Well, we finally have an explanation for why Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge has been recycling outfits so many times over the past month. When she’s paying for it, she cheaps out! No, I jest. Waity is not cheap – she has surprisingly expensive taste for a young woman who has never held a full-time job. People Magazine did a piece a few days ago that was supposed to be about Prince William turning 29 years old, but they ended up getting a scoop on Kate’s style choices – she refuses to take freebees! The hell? Aren’t “the spoils” the whole point of waiting NINE YEARS to become a princess?
He’s celebrated his birthdays in the grand surroundings of Windsor Castle, and had surprise dinner parties organized by Kate during their courtship. So, what’s in store for Prince William’s first birthday as a married man?
William turned 29 Tuesday, and is spending it quietly in his new home of Anglesey, North Wales. Described as a “normal working week” for him, the Prince will be on duty as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.
For William and Kate, also 29, it is an important moment, regardless. “The past two months have been a very significant time in their lives, and ending this period with a Tour of Canada – a country so close to the Royal Family’s heart – is truly fitting,” the couple’s private secretary says.
Meanwhile, Kate’s putting her finishing touches to some of her plans, including her clothing that she’ll need for 11 days of engagements in North America. Royal officials say she may be striking “private agreements” with designers to help build her tour wardrobe.
A spokesman for the couple adds that the Duchess “has a policy not to accept any free offers of clothing. We would never discuss the prices paid for individual items – these will remain private between the Duchess and the designers. She will not receive any special clothing budget for the Canada and California tour.”
[From People]
Ah, I understand. Wink, nudge, etc. Waity isn’t taking “free” stuff, but she’s probably getting a discount that would make all of us balk. Why go through the motions of declaring that she won’t accept free clothes if she’s just going to accept a 90% discount? It probably has to do with this “populist” messaging that Kate and William are attempting.
My prediction has been for months now that this faux populism and “no help” and “no freebees” and “we have a budget too, like normal people” stuff will die a quick death once it becomes too inconvenient. Wait for this Canadian and American tour – Kate’s going to realize in a hurry how difficult it is to travel and do five costume changes a day and be photographed and man-handled and “on” for two weeks straight, and she’s going to be begging for some help. My point is not that Kate and William don’t deserve help – they do. They are public figures, and they need people to help them keep on schedule, keep them organized, and keep them dressed appropriately… AT ALL TIMES.
What annoys me is this populism act, the dichotomy of the messaging – is Kate just a newlywed RAF wife with no job, whose only obligation is making dinner for her new husband, and the occasion spot of shopping? Or are they wealthy, working royals with allowances from their families and a growing list of obligations and endeavors? William is still living by the largesse of the Duchy of Cornwall, and I would bet that the Queen also contributes money for his upkeep. As for Kate – well, she’s never had a proper full-time job, so I have to think the Middleton family are still contributing money to their daughter‘s duchess-y style. Prince Charles pays for the bare-bones staff that William, Kate and Harry have currently, so technically, William doesn’t have “staff” – they’re employed by his father.
Sorry for the rant. My point: if you’re a princess/duchess who is living on handouts from your family, you should probably just take the free clothes being offered without all of the snooty “I don’t take handouts from designers!” nonsense.
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, Fame & WENN.
From what I read a few years back, not taking free clothing would be a change for her. I recall a story about her taking thousands of pounds of free clothing from Issa, who loved the publicity received for dressing William’s then girlfriend. Issa also was “gifted” with all three Middleton siblings in the front row of her shows; more publicity. I also recall just reading that Issa wasn’t even invited to the wedding. The palace said she was; she said she never got the invite.
I’m with you. Kaiser. The Palace PR machine can drop all this faux populist crap they are trying to foist on the public. Kate waited 9 years for all the servants and perks. She WILL enjoy it.
Prince William is only 29??? I thought he was well into his 30s…
Still loving the black short dress. Best casual look of hers so far.
Also, isn’t she the Duchess of Cambridge not Cornwall?
Addie – Yes, sorry. I’m such a dumbass, I fixed it!
Well does everyone in the Royal Family wear free clothes? Assuming every Royal member of the family follows the same no freebies rule then it can be done, they all had to do countless appearances and things at one point or another. Kate isn’t the first Royal and nor will she be the last. However I really don’t know if Kate is like breaking some kind trend in the Royal family where they wore free clothes and she doesn’t want too. So I don’t know. I don’t see anything wrong with her saying she will pay for her clothes but will take a discount. No one should expect something for free, there is a price to pay for everything.
@Kaiser – No worries.
These royal titles can can a bit much and people hadly pay attention after they anounce duke/dutchess of…
: )
Aren’t her clothes technically free anyway? She doesn’t have a job and William and his family probably pays for all of her expensive. Maybe even help from Kate’s parents.
Considering the boost designers can get from her wearing their stuff, a bit of tit-for-tat is quite justified.
I think the Duchy of Cornwall belongs to Prince Charles and so that would mean William is getting money from his father’s properties. He was also left a tidy sum of money from Diana and her father. So I’m sure that RAF salary is just fun money.
P.S. : did they really say they are on a budget? I assume a big, big budget.
Yeah the populism ended with their 60 million dollar wedding. They are living off the hard earned money Will’s ancestors have taxed from the British people for the last thousand years they might as well enjoy themselves 🙂
Hilarious story! Years ago Diana was critisized about an annual photo where she wore a dress in which she was photographed the previous year.THAT was a signal to strike a deal with UK Vogue and so on and by the time of the divorce she had a whole appartment serving as a wardrobe AND a whole room for the shoes.THEN she was under fire for spending too much.
Anyway the only one who’s really recycling is the Queen.Her late sister was photographed for years wearing HM clothes and hats.I guess that’s the old generation for you.
Middletons are going to enjoy the climbing alright.
I remember an article, with photos, many years ago about how the royal ladies swap/recycle clothes with each other by altering them in some way. It was quite interesting. And when Diana died, Fergie & she hadn’t spoken to each other for a year because Diana was miffed at
Fergie for writing in her autobiography that she caught plantar warts from some old shoes of Diana’s. 😀
They’re not being kept up by their families… Just like the Queen, Prince Charles and the rest of them, their lifestyles are being paid for by the state.
I can’t decide if that’s okay or tacky.
As for “recycling” outfits she already has, that is okay. Showing some economic restraint is very important for the Royal Family’s PR these days.
I look at Kate and think how gorgeous Diana was…but the Prince of Wales didn’t love her. In the end, that’s what matters.
Diana did raise a very decent son, though. I don’t think William will ever be a cheater.
I think Diana started this whole, ‘I’ll wear it for free, in exchange you get free PR’ shick. I seem to remember on of Sarah Fergusons complaints was that Andy didn’t make as much as Charles and so she didn’t get to wear the better clothes and had to pay for them and didn’t get as many freebies.
Perhaps someone can tell me if this is true. There are a lot of people who don’t like the royals being supported by the taxpayers. I get that. But didn’t some King some time ago turn over a bunch of land he owned in return for an income from the state? And that the income from this land more than offsets what they get paid from the Civil List? I don’t know if that’s true or not which is why I ask.
parasites, one and all
@bluhare – yeah you’re almost right, the Queen gets an income from The Civil List. She got £8m this year, and another £8 from the reserves.
http://www.countrylife.co.uk/countryside/article/506868/Who-owns-Britain-Top-UK-landowners.html
I’m just sick of people/media telling me these Middletons are commoners, that’s like saying Paris Hilton is poor! They have no idea how the rest of us live.
Diana recycled outfits quite a bit. This isn’t a soap opera, they can wear thing twice for God’s sake. Michelle Obama wears things multiple times as well. Everyone has favorite thins to wear.
So she’s “just like us” in actually buying clothing and not taking freebies and shopping at fairly affordable stores, but then she turns around and spends $1200 on candles for Kensington Palace? PR fail.
I saw a nice photo spread the other day (don’t remember the site) how Princess Anne wore a coat to Ascot that she had first worn in 1980. She’s 60 years old and still has the same size she had 31 years ago.
I don’t get how people would criticize Kate for accepting discounts when C-List celebs get free stuff (lots of it) at those SWAG/gifting suites a few days before the Oscars/Emmys/whatever award show du jour.
I completely agree with this post. I think the populist PR campaign is ridiculously over played. I truly do not see the problem with her receiving free clothes and accessories from British designers. This is a great way young and struggling designers can have their creations seen worldwide.
she should take the free clothes. Her style is ho hum, and inappropriate for her age.
But really this seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. If she takes the clothes, she’ll be called undeserving, spoiled, greedy and every synonym for rich b*tch that the media’s got. If she doesn’t take the clothes, well we point and say, “stop trying to act poor, we know you’re not one of us.”
I agree with this post. IMO it’s more insulting for William and Kate to have this, “We’re just like you, we’re regular people.” BS with the no-servants, gonna-live-like-regular-couples PR stunt. We all know they’re royals and they’re wealthy and they won’t be able to live exactly like ordinary citizens. They should just embrace their damn roles and show the public their taxpayer money’s worth by working hard and representing the UK well, instead of pretending they want to live like average citizens.
Nobody truly expected them to have no servants or to do their own house chores, anyway. The “austere” wedding was anything but. It was treated almost like a State occasion even though a smaller wedding would have been enough given William’s position as the heir’s heir, not the heir to the throne who warranted such an enormous wedding. Their honeymoon also cost a ton of money, didn’t it? I thought it was going to be a simple honeymoon? This couple shot themselves in the foot already with their hypocrisy.
If they truly want to live just like us “common folk”, then they should relinquish their royal titles and actually find jobs. But I guess that’s too much for Kate, and she’d rather show up for 1 hour to an event as a royal than do a full-time job. After all, she’s done nothing for the past NINE years to accomplish anything on her own except catering to William’s needs and climbing her way up the noble circles.
Her style is getting more and more expensive, too. That rose-colored gown with the sparkly detailing cost almost $4000. She wore a McQueen coat that cost about $3500. I don’t see her wearing cheaper clothes from now on, so her style won’t be that affordable for women who see her as a style icon, and I’m expecting her wardrobe to be more and more expensive as time passes.
So really, she and William are NEVER going to be like regular people with all the luxuries they’re having. They and the Palace PR should just drop this populist act because that’s never going to happen unless a Republic is brought on.
i thought the only reason waity refuses free clothes is because, as per the wish of the firm, she cannot accept them. it’s not her choice.
There is a fund that pays for the royals’ upkeep (clothing, food, etc…). In these times of cuts to many social services, etc… in the UK (and they have MANY more than we do), I prefer to think our little Waity, is perhaps trying to do the “right thing” and maybe have the Windsors or her own quite-wealthy family kick in a few bucks, too.
Well, I think that’s great… I think you appreciate things more when you realize the effort you put into it. For instance, I work with my BF these days so he helps me out a lot when I get stuck. But, on days that he’s out of the office and I have to struggle all day to get something right, I really really appreciate it a lot more. I can stare at a graph for like half an hour in glee… it’s a thing of beauty.
So yeah, what was my point… oh yes, it doesn’t hurt to have morals and ethics in this day and age. Sure, you’ll have less crap in the end but I think you’ll be more fulfilled… That’s my story anyway and I’m stickin’ to it :-p
Im sure royal protocal does not allow for taking free clothes from any source but they could spin it to do good for others by setting up something where if she buys a designers clothes they have to donate a certain amount to childrens charities or something. They have to match amount she bought or something. She has this power and it would be using her “power” for good to do this.
The designers win if Kate is seen wearing their clothes. Celebrites are always getting free stuff in order to market an item. Makes no sense why it would be different for Kate
Geez, cut her some slack already. She is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t alright, judging by these comments. Can we wait more than two months to decide if their populist schtick is actual BS?
I think she is too skinny. Her head looks bigger than her body. I wish them the best.
Kaiser -you really have it in for her don’t you?
She looks amazing,the wedding was great and she’s going to do a great job and as for the’ waity katie’ bit-its getting tiresome to hear and anyway now she is Duchess of Cambridge….
Mischa and Garzel – i 100% agree with your comments.
kate is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. She’s expected to be some style icon and yet not spend a fortune on clothes. At the same time her and Wills PR people should stop spinning them as 21st century royals who are like regular people. They are clearly not; never have been never will be.
I have no problem with Kate taking discounts or even wearing expensive designer clothes. Neither do i have a problem with her re-using clothes. Nothing wrong with that.
When they go to Cananda and the US – she will have a whole new wardrobe.
William is not living on the largesse of the Duchy of Cornwall. He is independently wealthy, having inherited millions of pounds from his mother’s estate. He also inherited money from his great-grandmother. I suspect that the very wealthy Middletons have settled money on their three children, so that the Duchess has funds of her own.
I also suspect that as in the US, there are UK tax laws involving the receipt of free gifts such as clothing. Here, a First Lady must pay taxes on the value of clothing given to her by designer. Otherwise, the law is that the President and First Lady must pay for their own clothing and personal items and those of their children out of their own pockets. There are certainly UK laws involving other types of gifts given to royals, so I suspect that clothing is covered. Michelle and Barack Obama have less money than Prince William has, but Mrs. Obama dresses expensively. I imagine that William and his wife are managing to buy her clothes with their own funds.