing wrong with being unfashionable. Not everyone is attuned to trends and fashion. But no, it’s not “apparently good” if she also tries to act as a “fashion icon” when she’s not. It stinks of hypocrisy, just like her husband – with his climate change bs while going on hunting expeditions with his mates at the same time.
Right from the beginning when she was dating William Kate deliberately starting wearing tweedy suits in a 1940s style to ingratiate herself with the Queen and show that she was not like Diana and was not going to outshine anyone because the royal family did not want another Diana taking all the headlines with her dresses etc.
That is quite the take. Wow. So because Kate’s style (at least her dressy style for events like this) has always been dated and, well, old, it fits because now she’s 40? 40 isn’t 90 for crying out loud.
But yes Kate’s issue has been that she doesn’t know how to dress like a professional, and that’s obvious, she goes back and forth from dressing too twee to dressing like her grandmother-in-law. On here, the times she gets the most praise for an outfit is when she dresses like what she is – an almost 40 year old woman who has a job (although she forgets that last part 95% of the time…..)
Women in their 40s don’t have the granny style that kate does. It’s really an insult to modern women to pretend that 40 is the same as Victorian grandma.
Kate does Diana cosplay, which worked in the 80s when it was the style, but now looks old fashioned because it is almost 40 years out of date. And she thinks a “conservative” style works for the bigots who still support an all white racist monarchy.
This is extremely nasty. How many ways can they call Kate an old woman?
“For about ten years, she styled herself as older than she is. So now she’s entered her fifth decade, and it’s like ‘wow, she is rocking that look.’ And it’s a very clever strategy: queens are old for a very long time, most of them. Like the Queen Mother, in our head, she was always an old woman, like our current queen, Queen Elizabeth. And Kate, rather than us thinking ‘Oh, the flower of her youth has diminished,’ it’s almost as if she’s growing into her look and her role. “
I don’t understand the ‘fifth decade’ part. Wouldn’t that be…turning 50?
It’s nasty but also dumb. A lot/most of the British public have no memory whatsoever of the Queen Mother. Plus, queens are old for a very long time, most of them? What about Letizia, Rania, Maxima, Mathilde? Didn’t they meet a much younger queen in Bhutan? They’re all young. Or are we all old for a very long time, if we live long enough?
@Observer – your forties are your fifth decade. When you’re born you’re in your first decade, once you hit one year old you’re in your second decade and so on.
Let’s put it this way, while it’s technically correct, if she wanted to play nice, she could have said “not even yet 40” or “in her late 30’s” or “just now turning 40” or something to minimize her age. Instead it reads as “this B is pushing 50”
@Jaded – Did you mean 10 years old and you are in your second decade? LOL! Do not make us all older than we already are! LOL!
@observer.
birth to 10 years old = 1st decade
10 to 20 years old = 2nd decade
20 to 30 years old = 3rd decade
30 to 40 years old = 4th decade
40 to 50 years old = 5th decade
Yikes that’s such a cruel thing to say. She’s 40. This writer makes her sound ancient and well past the best before date.
Also I think women of all ages can wear mini skirts. Styling makes all the difference, as do weighted hems.
So many older ladies who look so gorgeous: Halle berry, michelle pffeifer, Paulina porizkova, phylicia rashad, helen mirren etc.
Kate just needs a damn stylist, one that isn’t a nepotism hire, yes man, and hired by the men in grey. But this requires effort so she will continue dressing terribly for infinity and beyond. She got better after copying Megs but man…. It’s just not her forte to be a fashion girl. Her age has nothing to do with it.
I don’t think any stylist could do much because Carole has a lot of influence here. A lot of what kate wears would work better on Carole.
Does work better on Carole. They borrow each other’s clothes (which I think is sweet, and a credit to how Carole takes care of herself at 65+). I wonder if this is what Carole thinks posh people wear, and Kate follows her mom’s guidance. So weird cos they live in London and have access to such great stylists… I follow Emma Weymouth on IG and she has great style, they should find her people.
^^ Unlike Katie Keen, Emma Weymouth Thynn, Marchioness of Bath has a great deal of style all her own. Emma probably works with designer friends too, but I’m sure that like Michelle Obama and Duchess Meghan, Emma makes a lot of her own styling decisions.
Magazine cover stories have detailed how Emma has brought tremendous style and organization to running the famous estate, Longleat (where her husband’s grandfather created a wild animal theme park, in the 1940s). Emma is also known to be a wonderfully creative hostess of parties and gatherings. She’s apparently best friends with Kitty Spencer (Diana’s niece). Thanks for mentioning Emma’s IG! It’s fabulous and well-curated.
The racist Windsors need look no further than Longleat (or Monaco, or Liechtenstein) to discover what beautiful, ‘mixed-race’ children of noble and of royal birth look like. LOL!
Or else, they could plead in-vain with M&H to provide photos of Archie & Lili sitting on a bench, underneath a sheltering tree, in Montecito. 😉
“Also I think women of all ages can wear mini skirts. Styling makes all the difference, as do weighted hems.”
“Kate just needs a damn stylist, one that isn’t a nepotism hire”
Noe Schitt Sherlock!!! Look at Halle Berry, Jenifer Lopez, Michell Pfeiffer, Jane Fonda and Rita Moreno.
These people. I’d rather they talk about her lack of work and career drive / focus rather than how she should dress and look. It’s simplistic and cowardice to shield her from real criticism. We’ll see if any real British journalist bothers to even analyse the flightiness of her so called causes. What has she done for aarrrly yaars? Maybe go there.
Agreed. However, I think they know that once they go down that road, there’s no real going back. IDK I think the workshy criticisms would land very differently this time around.
A big part of the problem, imo, is that all of the tabloids employ numerous “royal reporters” and have dedicated “royals” sections in their newspapers and on their websites, so they require new content on a daily basis.
Then, in addition to the reporters, there are a million and one “royal experts,” and “royal historians,” and “royal commentators,” and at this point it’s so out of control that it’s farcical. Literally anyone can decide to call themselves a “royal expert” and be given a platform — it’s so, so stupid.
Since the royals don’t do enough to actually warrant that much coverage, we end up with the shitshow we see now. The reporters/tabloids end up creating drama themselves in order to have *something* to write about, and then when that “storyline” is played out, they create a new one, and the nasty cycle continues. It’s such a warped model.
The ROTA is obsolete but haven’t accepted it yet, and I’m sure the British media wants to continue constant royal coverage at all costs, but it requires fcking *ruining people’s lives* to fill so many column inches, hours of tv specials and podcasts, etc., with information about such a small group of people 365 days a year. (And once Charles “slims down,” there will be even fewer royals to report on! But the reporters will no doubt be required to maintain their level of output, even if there’s literally *nothing* to write about on a given day. So they speculate, and print rumors, and flat-out make shit up claiming it came from their “anonymous royal sources” just to have something to publish.)
It reminds me of how tv news turned into such trash in the US as soon as 24-hour news channels like CNN started popping up. The regular network newscasts were always, what, an hour or so? Two at the most? I remember when I was little and my parents would watch the news, it was on at 5pm/6pm, then again at 11pm. There was 60 Minutes on Sundays, and political shows like Meet the Press— but those were once a week. But the new cable channels, which (I believe?) began with CNN and then multiplied, had allllllll that time to fill, so we ended up with endless panels of rambling “commentators,” usually people with no particular expertise or insight, who, half the time, have no idea what they’re even talking about, blathering on for hours, shouting at and talking over each other, because there cannot be even one moment of dead air time. CNN was reduced to starting inane, gimmicky nonsense like creating “holograms” of their hosts to fill time, ffs.
Sorry about the tangent!! But re: the royal coverage, I have no idea what the answer is, but the current setup is a toxic mess which desperately needs a major overhaul. There are WAY too many people who make their entire livings solely talking/writing about the royals; it’s patently ridiculous. It will be interesting to see what royal coverage looks like after the frenzies of Queen’s death and Charles’s coronation are over with.
In the UK, it all started with Mailonline.uk.org. The Fail Online needs so many “new” column inches to keep readers occupied on their phones & tablets that they recycle news by re-writing a story to run at 4:00 pm that originally ran at 6:00 am. If said 6:00 am story generated 3.5K comments in three hours then hopefully 4:00 pm story will generate an additional 4.5 comments; so much the better for the click count. Stories & pictures on the BRF generate comments in the thousands. Demi Rose and the professional hangers-on at the “Side Bar of Shame” do not.
I was just at my very conservative grandmother’s 100th birthday party and even she was dressed younger than Kate.
Haha! Tessa Dunlop just called the FFQ an aging sheep!
The true problem with Kate style is she never show any once of personnality she is as bland as possible so she can’t show her personnality through her clothes. When she find a style she likes she stick to it like a uniform mini dresses, coat dresses, pussy bows, and her new thing that she copied rom Meghan monochromatic looks.
We’ve said it before, but Kate will be in her 60s, her children will be grown and out of the house, we’ll still be waiting on a follow up to the five question survey, and reporters will STILL be gushing about how she’s “finally growing into her role!” Lol.
As to Kate’s style, for me it was never that she dressed “older”, it’s that her style is so fussy. After all, plenty of people wear “older” or vintage style and make it look great. She always looks like she’s wearing a costume, and I guess she is in a way, complete with a mask of harsh blue eyeliner and a curtain of sausage curls to hide behind. It’s the hair that feels most out of place to me, not her clothing.
She usually looks like she’s wearing a costume cause she’s never developed a style of her own. After she got married, it’s been full steam ahead in cosplaying the queen, Diana and now Meghan.
part of the reason her clothes look like costumes is because of the fit – it’s like she’s trying on someone else’s wardrobe and everything is a half-size off so the clothes end up wearing her
so that leaves me wondering:
1) are the royal tailors just crap at their jobs? even Meg’s wedding dress seemed a bit oversized, as did many of her clothes during her stint with the brf, and it’s notable that her teal revenge dress fit like a glove
2) is this about covering kate’s painful thinness and the parallels it draws to Diana’s suffering? im sure the royal fam would much prefer to frame Diana’s ED as a personal problem, rather than an occupational hazard
i’m sure it’s about covering her thinness. as a person with an eating disorder, i’m going to say this: i love baggy clothing that hides how thin i am entirely. sort of Billie Eilish (sp i know) levels of baggy, here. but i’ve also had phases of my ED where i liked to wear clothing that was just a little bit too big or ill-fitting, precisely because it let people see that i was too thin to wear it.
Kate’s had an ED for years and i think this is a part of it.
Kate’s been covering up since summer 2020 when she wore that summer dress that revealed a little TOO much about how thin she’s gotten. But I think in the case of Meghan, the stress of all the pre-wedding shenanigans from Toxic Tom and the RF resulted in her being thinner than normal on the wedding day. Remember that she also became pregnant with Archie months after the wedding (too soon in the RF’s opinion), so her body was constantly changing throughout her time as a working royal.
Is it Kate’s intention to dress & act like an old lady? Does she think that’s queenly? Sometimes I think she so focused on not putting a foot wrong that it has made her bland. The only time she wasn’t acting like a geriatric patient was when Duchess Meghan came on the scene.
She wore longer skirts and dresses once Meghan was on the scene right? My theory is her mum told her to do that to offer a “regal” contrast. If her knack for flashing continued with Meghan around, I think the press would have a field day.
I don’t think she cares about not putting a foot wrong (hate that phrase now, ps). She didn’t care when the press was after her pre-Meghan (flashing, workshy), she doesn’t care now that the entire tabloid media is behind her.
Agreed that the longer hemlines were to look more regal/traditional though.
Yikes, with friends like these… Kate is 40 in the 21st century, not the 19th. There are so many options out there, but Kate seems to have settled into a “brand” and I don’t think she will change. The Queen has settled into the flowered dress under a solid colored coat, with a matching hat, brooch, fussy little handbag and sensible shoes. I don’t know any elderly woman, my mother included, who would be caught dead in an outfit like that.
You make a very good point. I can only think of one myself and she is dead so I will not mention her name. Also, no one really dressed liked the Queen Mother except the Queen Mother.
Remember all those weird hats covered in feathers? Not to mention her being corseted to within an inch of her life and wearing gloves on every occasion?
Forty is still too young to be “matronly.”
Jeezzzus, I am 54 and not one thing Kate has ever worn would be found in my closet in the last decade or the next! Just because a women matures doesn’t mean she has to wear Victorian era buttons and bows and sister wife prairie frocks. Kate has terrible fashion sense, to the point of ridiculous, just come out and say it and be done with it. If she had achieved anything of substance in the last 10 years and not been a spiteful jealous cow to her SIL, we would laugh about the clothes but still appreciate her. But no, nothing but endless drivel about clothes and hair for over a decade. I would love someone to total up the cost of clothes for Kate over the last decade, then compare that to what the cambridge foundation donated to public programs.
Kate has a couple of evening gowns that I would be interested in picking up at her divorce sale but I think Rose Hanbury’s yard sale would be a much better use of my dumpster diving time.
Diana had some really bad outfits, especially in the early 80s, but that’s barely even covered because Diana actually did engagements and put effort in her charitable causes. Diana died at 36 and kate is 40. Diana did manage to contribute using her privilege despite having a short life and a bad marriage. Kate has done nothing all her life but follow William and smear her more accomplished sister in law. If they are still just talking about her bad fashion sense it’s because that’s all kate has ever bothered to focus on. She’s given no substance and does not ever care to change.
The mutton with the buttons! 🐑
Hehehe
Mutton is just such an unappealing word. This is a strait up diss. And “mutton with button”! Lololol
“she’s entered her fifth decade”? What? This is some burn article. I wonder if KP will get it taken down.
Technically that’s correct. If you consider 0-10 your first decade, 11-20 your second, 21-30 your third, 31-40 your fourth then turning 40 does mean you’re entering your fifth decade. But she’s still entering it since she hasn’t turned 40 just yet (although it’s a month away).
It’s definitely correct but not something that people commonly say, so it does make Kate sound older than she actually is, and I’m pretty sure it was intentional lol.
@Becks1: I definitely do think it’s shady that it’s mentioned but wanted to point out that it’s correct. So correct but shady lol.
She’s 40, not 80. There are a lot of 40 year old women who wear stylist clothes (her sister in law included). And she can still wear skirts and knee length dresses, she just needs to style them correctly.
Hell her own mother dresses better than she does most of the time!
Pippa, who only married moderate wealth, dressy better than Kate.
I beg to differ. Pippa has the exact (cheaper) same closet as Keen down to the wedge sandals and green coat dress. Both have the same sun-weathered face. They are two birds of a feather.
Please…Pippa is as atrocious as Kate. She wears thick black nanny tights with light colours, and WHAT ARSE ARE THEY SPEAKING OF WITH HER, SHE DOESN’T HAVE ONE!!!! 🙂
I did not mean to imply that Pippa dresses well only that she dresses better than Kate.
Meghan is no longer in the UK, the press can’t really write stories comparing her -unfairly and negatively- to Kate… so, naturally, there’s only so much “embiggening” to be done! Add to the fact that the woman doesn’t have note-worthy achievements after 10 years of marriage.
I wonder how Kate feels hearing Becky trying to prop her up by claiming she didn’t want to take the shine off others, knowing well that everyone knows she didn’t read because she can’t speak proficiently!
@Bubs
“…Meghan is no longer in the UK, the press can’t really write stories comparing her -unfairly and negatively-… to Kate.”
Um…..one would think, rt? But they did give it the ol’ college try in this little passive-aggressive missive, tho. How about this part:
“…the duchess ‘made sure it wasn’t all about her, which isn’t always the case with members, or ex-members, of the Royal Family.”
LMFAO
The RotaRats hv heard the critisicm against them that theyre incapable of praising kHate without bitching abt M; while M’s admirers can spk abt her for days without reference to ANYONE on struggle island. LOL
In any event, seems to me that if youre promoted as the “host” of an event, you damn well stand up and welcome your guests and also hv some opening remarks. That lazy dumbiiitch did neither. Because we all know the event was planned and they just attached her name to it in a desperate bid to give her some cachet.
@Charm, you’re right. I guess Becky can’t help herself when it comes to Meghan…lol! And yeah, it’s so weird (and quite rude to be honest) that the host could not even be bothered to offer any remarks. Not even “welcome” or “thank you for coming”! Sheesh!
You’re right, Becky can’t just help herself when it comes to Meghan…lol. And yeah, it’s just weird (and rude, to be honest) that the host could not be bothered to even say “welcome” or “thank you for coming!” Sheesh!
“In any event, seems to me that if youre promoted as the “host” of an event, you damn well stand up and welcome your guests and also hv some opening remarks.”
For all she gets on my nerves, I must state that Princess Caroline of Monaco-Hanover could wipe the floor with Kate in a competition for hosting televised charity dos.
That was actually pretty brutal. I actually flinched when I read it. “Wow, Keen, you are rocking that old lady look!”
It was. I’m not a fan of her work ethic, but she really can’t win. If she makes a speech, her accent is picked apart. If she wears something people like, the cost is brought up. If she rewears something, then she’s pandering to the crowd who thinks she over spends. It is no wonder that none of the aristocracy wanted that job.
She can’t win? It’s not like she has an entire press regime, courtiers and in-laws trying to drive her to suicide for the crime of existing. They’d too busy trying to prop her up.
Buttons will be fine in her matronly outfits.
@FHMOM her accent is picked apart because it’s put on and the cost of her clothes is brought up because the public pays for them.
She is literally surrounded by sycophants – by choice – but sure, she can’t win! She just living in the lap of luxury in a castle for free. Plenty of people would swop with her, they could house hundreds of homeless people in just 1 of the palaces / castles in England and they’d still have a few left over to live in. Which again THEY DON’T PAY FOR. How in gods name can you say she’s not winning? She’s literally trained for nothing and living a royal life. If she thought it was a crap deal she would leave. The wool is definitely being pulled over your eyes if your sympathies are with the her or any of the aristocratic class.
She’s done nothing to improve her ability to make a speech in over a decade. That laziness is on her and a valid criticism. She also thought it was appropriate to openly snub her brother and sister in law at a commonwealth church service because she wasn’t able to walk in a procession. That’s awful behaviour that she never got called on. And let’s not forget how she remains silent on a completely false story that blamed her sister in law for something she herself actually did. She’s never bothered to say anything to correct the story and knowing that her own sister in law was being attacked in the media and contemplated suicide. And she still openly associated with a staff member who provided internal communications to a tabloid that was being sued for publishing a personal letter without permission. This is despicable behaviour and kate is still not facing the level of criticism she should for such horrendous actions.
So kate is called a mutton. Big deal. She is still winning in not being called out for the despicable things she’s personally done to her own sister in law.
She thought she won when helped drive out her pregnant sister-in-law. She’s garbage.
She could win by doing her job. If the only things she ever does are the equivalent of dressing for a photo op, that’s all people will talk about. She could work on her public speaking skills. She could be sure her visits to organizations highlight the people she’s visiting and the projects they do, and aren’t just another occasion for her to pose with her “interested” expression.
She copies Meghan, Diana, and TQ because she wants that level of acclaim and thinks the key to their popularity is how they dress. Will does the same thing with Harry; he thinks if he mimics Harry’s work with his own “projects”, the popularity will follow.
Neither of them understand what’s missing, especially with an organization surrounding them used to propping them up and manipulating public opinion away from any unsavory facts via media and PR. Harry and Meghan are rewriting that tired old playbook, and the rest of them haven’t figured out yet what’s so different and why it’s working.
Meghan was straight up called a terrorist, but sure “Kate can’t win.” Give me a break. Girl has the entire royal institution, as well as a whole country’s worth of media propping her up, along with bought and paid for bots praising her for looking like a damn disco ball. When has Kate lost anything? Nobody in the media is calling out her extreme laziness, her wastrel ways, or her downright awful behavior at all.
She’s not even trying to win. She’s nowhere near capable of taking on a meaningful role, she’s lazy, has no desire to expand her knowledge of anything and doesn’t even try. She repeatedly embarrasses herself publicly (Dr. Jill Biden round table? Rolling her eyes and being rude when asked about M&H?) and can’t say one sentence without reading from a card and mumbling because her accent is fake. All she does is dress up, play with her fake hair and grin.
So what’s winning for you? Because this woman is the least accomplished royal in the line of the throne and gets praised for nothing. Do you want more praises, glory for her? More expensive clothes and jewels ? That her lack of speech skills get clapper? She gets some mild criticism but she deserves much more imo
Not even elderly ladies dress the way she does. She’s clothed in another era, and not in a good way. The overall theme reeks of “office typist from the 1930s.”
@Chaine lol, brilliant!!!!! I would add, “office typist form the 1930s all gussied up for the holiday party.”
Exactly. I don’t know if I would be classed as elderly, I’m 71, but I wouldn’t be seen dead in most of what she wears. I’m small and thin with white hair but I wear blue jeans, skinny leg jeans, with funky sweaters or blazers, I accessorize with all sorts of things such as shawls or infinity scarves, brooches etc. I wear what I feel good in, and my SO and SILs tell me I look great. My latest purchase is a retro leather biker vest and I look fabulous in it! Bottom line is I wear my clothes, they don’t wear me.
I also have better skin than she does, perhaps because I’ve never sun bathed or smoked.
Lastly, I have a work ethic even though I’m retired (I volunteer) and you can take me anywhere without being ashamed of me.
I’m a huge fan of vintage fashion and love the style of each decade. I always think kate looks Victorian with a bit of 1940s. The problem with Kate is that she doesn’t realise it or do it purposely. She wears her clothes in a dead serious way without any of the quirkinesses that someone with a passion for vintage would. It’s like she thinks her ugly coat dresses and fascinators are what all young women are wearing.
She doesn’t appreciate vintage style because she’s never even worn vintage ever. If she actually wanted her look to emulate the 30s or 40s then great, but she actually doesn’t want to do that. That’s why her style fails miserably.
“If she actually wanted her look to emulate the 30s or 40s then great, but she actually doesn’t want to do that. That’s why her style fails miserably.”
Anne, Princess Royal wants to emulate the late 60s thru mid 80s and does a very good job of it. Anne wears so much of her own bespoke custom made vintage that her personal style works on a style and fashion level.
My god is the author the Dowager Countess of Grantham? Next level backhand compliment. Lololol
🤣🤣 Yeah, talk about cold.
I’m a 42 working professional, with three kids (one who just turned 20 years old). I wouldn’t be caught dead in half the stuff Kate wears! It is possible to dress “classy” AND show a bit on ankle.
All I see is another insanely expensive coatdress with a crooked bow … like the queen’s asymmetrical hats, trying to be interesting or different when it’s just more of the same old stuff. And the bow is droopy. Fail.
I mean, she wears belted pants now thanks to the other duchess, so that’s progress. I don’t hate her style a lot of the time, but she def veers off for me when she goes too matronly or too rigid (I can’t with her shoulder pad obsession). I think it’s a deliberate ploy to endear herself to the older crowd tho. And I think the prairie dresses she loves in the summer are her influencer mom cosplay, to endear herself to that audience. Others are right that she doesn’t really seem to have her own style identity, just what she thinks she should wear in her role. Nevertheless, I find myself looking forward to seeing what she wears, so that says something.
I think the press gave Kate a lot of leeway because she was always a young royal and a young mother. Now that 40 is looming they can start scratching youth off her list of positives. Now we’re left with the big hair, the coat dresses, and the constant big laughing.
I think Eugenie and Bea are going to rip that “young, royal mum” title away from Kate, not to mention Meghan in the US. Even though Meghan is five months older than Kate, she’s seems years younger. For some reason Kate seems closer to Sophie’s age than Meghan’s.
@Msiam I’d never thought about it before, but you’re right — I’d “group” (can’t think of a better word atm!) Kate and Sophie together, and the York sisters as the younger generation. Idk how old Sophie is, and I’m not even sure how old Beatrice is, but they definitely seem a generation apart.
Sophie Wessex born: January 20, 1965 (age 56 years)
Beatrice of York born: August 8, 1988 (age 33 years)
Eugenie of York born: March 23, 1990 (age 31 years)
Rania of Jordan born: August 31, 1970 (age 51 years)
Marie-Chantal of Greece born: September 17, 1968 (age 53 years)
Speaking of carole wearing kates’ earrings, I do believe that her choice of the older look is so mommie dearest can wear her left overs. I noticed that the jacket carole wore,in front of the jewelry store, was too small for her. Question is carole going though the girls closets?. Which may explain some of her wardrobe choices.
It also highlights that she is clothing Mummy using tax payers money as Chuck expenses anything she wears (clothes, shoes and jewels) for public events. It’s not the first time the press has snidely pointed out that Carole is wearing Kate’s clothes, clothes that Kate has worn to public events previously. Same with Pips but Pips seems to have her own wardrobe now that she married someone with a big bank account.
CBers who are more knowledgeable— did Kate’s fashion take a drastic turn after Meghan arrived on the scene? I got the impression that pre-Meghan, she just got a million copies of the same coat dress in different colors and that was essentially her Look. Then after Meghan (left?), the sister-wife dresses and other fashion disasters became the norm.
ETA: When I look at her red dress for the concert thing, it looks fine. Nothing special, but appropriate for the occasion. The problem emerges because of the obscene price and because the BM seems to keep trying to make this Kate is a Fashion Kween!!! happen. And if Kate is going to make fashion her defining trait, she needs to put in the effort, instead of whatever it is she’s doing now. Especially since she seems to have literal millions of £’s and a huge jewelry collection at her disposal.
It depends on who you are asking, I guess.
Kate did wear trousers once in a great while before Meghan came on the scene, not the loose fitting trousers we’ve seen her wear recently but they weren’t really in style 10 years ago IIRC (don’t ask me though, my fashion sense is not the best, lol.) but besides the jeggings (which have been a constant) there were one or two pair of ankle pants that she wore.
when they first got married, her style wasn’t that bad. She wore some coatdresses, yes, but lots of just plain dresses or suits (thinking of her Canada tour style in 2011, which I mostly liked). She wore this one great Ted Baker trench coat that I really liked.
anyway, then it definitely started to devolve at some point, to the doily dresses and all the BUTTONS and the never ending parade of coat dresses at every event (or if not an actual coatdress, a coat that she never ever took off).
The sister dresses and such did start juuuuust before Meghan, but not to the extent we see now. She seemed to be getting into the knee length/midi length dress and skirts and it wasn’t a bad look for her, styled poorly, but not a bad look (I’m thinking of the plaid skirt and black cardigan she wore to a KP christmas event, the dress she wore for Charlotte’s first day of school, although those looks were both post-Meghan, but she still had a few similar ones pre Meghan.)
All that said, there was a noticeable shift in her fashion once Meghan got on the scene, but not all the time. But I feel like over the past few years we have seen fewer coatdresses from her, cleaner looks, etc.
So basically Kate’s fashion went from okay verging on cute/good to pretty matronly/too many coatdresses/stop dressing like your 90 year old grandmother-in-law to what we see now.
The grandma looks started to be more noticeable after the multiple skirt fly aways. I think the incident at the memorial service in India might have pushed that along.
But she rarely wore trousers until Meghan arrived. It was either skirts or jeggings for the “sports” engagements along with those damn wedges.
IMO, the coat dresses started around George was born. Maybe she decided since she was now a mother, she needed to dress more “conservatively”. But you can be a mother and still dress stylishly. And then fully transitioned into the print dresses after Charlotte was born.
anthropologie and reformation have been doing 70s/80s inspired dresses for a while now so her look *could* be fashionable if it fit properly, but the tailoring is always off and everything ends up looking droopy and sad like an old dress on a charity shop mannequin
Thanks for the detailed response!
@LaraW” – You can go to Tom and Lorenzo and get great pictures and true unbiased fashion commentary from the dynamic-duo of true event and red carpet professionals on almost everything Kate has worn. I hope this link is allowed under the Celebitchy rules: https://tomandlorenzo.com/?s=Kate+Middleton
Yyyyyiiiiiiikkkkkkeeeeeesssssss… I’d add more but everyone else pretty much covered it.
Also, “dishrag with buttons” 😂
I died at “dishrag with buttons” 😭
It’s so mean, but you have to admit it’s accurate!!
“entering her fifth decade”!!!! She’s 39!!! I’m the same age and I find the wording of that offensive!!!
The SHADE. I cackled when I read that quote.
This is the wife of the UK’s future ceremonial head of state, a member of the Firm for over ten years, and the only thing she has going for her is that she is a fashion plate that dresses matronly. Add in that Kate doesn’t want to stand out cements the fact that she is a nothing burger who would be no use to the nation when there is a time of crisis if William is on the throne and leadership is needed. No a good look for the 21st century.
Kate really, really screwed herself over by participating in the smear campaign. I cannot count the number of times I’ve thought, “I *would* actually feel very sorry for Kate for (insert whatever reason; today it’s the mutton comment), but I can’t because of the way she treated Meghan. She deserves everything she gets now.”
If William does in fact kick her to the curb, she will have SO much less public support than she would have if she hadn’t been so cruel to Meghan (and Harry). Her behavior was so short-sighted!
I totally would have felt horrible on her behalf re: the mutton comment, but nope — and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Her legacy = she played a large part in driving Sussexes out of the country permanently. And she brought it all on herself. SMH
and if William does kick her to the curb, he’s going to make sure EVERYONE knows about her role in the smear campaign.
Kate will have no allies if William decides he doesn’t want her anymore. She will be dragged and, as has been said here many times, she will absolutely take the hit for everything regarding H&M. From the fake tears, to her very public bitchface regarding the Sussexes, to her trashy family taking swipes at Harry and Meg will all be used to make her the instigator.
Absolutely. If he ever decides to divorce her, he’s going to do everything he can to amplify Tatler’s insinuations that she and her mother are manipulative and calculating. He’ll use that to blame Sussexit on her and claim she started it…which she very well could’ve because it’s been established that she *never* liked or wanted to get to know Meghan. But still, he’s going to try to downplay his own role IF he wants to cut Kate loose.
Yes to everything here.
That style does not work in red. She looks like she stepped straight off the set of Call the Midwife.
Dosen’t she mean a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
Not anymore…to me, she now appears exactly as she is – a wolf in wolf’s clothing!
I’ve never heard such a patently ridiculous supposition before. A woman in her 30s dressed older than her age so that when she became older, people would think, ah, she looks great! That’s the most amazingly twisted pretzel logic I’ve ever seen. And she said it with a straight face!
Letiza and Raina are 49 and 51 respectively. They can miss me with that “she has to dress old fashioned because queens are always imagined as old.” That’s not going to reach the new generation they keep trying to reel in.
I want to change my user name to “mutton is where it’s at”.
OMG please do it 😂
Now that you gave me the idea, I might change mine to “WHAT ELSE”
Just a thought here re Kate and her married future; if Camilla passes away before Charles, and Charles is king, would it be expected of Kate to step into a ceremonial replacement role for Camilla? Wm would have a tough time divorcing her if she were seen in a more visibly important role than him. She may well end up with the better hand to play.
She would only embarrass Charles. I imagine he would go for the Fiesta, Zara, Ann or even Isla before he’d ask Kate.
Damn that’s shady.
Burger King and Mutton Chop, the future-future king and queen. Can’t wait.
Mutton dressed as lamb? She was practically 30 when she married William, so not an ingenue. She didn’t dress particularly conservative either, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Her style has only recently become ultra conservative.
She DID dress better when she Waity than she has since she’s married that man. She just isn’t my cup of tea when it comes to her styling, or attitude, or her anything really.
It’s just amazing the bullshit they come up with for Kate
.
An opinion is invariably about the individual/platform that makes said opinion.
Having said that, is it a new direction for the fail or a reversal to pre-royal Meghan coverage? If so, why?
Can it be poor ad sales, due to lack of interest and/or lack of eyeballs?