Princess Kate embraces ‘grandpa core’ style in a boxy tweed in Bradford

The Princess of Wales was out and about today in Northern England. She visited Family Action’s Children’s Trauma Therapy Service in Bradford and Wakefield Trinity Rugby League’s club. As you can see, Kate loved the praise for her “grandpa core” style, so she’s decided to lean into that. She wore mis-matched brown trousers and a black turtleneck, and tried to pull the whole look together with a frumpy tweed jacket by Holland Cooper. I actually like tweed in general, but it’s all about the tailoring with that kind of fabric. One of Kate’s many style issues is that she seems to like baggy or even boxy jackets/sporscoats. They come across as shapeless on her extremely slender frame. But I know why she chose these tweed: the shiny gold buttons!! Old-school Button Watch!!! Incidentally, Kate wore Cartier “trinity” earrings, which Tatler claims are a reference/tribute to her three children.

Meanwhile, Tatler decided to push a narrative this week that Kate is working her fingers to the nub this year, writing: “January has already been action-packed for the Princess as she continues to hit her stride after taking time off to undergo cancer treatment. It is possible Kate could be set for her busiest year since her diagnosis.” They quoted Robert Jobson, who previously said that Kate was in “survival then recovery mode” in 2025, and he thought this year would be busier for Kate. The thing is, Kate actually has been “busier” this year than she usually has been in previous Januarys. For many years, Kate would barely have any events before February. But she’s not keening and jazz-handing her way through events this year because she’s suddenly got a strong work ethic. The whole reason why we’ve seen her a few times this year is because Prince Harry was in London for almost a week. That’s it, that’s the whole reason why. “Don’t forget about meeeeee!”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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75 Responses to “Princess Kate embraces ‘grandpa core’ style in a boxy tweed in Bradford”

  1. Grace says:

    All I can see is those horrible buttons. They cannot belong to that blazer.

    • Krista says:

      Yeah, they need to go. Other than that though, I don’t mind the blazer.

      It pains me to compliment her, but here we are.

      • Mac says:

        The buttons must have been a special request because they make no sense on that jacket.

      • Elsa says:

        I love Grandpa core. I e been eating it since the 90’s. I call it dowdy British core or country queen core. I jazz it up with a little something.

  2. Bumblebee says:

    Show more of that lady in the leopard print! I like that better than the twee professor style.

    • Smart&Messy says:

      ITA about the leopard print lady/girl, let’s see more of her. If you look at those two photos closely, it looks more like leopard print lady is the one visiting Kate in an inpatient facility where we learn she is doing much better now. Kate looks like she is holding on to her like an anchor. She looks pale and unwell here.

    • Nerd says:

      Yes, I want to see more of the woman who’s greeting her because even from the back, she looks more fashionable and energetic than whatever Kate is wearing.

    • Me at home says:

      I read somewhere else that the leopard print person is a girl. It’s noteworthy that this 12-something girl has long sausage curls down her back, too–something for Kate to think on.

  3. FancyPants says:

    The three different browns and the brass buttons are making my eyes twitch.

  4. sunniside up says:

    It’s a nice jacket, the sort of thing my father wore to the office.

  5. First comment says:

    “It is possible Kate could be set for her busiest year since her diagnosis “: look how carefully it is phrased; not her busiest year ever but her busiest year since her diagnosis. That probably means that we should expect at least 63 visits – events…wow!!!

    • MSJ says:

      Raise a glass 🥃 to Kate finally reaching a target of 300+ events in 2026. She’s healthy, SpriteKit and rearing to go. 😏 Giddy up Kate. 🐎

      😛 😛 😛

      • Nerd says:

        No, not a target of 300+ for 2026, but a target of 68+ for the year. He specifically said that she could have her “busiest year since HER DIAGNOSIS”. He knows that she will never reach a target that is acceptable, so he carefully worded it to only exceed her mediocre performance of 68 engagements last year. A year when she was in remission the entire year yet was surpassed by everyone who is older than her by at least double the amount of engagements. Some of those engagements outside of the UK and to places that she hasn’t visited ever or at least in ages.

    • SuOutdoors says:

      Yes, it will be the most busy year for a looong time. Harry probably will be back for the final days in court, so another busy week is waiting in the late winter. In July the Sussexes will be back for Invictus in Birmingham and, depending on security arrangements, might stay for some private days – a lot of work on the horizon…

      • TN Democrat says:

        Yikes. That is certainly a choice. She just has no style. She also looks unwell. She will be trotted out a lot this year because of the Windsor’s imaginary competition with Harry. Her total numbers will still be less than 100 though.

    • Jay says:

      The poor dear might even get out of the double digits at this rate! What a feat that would be.

    • BeanieBean says:

      ‘Could be’, yeah, sure.

  6. Jais says:

    I don’t love the color of those pants. At least not with the jacket anyways. Maybe with something else. Anyways, action-packed say what? That’s absurd. And offensive. She’s worked what, 2 days so far? Am I missing something?

    • Hypocrisy says:

      Not missing a thing except that bar that is so low for Waity that it’s now about 12 meters below sea level…

      • jais says:

        Look, I’m at a point. Idc if she’s only done two events. But stop fluffing it up like she’s soooo busy. That’s called lying for fuck’s sake. It is the definition of lying. Two events is not busier than ever. GMAFB.

  7. Becks1 says:

    It’s her busiest January ever because she’s worked two days? Is that the narrative they’re going with here?

    Poor William and Kate, they have to be so mad that Harry and Meghan keep working and being visible because it means they need to be as well (in their minds.)

    This outfit is a good example of what I was ranting about yesterday re: style and whimsy and “sparkle.” On its face its not a bad outfit – but it just doesnt work.

    • Ciotog says:

      That’s the real reason William’s screeching about a royal court. Harry being in the UK more will mean he’ll need to work more. Poor sausage.

    • Nic919 says:

      The hair dragged the outfit down too. She needs to stop with the super long extensions because they do nothing for her.

  8. Still beating the fake cancer horse. Working her fingers to the bone with what exactly? Planning vacations? Buying crappy wigs and outfits? Deciding where to film her next nature video for Spring?

  9. Chaine says:

    The blazer is fine but the brown pants are hideous and don’t coordinate with it at all.

    Is it just me or has her face been looking oddly mask-like for the past few months? I think it’s the way her one eyebrow overly raises when she grins. It makes her face look like a comedy mask.

    • ShazBot says:

      I think it’s all the filler to mask the weight loss. Her face and her frame don’t match anymore, and then she can use boxy clothes to hide it.
      Her clothes have become so boring – at least her coat dresses and lace and buttons were more interesting even if not fashionable. And they can’t say she’s doing it to focus on the work because if that were the case, her hair would be sensibly tied back for these engagements.

    • Becks1 says:

      I know what you mean but I can’t tell how much is photoshop.

    • Jay says:

      I think it’s the effect of her in the warm browns with the brassy hair. Her own colouring is quite cool-toned, so putting that much warmth right next to her face makes her look dull and almost grey. No amount of blush or bronzer can fix that.

    • Nic919 says:

      Either she has a bad colourist or she doesn’t listen to them because blonde tones aren’t working for her at all. She has dark brown hair and should be colouring her hair much darker because it suited her better.

    • Me at home says:

      I think she’s toned down the lashes of blusher for these closeup shots? Plus her lipstick is very pale. I’m going to guess that’s not her actual facial skin we’re seeing, but instead something like BB cream or foundation. If we all think she looks waxy, then the brown/nude shades are not a flattering choice with the brown outfit.

    • Anare says:

      I notice that she has really moved her upper teeth forward and it changes her smile which on this day is pasted on like a mask. Her cheeks look filled too, and the runaway left eyebrow. Yikes! Her outfit is beyond boring and those cheap-ass buttons are hurting my soul.

  10. DianeS says:

    Princess Kate always looks very nice but she always looks the same. Safe.

  11. Blujfly says:

    She’s had those earrings since before she had 3 children. She has pretty much the entire Cartier Trinity collection, including a 50,000 pound necklace.

    • Becks1 says:

      She wore the earrings because….wait for it….she visited the Wakefield Trinity Rugby League. Get it???? lolol she’s so basic.

      • MSJ says:

        I had a good chuckle 🤭 with your comment highlighting the ‘Trinity’ link.

        Thank you.

      • Becks1 says:

        Anything to brighten a tuesday morning!!

        As soon as that clicked in my head I was like…..omg you have got to be kidding me lol.

      • Nic919 says:

        Omg. Of course she would. Kate has always been so basic.

      • Christine says:

        It’s like she derives all of her pleasure from the press pointing out how a piece of jewelry is a “sweet nod” to whatever. It’s so freaking weird.

  12. Beverley says:

    Boring! Perhaps her blandest look ever.

  13. Amy Bee says:

    I still remember when the press and royalists told us that royal women are supposed to wear bright colours and weren’t allowed to wear pants. When are we going to be told that Kate is breaking protocol.

  14. Irving says:

    That is soooooo much brown. Like even the 120 box of crayons doesn’t have that many browns in it.

  15. Nancy says:

    I hate the color of the pants. Black pants would’ve tied the whole thing together. The jacket is fine except for those godawful buttons. A nice dark brown wooden button would look so much better if one must have buttons at all.

  16. Eurydice says:

    That jacket reminds me of those British Aristocracy vs New Money moments in Agatha Christie mysteries. Where the New Money industrialist shows up to a country weekend wearing a whole kit of brand new itchy tweeds to try to fit in.

  17. Jay says:

    I’m a sucker for all things tweed and cozy and “grandpa” but this just doesn’t work for Kate, either the boxy cut, the fussy buttons or the warm colours. I will say it’s better than the prissy eighties sister-wife dresses she was wearing for awhile.

    I would swap out those caramel pants for some nice dark wash jeans and get rid of the huge gold buttons on the blazer.

    • Unblinkered says:

      A stunning scarf with totally contrasting colours might have brought the whole thing alive? A clever scarf by Hermes, like QEII was so good at and super flattering to any age group?

      • Lucy says:

        Yes! This is all basics, all it would take to be interesting is a scarf. I get that maybe she feels like silk square scarves are French, or something equally risky (?). British people wear scarves too, and that’s all it would take to make this less blah. This goes back to the tartan idea, if she wore the Prince of Wales tartan as a scarf here, it would be fun/quirky/personal. She would rather disappear than have personality.

      • Interested Gawker says:

        Yes! A swank scarf would have been really nice!

  18. tamsin says:

    Kate is starting to look limp, as well as bent over. Soon, she might start moving like she is a much older woman. Those brown trousers evoked a reaction from me that I might to seeing poop. I think Kate is very unwell. I’ve honestly not really seen it until these pictures.

  19. MaisiesMom says:

    That outfit is bad. It looks like something I would have worn to work in the 90s, when I was on a super tight budget. I love a tweed blazer and “Grandpa Core” is actually a fun concept. The problem is she’s not having fun with it.

    Honestly it’s fine that Kate doesn’t have great style. She should just embrace that, embrace her status as a 40-something mother and lose the childish wigs. Go Full IDGAF. I’d respect that.

    • Lucy says:

      I’m with you, I have tweed and really like it, and I like “dark academia” or “light academia” (according to Pinterest), which are grandpa core adjacent.
      She just doesn’t have any spark to the outfits. No sense of humor, no personal touches, no styling that makes it more personal than just hanging on a hanger. I hate the buttons, and a pair of small hoop earrings are not personal. She doesn’t have a style anchor other than her wedding rings.
      Also, her hands are frighteningly thin and look very aged here. She is disappearing.

    • DaisyQ says:

      This tweed blazer in a shorter, cropped style with an almost moto-style cut could have worked. This long long blazer just accentuates her super long torso and looks super dated.

      • Kim says:

        As if she would ever wear a moto-style jacket. Way too edgy for her. But you’re right, a tweed moto jacket would be super cute.

  20. M says:

    She has a crazed look in her eyes in the header photo and the same Stepford smile in all of them. Maybe that’s why she always guffaws instead; it makes her seem more human. The outfit is a Kate special. None of it goes together. The wig needs a good brushing.

  21. QuiteContrary says:

    Her hands are skeletal. Again, I think she’s dressing in wool and tweed because she’s so thin and she’s cold (I remember this strategy all too well).

    She needs help.

  22. Bloemheks says:

    She’s doing it to make divorce harder. War of the Wales’s round 2.

  23. Nerd says:

    As others have said, the concept is okay, but her execution as per usual falls flat. A brown tweed coat with a brown turtleneck and slacks sounds like it would work for this time of year, but then she walks in with her poor posture, gold buttons galore, what looks like the hanger still in the jacket and a horrible brown pair of pants and the whole outfit turns into a failure. Somehow a woman who has unlimited access to the most expensive of things manages to always make things look like she has a weight weighing her shoulders down and she shops at a Goodwill next to a retirement home. I can believe that she worked with fashion for only a few months and didn’t do anything besides sit at a desk waiting for William to call her because fashion obviously isn’t her friend.

  24. LRB says:

    So: she put her hair in a plait at some point… the weather here is horrendous ( I know it is in the USA too) – she has a thin little plait… so did she take the wig off?

    • BLACK ELDERBERRY says:

      She didn’t take it off. Her real hair reaches a little below her shoulders and is very thin, as we saw in the ski photos. She’s ruined it with all the wigs and extensions she’s been wearing since her engagement. Sometimes she has more, sometimes less, but she keeps putting them on her head. That braid is definitely too thin for the wigs she wears. Maybe she borrowed it from Charlotte, because it looks like the one Charlotte wore for an event. Unfortunately, Carol & Kate have now taken to “perfecting” Charlotte, who definitely doesn’t need it. Apparently, they have too much free time. They need to be forced to work to leave Charlotte alone.

      • Unblinkered says:

        Well said.
        For God’s sake they need to leave Charlotte alone, if these reports are correct both KM and Carol have too much free time if this is what they’re now up to.
        Any other family, and I’ve said this before, the local Social Services would be involved to check regularly on the welfare of those three children. It’s about time Windsor Social Services did get involved.

    • Tessa says:

      People Magazine made a special story about the braid. And the comments to it included Harry and Meghan bashing.

  25. Jen says:

    When is she going to realize that the biggest move ever would be to get a bob? Is she saving it? Just do it already, geez.

  26. Isabella says:

    I do prefer Kate in pantsuits, now that she wears her skirts at granny length. She has a long, skinny body and the skirts make her look like a thermometer.

  27. Kim says:

    She just does not have an eye for color does she? I swear she wakes up, throws 3 brown pieces together and says “they’re all brown so they match” and out the door she goes. The color of the pants are especially heinous with the dark chocolate brown of the turtleneck sweater. She looks like a poo emoji.

  28. wolfmamma says:

    She honestly looks like she is high in that first photo I think

  29. Elly says:

    I agree with others that her face looks mask like. Her smile is over the top. I also agree that the big gold buttons on her blazer look bad. I’ve always loved tweed blazers and think they look great with medium to dark wash, straight leg jeans. A lob would be so much more flattering and sophisticated.

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