Since the start of 2024, there’s been a real dearth of random embiggening articles about the Princess of Wales. There’s all of this energy towards screaming hysterically over every single thing the Duchess of Sussex says or does, and yet not even a fraction of that energy is brought to analyzing Kate’s hair, makeup, work, events or fashion. Well, the Daily Mail finally gave us something: analysis of Kate’s new aesthetic, which is actually a pretty big change. For the past year, Kate has been wearing a lot of darker colors, muddy browns, navy, greys and black. When she does a “pop of color,” it’s usually red nowadays. She’s also been repeating a lot of older coats. Notably, Kate and her staff threw a weird hissy fit this year about how information about Kate’s fashion would no longer be released via official channels. There’s been a real shift, and the Mail is finally talking about it: “The wardrobe changes that signal the start of Kate 2.0 as Princess of Wales enters her ‘invisible fashion’ era.”
A new style strategy for the Princess of Wales? This is the start of Kate 2.0 for the queen-in-waiting as she enters her ‘invisible fashion’ era. Kate’s wardrobe has always been a subject of fascination, but as she resumes her royal duties in 2025, it’s clear that her style has undergone a significant transformation in her comeback wardrobe.
Gone are the pastel dresses and statement coats of previous years. In their place is a more muted, sophisticated and understated wardrobe that signals a new era for the Princess of Wales.
This shift in style, which we are calling ‘invisible fashion’, demonstrates that Kate is choosing to let her work take centre stage rather than her wardrobe. Following the announcement from Kensington Palace regarding the focus needing to shift from her clothes to her work, we are now seeing a new style for the Princess of Wales, one where her fashion choices blend into the background.
British designer Amanda Wakeley, host of the podcast Style DNA, believes Kate has always understood the power of fashion as a communicator, and her more muted wardrobe for 2025 reflects a considered shift in how she wishes to be perceived. She says: ‘This approach speaks to her discipline and dedication, using fashion as a quiet amplifier rather than a distraction.’
Over the years, Catherine has often been celebrated for her fashion sense, but her latest choices suggest a more purposeful approach to dressing. As she steps into an increasingly prominent royal role, Kate appears to be embracing a more neutral and refined aesthetic, allowing her presence, rather than her outfit, to make the statement. Her recent wardrobe overhaul has seen a shift towards beige, camel, deep burgundies, and rich browns, tones that are elegant, timeless, and, crucially, unassuming. The days of fit and flare dresses and skinny jeans seem to be firmly behind her. Instead, Kate is championing classic tailoring, favouring wide-leg trousers, structured midi skirts, and well-cut blazers.
By choosing neutral hues and timeless cuts, Kate is embracing a style that aligns with her growing role within the monarchy, where her presence is required to carry weight beyond just a photo opportunity. It’s a stark contrast to the late Queen Elizabeth, who was famous for her use of bright colours to ensure she stood out in a crowd. Kate’s approach, however, is all about subtlety and quiet power.
A big chunk of this shift/change is obviously Kate copying the Duchess of Sussex’s aesthetic – how many articles have been written about Meghan’s love of neutrals, sad beiges and California creams? But that’s only part of it. I genuinely think Kate, a woman who is now 43 years old, is actually tired of her old doily dresses, button-collecting and school-girl aesthetic. After all of this time, she’s discovered… work-wear. She’s finally learned that she can just do midi-skirts, turtlenecks and well-cut coats and that works fine. Also: I have to admit, her hair has been looking much improved this year. She’s no longer plopping hairpieces on top of her head and expecting no one to notice.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales speak to members of the emergency services during a visit to Southport Community Centre to meet rescue workers and the families of those caught up in the Southport knife attack earlier this year. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died after a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on July 29. Picture date: Thursday October 10, 2024.,Image: 919252435, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Danny Lawson / Avalon
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales attended a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and.the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in London. The event brought together faith and civic leaders as well as survivors of the Holocaust and more recent genocides.,Image: 958095700, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Arthur Edwards/Avalon/Avalon
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- AMMANFORD, WALES – JANUARY 30: Catherine, Princess of Wales arrives for a visit to Corgi, a family run textiles manufacturer focused on the production of socks and knitwear on January 30, 2025 in Ammanford, Wales. During her visit to South Wales, The Princess of Wales she highlighted the work of longstanding organisations that prioritise community at their core. The Princesses focus was on the wellbeing of children and families, as well as celebrating the excellence of Welsh textiles manufacturing.,Image: 958961915, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Rebecca Naden/Avalon/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales joined a group of four and five-year-old school children at the National Portrait Gallery and launched a new project from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood aimed at supporting young children in the development of crucial social and emotional skills.,Image: 960070866, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Arthur Edwards/Avalon/Avalon
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- London, UK, 04 February 2025: Catherine, The Princess of Wales joined a group of four and five-year-old school children at the National Portrait.Gallery and launched a new project from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood aimed at supporting young children in the development of crucial social and emotional skills.,Image: 960115471, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Arthur Edwards/Avalon/Avalon
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales attend the annual Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey, in London. Picture date: Monday March 10, 2025.,Image: 974325989, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales listens to members of the emergency services during a visit to Southport Community Centre to meet rescue workers and the families of those caught up in the Southport knife attack earlier this year. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died after a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on July 29 Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Southport, United Kingdom When: 10 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales arrive for a visit to Southport Community Centre to meet the families of those caught up in the Southport knife attack earlier this year. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died after a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on July 29 Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, William, Prince of Wales Where: Southport, United Kingdom When: 10 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the National Portrait Gallery, London, to launch a new project from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood aimed at supporting young children in the development of social and emotional skills Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 04 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Action for Children, during a visit to a mother and baby unit inside HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to highlight the importance of strong, loving and consistent mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Wilmslow, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Royals meet injured players who are supported by the Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust as they attend the Wales v England Six Nations match at Pincipality Stadium Featuring: Prince William, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Cardiff, United Kingdom When: 15 Mar 2025 Credit: Alastair Grant/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
The idea of letting her “work “ take center stage is hilarious.
Exactly.
“ Kate’s approach, however, is all about subtlety and quiet power.”
What work? What power?
😂
Every time she wears red, she’s not being subtle.
She’s boring and there’s nothing of substance in her.
Apparently, ‘subtle’ is another word for ‘lazy’.
Kate needs an updated haitstyle.
Right? I don’t think it looks better at all. She needs to cut a few inches of and go a little darker.
When I saw pictures of her younger self in an article last week, it’s more clear than ever that she’s either getting major support from hair extensions or entire wigs. So when is the jig up? At some point those luscious long locks will look preposterous.
I do feel for anyone in the public eye who has to deal with a big change of appearance that aging hair brings. Andre Agassi wrote about it in his memoir–he just ripped the bandaid off and ditched his glue-on wig.
Maybe the hair is all her own, but it’s still too much and shapeless, which ages her unnecessarily. Same with browns and greys, those colours age her. Sometimes darker colors are not even event-appropriate. For the school trip to the museum, that outfit was drab af. I would have gone with white slim-fit jeans (no jeggings), cute flats like the now trendy loafers, a blouse and blazer with a pop of color. And a ponytail or something. On that occasion, she looked like she completely forgot the event and quickly pulled on whatever she found ironed in the laundry room.
The recent post showing her in her 20s during the dating years show her hair was not as bulky as it is now, which is a biological impossibility. Also one of her first press releases post marriage was to lie about the use of hair extension when a photo showing one of the attachments was visible in her hair.
She’s been wearing fake hips? There is a shift in her shape too.
I think she is using the structure of these coats to create the illusion of a more shapely, feminine figure. It’s not just that she is very thin, but has very narrow hips. So I don’t think it’s padded, but tailored to that effect. Although, I could be wrong, because the family has a history of presenting ass-of-lies so…
Yeah, I really started noticing it in Fall 2023 when she was clearly quite unwell, her clothes were very structured to hide how frail she was, and that seems to be continuing.
It’s a long known strategy for this with disordered eating too – where bigger, baggier, or structured clothes to disguise the body.
Has no one noticed that it’s still winter, cold and chilly, so of course Kate’s wearing dark colors. Now come spring/summer when Kate starts wearing pastels and bright colors again, the fashion press will move the goal post yet again. And that last bit, comparing the late queen unfavorably to Kate is a real shift in reporting, at least to me. Are they actually saying that Kate dresses more like a queen than the woman who was Britain’s longest reigning monarch? That Kate shows more “quiet power” than the actual monarch? My goodness!
She wore bright suits all through the winter before she disappeared. Remember the I’m a workin woman phase of her fashion post coronation..
Yep, you’re right Polo! I guess that I just don’t pay enough attention to Kate and what she wears 🙂
yep. neutrals. wide-legged pants. well-fitted blazers. where’ve we seen that before?
So they are still talking about her fashion but now it’s smart neutral color. Still not talking about the work she isn’t doing.
They really don’t know what else to write about her.
This. They come up with these ridiculous fashion analyses about her regularly, alternating with her role as a mother. Because everything else is off limits and she does nothing of substance that is public knowledge. Sometimes it’s comparison photos with Diana or QE2, sometimes musings about how she has finally come to her own with quiet fashion or whatnot. Even after they declared that her work should be the focus (lol).
I kept expecting Meghan’s name to appear in this piece because what Kate has done is copy Meghan’s style. It’s interesting to see the different reaction to Kate’s “new” style. I seem to remember Meghan being attacked for the way she dress and people saying she needed to dress more like Kate. Now Kate dressing like Meghan is not a problem.
Hmmm, “invisible” and “unassuming” sounds like she’s being shoved into the background.
Nobody on the planet has ‘invisible style’. What they really mean is ‘no style’.
Her constant repeats this year suggests her clothing allowance has been cut deep which also points to being shoved into the background.
She made this shift a few years ago…..right around the time a certain Black American actress came into the family……gee, wonder if that’s a coincidence….
we still see the coatdresses, it just really seems to be those Emillia Wickstead dresses that have gone by the wayside (you know the ones I mean, she had them in 4 or 5 colors, with the square-cut neck and then the pleated skirt.) She also seems to be only wearing coatdresses for coatdress appropriate occasions, like church services, not to go meet little kids.
anyway to me this is really all about how they know she’s dressing more boring now and they’re trying to prop it up. Boring is fine for a professional woman, but when all the press has to write about is her fashion, then boring is not so fine.
Hmm is this meant to hide that the “Kate effect” is no match for the “Meghan effect” when it comes to driving purchasing behavior? Also calling it invisible fashion seems like a dig
I am not about to click on the link in order to find out the author of that article, but holy cow is it petty! Someone was told that they wouldn’t be able to write about K’s clothing, and after learning that KP was serious about that, they came up with her “invisible fashion” era??!
“This shift in style, which we are calling ‘invisible fashion’, demonstrates that Kate is choosing to let her work take centre stage rather than her wardrobe. Following the announcement from Kensington Palace regarding the focus needing to shift from her clothes to her work, we are now seeing a new style for the Princess of Wales, one where her fashion choices blend into the background.”
“Ouch!” levels of snarkiness in that paragraph. Savage.
I wish they were more honest.
Here is the lazy Princess of Wales who has reproduced three children to ensure the next generation for the House of Windsor. However, she hasn’t achieved much in her role over the last 25 years in the public eye. We have been embargoed to write about her clothes but of her charitable endeavours and accomplishments there are very little to speak of. She occasionally plays the piano but performs it very ill.
Making Keen wear boring clothes is by design. As boring as she is, she still outshines Peg, and he wants all the attention on him as the greatest, most kingly king ever. And he’s probably sick and tired of the Middletons wanting Earldoms and everyone thinking Kate babysits his drunk ass. So much resentment, and they can’t hide it anymore.
Seems like she’s getting ahead of the story. She might as well be invisible. As far as the royals are concerned she’s fulfilled her purpose with the children and can’t seem to muster up anything else.
Wish she would cut her hair, eat some fattening fun food and loosen her girdle so to speak. She’s dreary and depressing now.
Oh, bull pucky! It’s winter!! She disappeared in winter, was gone for pretty much a whole year, and has reappeared in winter! Of course she’s wearing muted colors! On her rare outings last year what did she wear? Bright green at Wimbledon, all white at Trooping. What utter nonsense! And ‘her presence’ makes the statement??? Are they serious??
“Invisible fashion”? Man, that’s gotta be a low blow for someone whose only notable accomplishments are birthing heir/spares and being a clothes hanger. 😮
Are they warning Kate that “her presence is required to carry weight beyond just a photo opportunity” if she wants to continue this nonsense of not identifying her clothes? One thing she did do is help designers and clothing lines by wearing their clothes. Giving a boost to the fashion industry is something Kate can actually do. But at the same time, they’re admitting her appearances are nothing, but photo ops. No credit for anything meaningful she has done or said beyond show-casing fashion. So every embiggening also contains a kernel of actual truth? Typical passive-aggressive BM.
But DID she help designers though? Didn’t at least two designers who British reporters repeatedly crowed were KATE’s go-to designers go bankrupt? I can imagine many more people who see her wearing a designer garment decide to give that designer a wide berth than rush to patronise them. It’s not for nothing that there have been articles wondering why/how Kate manages to make high-end fashion look so unbelievably dowdy.
That work has about a week and a half before she is off for 3 weeks for the kid’s school holidays. I know , it seems like just two or three weeks ago that they were on a break but it’s coming again . I just don’t know why the Brit’s who pay for wank and buttons put up with their year long vacations and a dash of work
“demonstrates that Kate is choosing to let her work take centre stage rather than her wardrobe.”
Holy crap… I almost inhaled my cough drop reading that ….
Now her exterior matches her interior — dull and drab.
She tries copying Meghan but fails. Everything she does screams “I want to be like Diana or Meghan” but comes across as a dreary old lady trying to be young and hip vibe. Kate doesn’t have the “it” factor for styling. It’s sad watching her attempt to copy Meghan.