Duchess Kate wore a McQueen suit on Day 5 of the Caribbean tour: cute or meh?

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge started Day 5 of the Keen Caribbean Disaster Tour in Kingston. After their hilariously bad meeting with Jamaica’s prime minister, William and Kate went to an event at Shortwood Teacher Training College in the city. This was an event just for Kate, because it was about Early Years, her “signature initiative,” so I don’t know why William dragged his three hair follicles along to this. I mean, I would assume William came along because he’s worried about what Kate will do or say if she’s left alone. He also just… doesn’t have a lot going on. Months of careful tour planning went down the drain because they’re both racist idiots.

Still, people like to talk about Kate’s fashion, so here we go. For all of her engagements during the day, Kate wore this Alexander McQueen suit in a crisp white. The entire suit retails for close to £2,000. She paired it with an orange blouse from Ridley London, and an orange purse from Willow Hilson Vintage. Her bracelet was by Jamaican designer Lashawndla Bailey-Miller. Kate repeated her £125 Maria Black earrings. While I actually kind of like the suit, I don’t like it with this blouse and I don’t like it for a day spent with kids in Jamaica. This is the kind of crisp suit which should be worn with a smart button-down blouse and worn to one of her day events in London.

Also, a note about the Duke of Moose Knuckles… as of these photos, he’s only worn a proper suit one time, at the airport arrival in Belize on Day 1. All of William’s outfits in Belize and Jamaica have been either colonialist safari sh-t or sports coats and too-tight trousers. It’s kind of weird how consistently under-dressed he is.

As for the event at Shortwood Teacher Training College, Keen Kate made a speech, bless her buttons. This was and is her only scheduled speech of the tour:

During the royals’ second day of their visit to Jamaica, Kate Middleton made sure to stay focused on her primary mission of championing early childhood education around the globe.

“I truly believe we are on the cusp of one of the biggest opportunities for positive change in generations,” she said in a speech at Shortwood Teacher Training College in Kingston. “It is so wonderful to hear your ideas and enthusiasm for teaching and the hopes you have to influence the lives of young people.”

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, hoped to highlight the work of one of the country’s leading colleges training teachers in early years education, so she and Prince William, 39, headed to the college, which was one of the first to offer training in early childhood education and is a leading proponent of the field.

In her remarks on Wednesday, the Duchess noted that children’s earliest experiences are critical to their long-term development: “It is when we learn how to form relationships, how to connect to one another, how to manage our feelings and emotions. It is when we learn to develop a sense of identity, belonging and worthiness. And it is when we shape our values and understanding of the world we live in… That is why I am so passionate about early childhood. Because we are doing something much more than building healthy children. We are nurturing the children and the adults that they will become, the families they will build and the communities they will be part of.”

And she made a point to recognize the members the teachers and future teachers in attendance for standing on “the front line of this vital work [and playing] a crucial role in shaping our societies by positively impacting the futures of literally thousands of young people over the course of your careers.”

[From People]

While all teachers are important and teachers of “early years” aged kids are important, I can’t be the only one who barely has any memories one way or the other of my kindergarten teacher, right? The teachers who influenced me the most were mostly from high school – the hardass AP Government teacher who drilled constitutional rights into my 17-year-old head, the English teacher who singled me out for praise, etc. I’ll say what I always say about Kate’s Early Years sh-t – it just feels like she’s telling parents that if they don’t get it right in the first five years, their children’s lives will be destroyed. And that’s just not the case.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instar.

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65 Responses to “Duchess Kate wore a McQueen suit on Day 5 of the Caribbean tour: cute or meh?”

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  1. Snazzy says:

    My favourites were my elementary school librarian (Monsieur Lopez! My first crush) and my high school social studies teacher, who was the best (Madame Picard!). When I graduated she shook my hand, wished me luck and said she was excited to see how I would change the world. I was so taken aback I kind of stuttered a stupid teenage reply but I still remember her and love her for it.

    Edit: Sorry, nothing to say about Katie Keen, I just love talking about great teachers.

  2. LaMaitresse says:

    You’d never know it was McQueen, it looks like some Jones New York Outlet travesty. The trousers are vile in cut, and white court shoes are tacky AF.

    Enough with the maniac poses. Why hasn’t someone given her acting/decorum/anything lessons. A naturally vivacious Queen Maxima never looks like she needs IV benzodiazepines!

    • Jillian says:

      Kate does not elevate anything. And you’re right on the shoes, yuck

    • Catlady says:

      Her shoes are always so ugly. A pair of black strappy heels would have made this look work.

      • Myjobistoprincess says:

        Her shoe game is so lame. These are straight from Diana’s closet on the shelf where it’s written 80’s. That orange shirt is too stuffy with the blazer.

  3. girl_ninja says:

    She looks a mess, her husband looks a mess. This tour was a mess. They are a mess.

    • Noo says:

      @girl_ninja agree the messiness has finally risen to the surface for all to see!!

      @kaiser “bless her buttons” genius!!

  4. Sandra says:

    I’ll probably get slammed for this, but I like this look. I think it’s the best she’s look on this trip, although I personally would like the slacks a bit longer…

    • josephine says:

      I think it’s pretty good, too. It’s a tad more modern that her usual look. I don’t like the shoes or the bag, but the suit itself is a win for her, even if the bar is pathetically low.

    • Lucy says:

      I like the suit, she should wear suits to more of her London type events. It is a waste of business like clothes. She doesn’t know how to dress appropriately for events.

    • Chaine says:

      I think it’s a really good look for her. It’s modern, fresh, the colors pop, we don’t have to see her frightening clavicles, and most importantly in this outfit, she looks her own age, not like an elderly socialite.

    • MF says:

      Agree. For Kate, this is a very good look. Ideally, the top would have a better neckline to go with the jacket, and the shoes are a little tacky and dated for my taste. (Also orange/white is just not my fave color combination. It’s very in-your-face.)

      But overall, this is one of Kate’s more modern, fresh looks.

      It’s still, as Kaiser pointed out, wildly off-base for the event. Who wears a WHITE SUIT to interact with five-year-olds???

    • Emma says:

      I like it too! (except the shoes … ) so modern for her.

      Doesn’t really “go with” William’s four different shades of blue though? I guess they don’t coordinate outfits.

    • SueBarbri says:

      Agreed. This is the best outfit I’ve seen from Kate in a long time. It’s a little weird to wear such bright white to an elementary school, but this was a good look.

  5. FancyPants says:

    I think both of her looks on this tour where she wore white trousers were good for her. She really pulls off the “ladies who lunch” vibe, which is essentially all she is anyway.

  6. Layla says:

    What’s the orange for? Does anyone know?

    Anyways, who’s excited for the Invictus games in three weeks!?!

    • heygingersnaps says:

      Some commenters have pointed out that white and orange are Jamaica’s opposition party’s colours.

    • Jay says:

      Someone on the post about the earlier orange blouse observed that it is actually the official colour of Jamaica’s opposition party. I looked it up – it’s true! I don’t know if it’s on purpose or careless, but it’s odd.

    • equality says:

      Maybe it’s a shout-out to PH for the Invictus Games.

  7. Red Weather Tiger says:

    This suit just reminds me of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. The orange underneath is just….again, wrong. And white jacket and white pants AND white shoes? WHY?

  8. matthew says:

    She’s going to scare the children making faces like that. She looks like the Babadook in that picture.

    • Jamie says:

      I think these pictures were selected on purpose to make her look bad. These are obviously outtakes of a photographers pictures.

  9. Sonia says:

    Literally the only thing this 40 year old woman, with unlimited wealth and resources at her disposal, is good at is wearing some nice outfits once in a while.

  10. C says:

    The all-white suit theme was very nice when Meghan wore it to dinner with Harry, Eugenie, and Jack.

    Kate would never wear anything oversize though, so this is fitted.

    • Layla says:

      Knew we’d get an all white look not long after those photos were leaked. Didn’t think we’d get them during The Carriibean colonial cosplay tour

  11. Red Weather Tiger says:

    This suit just reminds me of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. The orange underneath is just….again, wrong. A patterned blouse would have been fresh and professional and still allowed the orange purse and opened up shoe options, because white jacket and white pants AND white shoes is just too too much.

  12. Harper says:

    Clearly this visit was supposed to be Kate’s solo engagement while Burger King enjoyed private time back at the resort. Unfortunately, the tour was not going well enough and William was called to sacrifice for the Crown and tag along.

    • NemesisPuff says:

      Exactly. But doesn’t this undercut all the embiggening they were dumping on her not but one week ago? “She’s so much more *herself* when William’s not around”, “she’s much more at ease, really coming into herself”…

      Yes. You can see the impatience in her eyes as she counts down the clock to when she can run to the slide for a wee go.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        Isn’t that true!! Though she has been coming into herself for the last 5-7 years. Plus we should never forget that TQ supposedly told them to “take their time” into working as royals! Well, she has been with the family, marriage wise, for 10+ years and this is what the have?

        The two of them couldn’t stand one day in his grandparents position, at the same ages. Yet we are all to be happy that they are utterly useless as they cost the Monarchy millions of pounds every month with no return.

        @ Kaiser, yes! “Bless her buttons” indeed!!
        Chefs kiss 💋

  13. NemesisPuff says:

    It’s a bad, obvious and old PR trick: manipulate the audience by wearing white when you apologise (or in this case, say nothing and make faces at kids whose lunch you’re interrupting) to evoke a sense of innocence.

    Too bad Juliet Holness outshone her in every way! Better dress, shoes and hair; the full combo. She looks so over the charade yet is still giving more than those two.

    Also, Kate with kids after her fence pics shares have only gotten started? Yeesh.

  14. Becks1 says:

    William’s dressing like his luggage got lost or something. Why is he always wearing the same wrinkled clothes? Why didnt he have a nice suit to wear when meeting the PM? He looked like he couldnt even be bothered, I’m sure Charles is furious at how the meeting when but also mortified that William looked so messy during it. His pants don’t fit him right and he should have worn a different blazer.

    Kate’s suit is fine in itself, I don’t love all-white suits but that’s just personal preference. I don’t love it with the white shoes though and I think she could have picked a different blouse. Also, wearing all white to meet with school-children and sitting down at their tables etc just seems like a poor decision in general.

    I remember my preschool and kindergarten teachers very well and I have a great deal of appreciation for my own children’s “early years” teachers but I agree that Kate’s push for this just comes across to me as “if you mess it up in the first five years, your kids are toast.”

    • L84Tea says:

      I know we don’t normally expect men to be fashionistas, but what a letdown William is in the clothes department–not just this trip, but in general. For a man who comes from two parents who both dress(ed) so well, he’s such a rumpled, crumpled, blah dresser. His clothes seem to mimic his personality–bland, directionless, boring, and unimaginative.

      • CindyP says:

        Why can’t he wear trousers instead of those awful, too tight, straight leg chinos?
        I had a boss who came to the US from our UK office; originally from CA but he acquired a ridiculous British accent. He also wore those pants with a tucked in shirt. He was the butt of many jokes & eye rolls

    • Lizzie Bathory says:

      I was shocked that William couldn’t be bothered to wear a proper suit to meet the PM. His clothing choices are so weird, especially in contrast with his father (perhaps that’s part of it).

      As for teachers, I’m sure I had lovely teachers when I was little, but I don’t remember any. I remember a wonderful 7th grade English teacher who encouraged me & informally accommodated my (then undiagnosed) ADHD. I remember my high school French teacher–“Madame”–who would mutter school gossip in French when she thought we couldn’t hear. I remember my AP art history teacher who was so beloved by the school that we raised money to send him & his wife to Paris to tour the museums & see the city. I don’t think Kate means it to be dismissive of other points where teachers can affect a person’s life (I doubt she thinks much about any of it), but the “early years” focus seems oddly limited.

      • Becks1 says:

        Charles would have been in an elegantly tailored lightweight suit, probably a light grey or beige. I don’t understand how the Cambridges are so bad at dressing appropriately for occasions. A suit for a man when meeting a Prime Minister seems like a no-brainer to me.

      • Feeshalori says:

        None of what he’s wearing matches; his shoes, pants and jacket are three different colors. Just his shirt and tie complement the jacket but not those worn shoes. All crumpled and ill-fitting. It really defines how he feels about this trip and his hosts. If clothes make the man, then he’s still a little boy.

  15. Angie says:

    Bold and bizarre choice to wear all white to visit kids. As a former kinder teacher, if someone came to my class like that I would assume they know nothing about children and or have no desire to actually interact with them.

    • Jais says:

      That was also my first thought. A white suit to wear around little kids. A kindergarten teacher knows better.

  16. Southern Fried says:

    The woman in the background with the pink and yellow, love it. Just me?

  17. Surly Gale says:

    I remember sitting in circle time in Kindergarten and a big blonde woman grabbed the boy beside me and pulled him out of the circle by his hair because he was talking when he should have been listening. I was terrified and have blanked out all of elementary school. By high school with undiagnosed ADHD I was “not trying hard enough” and “not living up to her potential”. School was not a kind place from beginning to end.
    On the other hand, it’s left me with enormous admiration for GOOD teachers, like some mentioned above and one (just ONE) of my son’s teachers.

  18. Gill says:

    I saw the pair of them talking about early years and W said he would defer to K’s knowledge as he knew absolutely nothing about it to which she replied ‘oh you do I chat to you about it all the time’…..ehm I’m a nurse specialist and I talk to my husband about cases I’ve come across but it doesnt mean you want him managing your illness all of a sudden!!! Is she really so emotionally abused that she feels the automatic need to praise him even when he’s self deprecating??? Does she think chatting about a subject makes you an expert ?? (Actually she probably does think that tbf) Such an small moment but a psychologist would get so much from studying it 😬

    • equality says:

      He was probably thinking “but I tune out when you talk.”

    • Becks1 says:

      So….William just tunes her out and ignores her when she talks? Also, William is the father of three young children. Surely he can have something to say about the early years, its not like Kate is citing to research or anything, she just makes broad statements like “the early years are important.” Or did William just not want to engage so Kate was trying to get him to engage? Such a weird interaction.

    • PrincessK says:

      Just yet another attempt by William to make his intellectually weak wife look good and make it appear that she has mastered something. He tried to make everyone know that their mental health work was a result of Kate’s brainwave. Then he always defers to her on anything to do with the arts and says that she is the artistic one in the family.

      • First comment says:

        Or she just wanted to show how much she cares for her early years initiative that she chats about it constantly 😉

    • NemesisPuff says:

      Good lord. Why is he so bad at media and sound bites? Wasn’t he trained his entire life for this? What century was he born in that he completely missed the whole “we know we can’t GOVERN, but you need us for morale! Right?” riggamarole of his grandma?

      Who cares how you feel about your wife; what you’re saying here is that you don’t care about things you’re not directly involved with. You are disinterested in other peoples’ lives if what they’re doing doesn’t immediately affect you.

      Hmm…sounds like the reasonings of an obsolete Head of State, right?

  19. Honora says:

    Reverse creamsicle suit outfit would look terribly unflattering on so many women maybe this odd outfit is a “flex” regarding Kate being thin? Or maybe her stylist thinks orange is a colour you wear in the tropics.

  20. Plums says:

    I think overall the tour has been a disaster for them, and I don’t know how she came across speaking, but from reading what she said in her speech in this article, the substance actually sounds good. Kudos to her speech writers. Just because early childhood care and education has been made her cause, and she’s generally a useless clown of an advocate doesn’t mean it isn’t actually an important, critical issue. It isn’t rendered less important just by virtue of Kate’s unfortunate PR association with it.

    You feel individually influential teachers from high school were more crucial to your development as an adult because you remember that influence fondly, but you don’t remember the unconscious influence and socialization provided by teachers in your early developmental years that enabled you to absorb and appreciate the secondary education you received as you got older. That stuff genuinely does deeply matter. It’s why universal pre-k and things like funding Head Start programs are major issues.

    • SomeChick says:

      I have distinct memories of my elementary school teachers, and how I was treated. I also remember fellow students, all the way down to first grade. early childhood really is important – so much socializing happens, and if kids are treated badly it will in fact affect them negatively for many years. she’s got that right, although that’s about the extent of her message as far as I can tell.

  21. equality says:

    So here is the woman so worried about covid that she stepped back from a lady holding her hand but is in the face of school children inside without a mask?

  22. Scal says:

    Outfit is cute-but the shoes are awful. A cute sandal or a metallaic would have been so much better.

  23. Rapunzel says:

    Someone on another post called Kate a stuffer regarding clothes, cramming herself into the smallest sizes she can get. This outfit demonstrates that well.

    The suit is ill fitting and she looks like she’s wearing highwayer pants. She also needed a collared blouse, not this pussybow stupidity. But Kate’s always gotta have buttons or bows or lace or sparkles.

  24. V says:

    My pre k teacher Mrs. N had perhaps the biggest impact on me, I still think about her constantly. My high school teachers not so much.

  25. Loco Moco says:

    Alexander McQueen is rolling over in his grave. He would look at the current fashions bearing his name and be like, “Harpo, who dis woman?” The outfit is not terrible but I could see Krystal Carrington wearing the same thing, so….

  26. MrsH says:

    Hold up. I can’t with this one. She gives a speech saying:
    “It is when we learn how to form relationships, how to connect to one another, how to manage our feelings and emotions. It is when we learn to develop a sense of identity, belonging and worthiness. And it is when we shape our values and understanding of the world we live in…”

    She sure is doing a bang up job practicing what she preaches given her children have no connection to their aunt and uncle and likely won’t know their cousins. And I’m sure that they have heard many an unkind word about them as well, shaping their view for years to come.

    Speculation of course.

  27. JC says:

    I’m biased as a California-born woman, but I much prefer how Meghan styled this same blazer, which I understand is a mainstay of the line: https://www.vogue.com/article/meghan-markle-alexander-mcqueen-boss-prince-harry-endeavour-fund-awards-celebrity-royal-style

    • Layla says:

      She wore the same suit for that epic TImes100 talk she and Harry curated. You know the one where you invite intellectual professionals to discuss and important issue and let them showcase their hard work (instead of taking credit) and everyone ripped her apart for it despite the fact that she paid for it herself and the second time she wore it, all the jewellery she wore were repeats and she wasn’t traipsing around in colonial cosplay

  28. Willow says:

    Oh my gosh Kaiser, you’re comment about not having memories of your early childhood teachers really surprised me. Because I have very clear memories of many of them. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Raimondai, played the piano and had the best dress up area and play houses of all the kindergarten classes. Mrs Lamb,1st grade, would actually get quieter and then stop talking if we were too loud in class. She never once yelled. Mrs Brown, for 2nd grade, had fancy fingernails, I didn’t like her that much. My 4th grade teacher, Mr. Zito, was loud and awesome. More teacher memories after that, but they start to get blurred. I will forever remember my 8th grade science teacher who said, ‘Willow, look at this test score!, you could go to college!’ And I did.

  29. L4Frimaire says:

    This tour is so bad that it actually has overshadowed her brand new wardrobe, other than a few inappropriate looks. Have the number crunchers at the Daily Fail shown up yet or do they ignore the vast costs of the wardrobe but praise her frugalness for a random pair of earrings, lol.

  30. Carolind says:

    When I started school at age of 4 my teacher wore a green dress. I remember a LOT about primary school. My daughter, 40 years younger, remembers hardly anything. She’s getting a lot of bad comments even in the DM. Some of the articles have moderated comments. That could be though because some of my dear fellow country people do not believe that we are all equal.

  31. Taehyung's Noona says:

    Nothing she wears is cute because she’s a racist.

    • NemesisPuff says:

      👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
      I would high-five you through a fence if needed

  32. Mrs. Smith says:

    One of my only handful of memories as a kindergartener was the last day of school. I walked up to a random dad (closest adult) and said I had to go the bathroom. He said when you gotta go, you gotta go, then gestures towards the school, then walked away. My mind was blown! I was 6 and could go alone to the bathroom?! It literally changed my entire worldview and I will never forget it. For the record, he was not a perv and it was 1980, so different times.