This year’s Remembrance Day events have been spread out over the course of a few weeks, likely to mark the significance of this year’s anniversary. 2015 marks the 101st-anniversary of the start of World War I, plus it is the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Everyone in the UK has been and will continue to pay tribute to the fallen and their sacrifices, and almost everyone will be wearing those red poppies too.
On Saturday evening, several members of the royal family attended the British Legion Festival of Remembrance at Albert Hall. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made their first public appearances in more than a week. They joined the Queen, Prince Philip, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Countess of Wessex and more. William was seated in a place of honor beside the Queen, and Kate was on his other side, with Prince Andrew on her other side. While Prince Charles seems eager to avoid being seen with Andrew, it looks like the Cambridges aren’t so squeamish about Randy Andy’s issues.
For the event, Kate wore her second Dolce & Gabbana dress in a month. Her first was that lovely deep purple lace dress she wore to a day-time event with the president of China. I thought that purple Dolce & Gabbana dress would have been fine for an evening event, but it looked out-of-place for that particular venue, like she was going to a cocktail party and everyone else was heading to a business meeting. But this D&G is fine. It’s appropriate, it’s a good look for a more somber evening event and I don’t even mind that she’s obsessed with wearing doilies. If she really wanted to look even more conservative, it would have been nice to see her hair pulled back into a neat chignon. But now I’m just nitpicking. The D&G dress costs $2897, which seems REALLY excessive for such a simple dress (which can be found anywhere for probably $200-300). You can see more photos from the event here.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Love the dress. I’ll probably never know, but I’m curious about how lace that high-quality feels, you know?
Oh god. The bangs are growing on me.
Love Dolce and Gabbana. In my eyes they get it right every single time and are never ever over the top 😀 And, yes, their lace feels like nothing else (and my bank balance feels quite the same but for very different reasons).
Love it, too. She looks pretty.
I think she looks lovely.
Never to the bangs. The dress is dull- the queen looks better than Kate.SillyBilly should always wear those glasses – makes him look smarter.
She looks old in the face. And why is lace a thing? Too overdressed for the occasion. Sigh.
She does look old in the face. It can’t be just from parenting, I know plenty of women older than her with kids that age who look a lot fresher.
She lost too much weight post baby. The photos where she was at the polo event not long after giving birth made her look a lot better. She then lost even more weight after that.
She is the personification of the Body vs Face decision that happens when women get older. It is just showing up on her sooner because the thinness is so extreme.
both age rapidly. In the last 5 years their faces aged at least 10.
I really think it´s their lifestyle and (i don´t mean their hard “work”). He seems so unhappy with his role and future. It´s known that he is difficult and throws tantrums so i bet Kate has no easy life with him. It was different when she just was the girlfriend, he did what he wanted with whom he wanted, a little bit charity here and there, they partied and went on vacation. They tried to contnue this lifestyle after their wedding but people wanted to see them and then came the kids and “more” (LOL) duties so the dynamic has changed. He knows he can´t run away forever, he isn´t young and sheltered anymore and she likely realized royal life isn´t like a disney movie and that her body and her kids are owned by the state.
And by the way, i hate lace. Lace is something for grannies… yeah there are exceptions and good pieces out there, but 95% make you look antiquated and wifey
I too think they both look 5-10 years older than they are.
It’s probably genetics, coupled with stress. Maybe she has insomnia or something.
Don’t assume that grannies want to / have to look frumpy please. Some grannies are in their late 30s. Some are 100. Not all the same.
Isn’t she a smoker? That ages one dramatically.
My close friend is from England, reddish hair like Kate, coloring the same. She has always looked much older than her years in her face from late 20s on. She would even talk about it. Her sister aged better than her. She has always been a healthy eater, exercised, went to bed early, only drank socially. It’s just genetics, I imagine. Plus, Kate’s face might be a little more drawn because she likes to stay at her thinnest.
….Snow White said when I was young, one day my prince would come…..
@OLLIE this is one of the best comments I’ve read regarding W&K lately, I think you summed it up perfectly.
I actually love lace, but not this dress; it seems very “heavy” somehow and the neckline seems to be a bit oddly cut. It also isn’t as figure-flattering as most of her other lace dresses are.
Sometimes it’s the short stick from the genetics lottery, though. All women in my family aged drastically post birth and no, they didn’t all have dificult births or babies. We are a large family and all young mothers have at least two females to help at any given time. It’s unfortunate but I’ve seen it with all my female relatives. Something after birth just doesn’t work for our bodies anymore, in my family. Looking at both her mother and sister, it definitely looks like genetics to me.
Well said Ollie! Fantastic comment!!
I’m a granny and I’d never wear this dress
I think it’s just down to being too thin most of the time. That does age you.
I too think it is overdressed. The men are wearing merely suits and medals / gongs and Kate wears something that would be spot on in a seedy night club.
Ha. Kaiser. Were you referring to “poppy fascism” as it it sometimes called here? Jeremy Corbyn wore a poppy! I did not wear a poppy. Mr Sixer, being a bolshy Brit in the vein of Daniel Craig, wore a white poppy, I am sure just to be annoying. And he is a vet! We did make a donation to the British Legion, because its annual appeal is the origin of the wearing of poppies, and it is a fabulous charity, from which both of my grandfathers benefited. Poppies are a contentious issue!
I don’t care about Katie Bucket’s dress but you know. It didn’t show her knickers. Small mercies and all that. In the interests of Celebitchy reportage from the trenches, I did take notice of Katie Bucket on the balcony during the Remembrance service and parade this monring. To my fashion-and-beauty-ignoramus eye she a) managed to look serious and b) also looked veritably haggard. Also, the Dutch queen was there. Do I get brownie points for services to observation and gossip reportage? Please say yes!
Yes! (Okay, I’m not Kaiser but I think that was good royal reportage.) Kaiser kindly didn’t include some of Bucket’s OTT grinning pictures.
I have to ask, what is the whole “Katie Bucket” thing, is that some sort of a British term of endearment? I think I remember hearing something similar in “Mary Poppins” …I could be wrong…
I’m assuming you can place “bucket” at he end of anyone’s name to sort of make it a dimunitive precious nickname of sorts?
Hyacinth Bucket is a snobbish arriviste in a British sitcom, Keeping Up Appearances. Because she is a snobbish arriviste, she pronounces her name Bouquet. We’re just being mean about Katie’s non-aristocratic background!
Ahhhh, makes a lot of sense, thanks Sixer!
thanks for the on-the-spot reporting, Sixer! Glad she looked serious, and wore a dark color — points for that, at least.
Sixer: excellent report.
I’m going to call Maxima the *Dutch queen going forward because she looked magnificent, from the Alexis colby Carrington Dexter school of fabulous, and i’m off to find a cheap version of her hat so I can pretend to be as Queenly.
*Adjective, Dutch Queen = magnificent, fabulous,Queenly.
Maxima and Camilla win the Hat Game, no question about it.
Yes! Ten brownie points!
It’s fantastic that we have you as a reporter and interpreter of British euphemisms, Sixer! I really appreciate learning more about British culture and thought.
Thank you Sixer. Very succinct.
The Dutch Queen is just out of the hospital and she looks healthier than the Duchess.
During Remembrance Day Kate manages some veritable big grins and smiles and otherwise pretended to be serious. On pics on celebitchy.
I start wondering how much Kate’s seriousness is due to the press not publishing any pictures of her grinning but just the serious ones.
I like the dress, I think it’s a nice conservative choice appropriate for a mother of two.
That said, I think the real problem here is Kate’s seeming hair-orexia. Like it looks like she keeps adding volume, that it never looks full enough to her.
Her hair used to always look thick but swingy and more natural…..Her recent hair looks stiff and wiggish and THAT is what ages her, not her clothes.
All her dresses look alike.
Would it be still appropriate on a mother of three?
I was reminding everyone that she is a grown woman now, not the college girl she was when we met her. What is wrong with you?
Lol @ qwerty
There seem to be myriad enhancements going on with her hair that are making me very curious so much so that I’d like to take a pair of chopsticks to poke around and lift a few sections to see what’s what. This new Loretta Lynn big hair starting with its debut, just does not move or look like natural hair. Very recent closeup photos of her part caused me to wonder if she’s had hair plugs because the roots are black as coal and they appear to be a different texture that looks like fine fishing line.
The current Loretta Lynn wiglet made it’s debut with Charlotte’s debut outside the hospital.
Whoever is fixing it for her should be fired because it looks so dreadfully obvious and Regency levels. And not blended at all.
She should go back to the hairdresser who fixed her extensions for the engagement and wedding. Those extensions looked somewhat more natural, and better blended. Whoever is doing her hair at the moment is an amateur. I bet many of us could do a better job of it.
Her hair is in a new phase of inappropriate and distracting. It’s so big that it overwhelms her at this point, and the wiglet is so obvious. Time to stop and re-evaluate.
She needs someone to stage a hair intervention for her, stat. Maybe Poor Jason can work a hair transition strategy into the PR plan that he’s currently implementing.
zinjojo—- Yes! It is completely distracting, and her hair is now so big it makes her look thin and drawn. She’s always been this size outside of pregnancy, but with the bigger hair it makes her look like a scrawny older woman with a giant wig.
I’m a Kate fan, so it has to be BAD for me to say such negative things.
I seriously wonder what her former hairdresser must’ve done, because it should be forgiven ASAP!
Her hair is looking more and more like a bad wig every time you see her out in public. Either its terrible styling, a bad weave, more extensions being added or all three. I dread to think the state of her real hair if there is any left. If she’s losing hair due to whatever reason – the best thing would be to cut it short and let it grow in naturally again.
The weave is too obvious to miss – surely someone has told her this.
Kate’s outifit looks like a cocktail dress. If I didn’t see the red poppy I wouldn’t have known this event is for a solemn part of the UK’s history. A basic black dress (no embellishments – simple jewelry) would have been better.
I agree.
Can we add, one that didn’t cost $3200 and that came from a British fashion house? What is with her recent run of wearing non-British?
This.
Exactly, ITA.
Cocktail dresses seem to be the standard royal dresscode for the evening concert – it is not the same as the church event today. Last year the Queen wore a blue shiny cocktail dress
Yes. And lose the wiglet too.
I thought Sophie’s dress was lovely and suitable for the event.
Queen Maxima is a real pro – some of her photo’s in group with Kate and Sophie show how sophisticated and comfortable she is on the job in comparison. There’s a few of them on the DK site.
The dress looks like a cocktail dress to me as well. Not a perfect choice for this venue, once again.
I don’t really have anything against lace dresses, but I fail to see why one person would want so many. I know Leti has several too, but somehow in her case she has the panache to wear them well. Kate doesn’t have “it”.
The same can be said about the number of coats Kate has in basically the same color. Yet another black coat debuted today for the ceremony. So many black coats and hats. It would be very refreshing for Kate to pare down her wardrobe and take the public emphasis away from that.
I just don’t see much of a spark in Kate these days. I wonder if something is going on with her.
Absolutely.
Plus: it’s incongruous combo-fugly. Wavy lace party hem + frumpy shoes + too much incredibly fussy and unflattering doily action over chest (and sleeves!) + sack hang with no waist… and black does nothing but deaden her face. If this dress were any other color, it might be a mother of the bride’s dress from Macy’s.
Oh, and the return of the ubiquitous matching crotch clutch. Of course.
I agree, aquarius64. The dress should be simple and not distracting. The lace is too busy and I had trouble even seeing the poppy. At least the length is appropriate though, but don’t get me started on the hair.
In some photos Kate looks so beautiful, in others she looks way older than her years. Loving all the new dresses she’s been out and about in lately.
So this is the black version of the purple D&G dress she wore 2 weeks ago? What a waste of money. She could’ve bought another dress with a different style and design.
Remember in 2011 when she wore so many lace dresses, too? Where are those clothes now? They don’t fit her anymore? She’s very much a fad follower. She doesn’t have classic pieces that will stand the test of time. Once the trend fades away she has a ton of clothing she’s never worn again because they’re no longer in style. She’s as thin now as she was in 2011 but she just keeps on spending money on buying new but repetitive clothes, shoes, hats, etc. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all with her.
It’s her austerity spending…
Yes, to the tune of about $6,500 for two D&G lace dresses. Funded by the British taxpayers.
ITA. This cocktail dress reminds me so much of other dresses (and even gowns) that she’s worn. Waste of money, but you know Katie. Clothes are her claim to fame.
Not defending her or anything, but what else about her are people interested in, really? Her looks, her clothes, nothing else. And it’d probably be that way no matter how hard she worked (LOL!).
Does she buy them or are they gifts/loans? Celebs don’t usually buy their own clothes, but I guess for her the rules are different.
As girlfriend, she accepted loads of freebies. As a royal she isn’t allowed to accept freebies. Her family accepts them on her behalf (fur hats, baby present necklace) which is how they hide them now. The clothes? Those are all paid out of the Duchy (belongs to the people) and Charles takes the cost of them off on his taxes. The taxpayers lose twice.
Nota
Yes, the midds accept freebies that are “gifted” to Kate, but they (Cambridge’s) have flat out admitted they take gifts post helicopter outing exposed.
Still, they should not be accepting those gifts at all. Had that passerby not looked through their old photos and realized he caught wk entering a helicopter we would never know of the gifts they accept on top of kickbacks on top of everything else.
And talking gf years Kate and her family indulged in the gifts. They kept up appearances that way. Remember the Audi haggling?
@ Krishan
I agree with you. Kate is not a wise and thoughtful spender.
In comparison, Queen Letizia will buy separate pieces (pants, blouses, skirts, blazers, jackets) and then mixes them to create different ensembles. By doing so, she looks more stylish and creative than Kate, and because Letizia’s pieces are CLASSIC, she can wear them ANY year, without fear of repeating a look. I’m sure her constituency is more appreciative of her thought-out clothing buying process than Kate’s are.
Whereas with Kate, she usually buys one-piece outfits that can’t be broken up and re-done as a completely different look. So it’s noticeable when she wears an outfit again, with the media calling her a ‘recycler’ or even ‘thrifty’ regardless that each outfit can cost up to thousands of dollars.
And on top of this, the clothes she usually buys aren’t CLASSIC. She won’t be able to wear many of them years into the future, like Letizia can. So the terms ‘recycler’ and ‘thrifty’ should actually describe Letizia, not Kate.
And I think one can tell the character of each woman by how they spend what is essentially somebody else’s money.
Letizia spends like a grown up woman who appreciates the value of money, is thoughtful of taxpayers’ money, and has long-term plans for her clothes.
While with Kate, she spends like a teenager who has an unlimited use of a limitless credit card and who only thinks of the here and now.
The difference may be a result of Letizia having had to work for her money and having to learn how to spread out her budget while with Kate, she’s never had to have a job to pay for her own things, was never forced to stretch a dollar and make it last, and has been spoiled and coddled all her life. Imo, she’s one of those snobby spenders who think that if it costs a lot of money, it must be good, regardless that one can spend less money and more wisely and make it good too.
Letizia’s careful spending in the last few years is also a result of the extreme economic crisis that Spain found itself in. The royal family did not want to be seen to be extravagant during a period of huge unemployment. Letizia has always worn lots of Spanish designers and recently got a lot of her clothes from Zara (which is Spanish). The royal family was also stung by scandal, so it was even more important that Letizia not look out of touch: for a while she wasn’t even wearing her wedding and engagement rings because they were connected to the scandal.
Isn’t Spain still in the midst of a financial crisis? Letizia re-wearing items has a very different overtone within that context, especially when you consider the circumstances of how she became queen.
@ Daisy
Yes, I heard that particular reason before about why she’s a careful spender.
But then again, there are certain people who would ignore such factors and would just be self-indulgent instead. So good on Letizia for being smart and having self-restraint. I think that this and her constant work schedule shows her citizenry that she respects and appreciates them and what they’re going through.
If only certain other people in high positions would take a cue from her.
@ Bridget
I think that Letizia is earning whatever she gets in return and would have still regardless of why King Juan Carlos abdicated. I think she gives good bang for the buck. Whereas with Kate, she gets more, yet gives back as little as possible. I calculate that during her recent spate of work, she’s spent more than $10k on new dresses and coat dresses. It’s almost like the only way she could be encouraged to do any work was through the incentive of getting more expensive clothes.
But anyhoo, my overall point is that Kate is not spending the money wisely. She doesn’t seem to care if she buys a dress worth thousands only to wear it once or twice or thrice and then it gets shelved forever. She could have done it the way Letizia does it by buying classic pieces and mixing and matching them so that they could be re-worn more than once or thrice.
The point is that Letizia’s frugality is also a political necessity. She does it well, but that doesn’t mean that she has much choice in the matter. Remember Felipe’s rather sparse coronation?
She must have a closetful of lace dresses. And another for all the blue coats. What a waste of money and all so blah. How can she be so clueless?
I still hold that the best solution for a royal lady would be to have a personal tailor – that way she wouldn’t become too much of a clothes horse and the public wouldn’t be able to tally up the price of each outfit. It would also mean that the clothes would be made with specific engagements in mind. Fx, I really like that the Danish royal ladies don’t wear brand names for formal events like weddings and State Dinners. They all have personal tailors that make the dresses. Sometimes QMII have used well-known couturiers like Jørgen Bender (he was a genius) and Erik Mortensen (who was the creative director of Balmain in the 1980s and 90s) but generally she works with her tailor to design her gowns. CP Mary also tend to wear non-brand gowns for formal events – and both ladies sometimes have these gowns altered for a new look whilst avoiding purchasing a new gown. Some of QMII’s gowns have been altered 2 to 3 times.
Another bonus about having a personal tailor is that the price will most likely been much less since you also pay for the “brand”. Those lacy Dolce dresses of Kate’s are shockingly expensive!!!
One solution would be to have the basic elements of a wardrobe tailored – skirts, coats, slacks – and then combine with select brand items for accessorizing. One of the reasons that Kate has such a large and outrageously expensive wardrobe is the fact that she hasn’t built it up around basic items that can mix and match – and that she doesn’t know how to accessorize. She tends to buy whole outfits, like dresses and coatdresses – and she rarely wears these items more than once. That is a huge expense, especially considered her underwhelming workload. She really has no need for such a large wardrobe since she works so little – and she definitely does not need to buy new outfits practically every time she has an engagement. The expense is staggering and it sends a very poor signal in a society undergoing austerity measures.
+1000 Exactly!
Didn’t know that about the Danes. That is very sensible on their parts.
One of my favorite Margrethe re-dos was the hot pink from F&M’s wedding. It started as a coat and is now a gown. A LOT of pink, but it looks great with Margrethe’s silver blond hair.
The DRF doesn’t have a lot of money in terms of private wealth since they lost most of their private fortune in the 1920s when their bank collapsed – some members of the DRF literally lost everything. They mainly live off the apanage from the government – so they do have to spend prudently.
One of my favorite of Daisy’s redos is a dress of bright yellow brocade with fur trim that has been made into a nice two-piece in its third incarnation. Fun fact: she often shops fabric on her travels – and she could be said to be a sort of co-designer on many of her formal gowns. However, she is a very creative lady in general.
Excellent advice AH. But when Willy’s around she chooses clothes (and foregoes knickers) to titillate him. I remain convinced that she wears so much lace because she’s using Pavlovian conditioning on him. Modeling the see-through dress at St. Andrews was supposedly Wm’s awakening to her hotness. Lace makes him salivate after her so she wears a lot of it.
I agree, AH. Plus, if she had her own tailor maybe some of this stuff would actually fit her properly.
Way to make a $3K dress look like something that came out fo the “softer side of Sears” catalog, Katie Kambridge.
Yeah, Iace always screams cheap to me, too.
Ditto! Cheap and fussy. Kate should have gone with something tailored in a rich black fabric.
@ ncboudicca
That’s a good way of putting it.
I think she’s not styling her look well. With that hair style and lack of proper accessories, she looks like she’s attending an event no more important than a retirement party at a restaurant with co-workers from the office.
Delurking to say….
1. In the picture where Prince William is pointing, I thought he was Jared Fogle at first glance. Creepy.
2. In that same picture, I think Duchess Kate resembles Katie Holmes, circa how the hell am I going to escape this cult.
They picture threw me off too. There’s something unsettling about her expression there.
Lol! I love your name. Hyacinth (Bouquet) Forever!!!
Yes and YES! One thing I also noticed in one of the DM photos is the thickness of the lens of his glasses. How is he able to be a pilot with such poor vision?
Loopholes.
@ TheBucketResidenceTheLadyOfTheHouseSpeaking
Love your name.
Oh geezus. He does look like Jared. 🙁
When I viewed the DM photos, it appears Kate’s poppy at the Remembrance Festival, was being worn on the inside of her dress. Is that right?
I find the lace a little OTT. Better if lace was limited to the edges of the dress such as the end of the sleeves and the hemline. The Duchess also seems stuck on one style of shoes right now.
ps
I’ve been studying the photos at various web sites. I’m a Virgo. They say they’re into detail, but anyway- The Mirror site shows a photo where the poppy looked more camouflaged. It looked initially like the poppy was being worn under the lace portion of the dress. I was thinking Kate wanted a smooth look and/or concerned it might fall off. Also, the texture of the poppy is different from William’s, when viewed close up.
And speaking of close up, some of the DM photos close up of Kate’s face show quite thick eyebrows. I didn’t think that was in style right now or perhaps Kate has expanded the heavy eyeliner into the eyebrow area to incorporate a brow pencil- a bit too much IMO. The natural look is best.
I wonder if Anne had to bow, curtsy or somehow genuflect to Kate. Isn’t that supposed to occur whenever Kate is with William & lessor royals appear?
Anne will never bow to Kate. And frankly I don’t blame her. All this bowing and curtsying nonsense should be officially ended except for the reigning monarch and even then by choice. Spawn and spawn in laws of the reigning monarch don’t deserve that right.
As for Kate, her hair is still really bad and she looks at least ten years older than her age. It is not “raising” kids that did this but her obsession with being thin and smoking habit. I have many friends who raised kids without nannies and did not rapidly age.
The dress is ok, but it is obvious she has never had a real job because she has no idea how to pull off business professional which is what this event should be. Not lacy princess. A really nice fitted suit would have been the better option.
I would never bow to Kate, either.
I disagree. It’s the same arbitrary system whether or not like you like the recipient of said bow.
It is arbitrary unless HM monkeys with it, as she has with her clear re-writes of the Order of Precedence.
To think this woman will be Queen of England is starting to hit me. She doesn’t have it, she is a very watered down version and will never be that strong presence.
Kate will actually be the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
She’ll be consort. As she is now her status is based entirely on if her husband is present.
If Charles succeeds in having Camilla called Queen, won’t Kate get the same title when It’s her turn?
I think FLORC meant she’ll be “Queen Consort” not Queen in her own right.
So there is no way either of them will be called Queen? There isn’t going to be another queen for a long time, unless George’s firstborn is a girl, or even longer if he has a boy. Britain can look forward to almost 100 years of male rule.
I see what they mean when they call royals archaic.
The red poppy field is so beautiful and sad. Kate is pretty.
You know what? The Duchess needs an advisor stat. She needs her mother to back away and let a professional image advisor help her. This is not just some girlfriend of a millionaire with strong media presence. She will be the Queen Consort and she will go down in history. She needs to figure out how she wants to be remembered and come up with a plan. This is not going so well for her.
This. All of it – X1000.
How did she end up in this coveted position?
Harry better make up for this sorry excuse for a Royal wife and marry Zendaya! That would be a marriage too rock the monarchy on its backside!
Totally agree, Kate is very homespun, even in her plastics (WAG).
How many lace dresses does this woman need? How many new dresses and coats does a part-time, part-time royal need?
I usually don’t have a problem with lace dresses, but for some reason this and the purple one are a big fat ugh for me. I love the poppy broach.
Her hair is ridiculous as usual. The wiglet wasn’t blended in and is visible at the crown of her head. Makes me wonder if she suffered massive hair loss after Charlotte’s birth.
I’ve seen similar dresses on Asos for less than $150. Yeah, I know that the lace probably feels very different on the D&G dress, but in photographs I’ve seen dresses that look just as good at a fraction of the cost. One doesn’t need to wear expensive designer clothes to look just as good if not better than these celebrities.
When I saw her in the purple dress, the first thing that came to mind was the image of a concubine. Maybe because she was meeting with the Chinese president and first lady, but her dress reminded me of a qipao or cheongsam dress (example below). For that reason, I thought it looked cheap and inappropriate for the occasion. I wonder what President Xi and his wife really thought about the dress.
(http://p.mefond.com/600×800/201302191043131334/Women-s-Lace-Black-Mini-Half-sleeve-collar-vents-Embroidery-Cheongsam-Dress.jpg)
I thought she was going for a cheongsam-style dress too. This woman and her theme dressing.
Katie Bucket is making up for lost time – clothes/shopping wise. Its payback for all the years that she, her mother and sister all used to swap clothes. It was well known that she would often wear her mother’s clothes when she knew she was going to be papped at events – i think there is photo evidence. Current fashion evidence strongly suggests that she hasn’t grown out of dressing like her mother.
The Mids were never as wealthy as they and the press liked to make out.
It’s fine. The event is a day of mourning. She’s in funeral clothes, as is appropriate.
This might be a stupid question but I thought WWI started in 1914, not 1915 ?
You’re right, WW1 started in 1914.
Kaiser did say it’s the 101st anniversary of the star of WWI.
It originally said 100th.
Yes I originally saw 100, which is what confused me 🙂
That wig tho
At least they turned up and dressed/behaved in an occasion appropriate manner. She not gurning for the camera/flashing the royal biscuit to everyone and he not making inappropriate remarks/boorish behaviour.
I didn’t watch all the ceremony but i saw the end – when Normal Bill had to take the salute instead of his father, he looked like he really didn’t want to be there.
There is a photo at the event in which she’s doing a Howdy Doody smile. It’s too bad that she doesn’t appreciate healthy looks over skeletal looks.
The Fail likes to use the most unflattering photo’s they can find – the Howdy Doody smile is a bit scary as it gives her a medicated look. But after those rugby photo’s we can see that she’s like her mother in the OTP facial expressions.
Shame that she feels the need to be so thin and get a wiglet/teeth done. She is creating a fake image of someone who is trying to be something she’s not – she should just be herself.
WWI started in 1914, not 1915. Sorry – history was my minor, and that’s a big date.
Very true. Arch Duke FF to countries announcing they were going to war was all well within 1914.
Too Morticia Adams for me, the dress really ages her. She has so many other black lace dresses to choose from, it makes me think of a spider’s web.
And I’m surprised nobody commented on this yet (because they did at What Kate Wore) but her hair is being kept behind her shoulders! Most likely a deliberate attempt at making sure the poppy brooch remains visible since in the past she has often hidden important brooches behind her hair. I think there was a memo: if you must wear your hair down, make sure the brooch remains visible at all times.
Her hair is always controlled when she’s near the Queen.
That twirling mishap on remembrance sunday is one of the few times she’s played with her hair or had unruly hair around HM.
If you google pics of her on occasions where HM is part of the royal party, her hair, even if it’s completely down, is properly controlled, and she barely touches it.
She looks nice here.
In today’s photographs with Queen Maxima, Kate’s busy hat and busy two-tone coat makes her look like she could have come out from the Mary Poppins movie. All she needed was some sparkly rhinestone on her outfit and a tambourine.
Did anybody read the DM article about how Kate is planning to start her own business, Amner Organics? Pippa is helping her with her ‘nutritionist expertise.’ But it’s going to be another 18 months before it’s ready, iirc.
Seems she has a lot of plans for the future, like the ‘constructive dialogue’ with the Twitter and Facebook bosses and now this business. They keep pushing out these far-in-the-future stories as if she’s actually going to be a regularly busy worker.
Re: the ‘Amner Organics’ its probably a little job for her family i.e. James and Pippa run if true. Plus her FIL already done that with Duchy Originals (which started as Duchy Organic) and as its part of The Prince’s Charities Foundation the Duchy’s profits are donated to the foundation (real people actually benefit from the brand). Can you really see Waity and Permatan doing that? Thou I guess it will be going to the Middleton ‘family’ charity. This idea is hardly an original thought from these two.
@ Betti
Yup. That’s the same reaction I read at another site:
A business that the Middletons can make money off of from huge salaries, whether as consultants or managers or whatever.
Then when W&K become PoWs, they’d have to take care of the Duchy Originals and then Amner Organics will be handed off to the Middleton siblings ostensibly to keep alive for Charlotte’s financial future
………………
I can imagine how the Middleton siblings would need such a business that have less of a chance of failing since it’ll be connected to royalty and possibly royal funding. They’ve surely proven they can’t succeed in their own independent ventures.
^ True, plus how successful is Party Pieces, who buys from it? I don’t know anyone who buys from them, most people i know buy party stuff from Amazon as its cheaper, postage is free on orders over a certain amount and delivery is very quick. PP has been blasted in the past for their expensive postage costs and prices. Plus people have complained about the quality, you pay a lot for something that’s sub par.
Party Pieces is not giving them the lifestyle that are currently living – someone else is funding them. Normal Bill, Uncle Gary or both. They are positioning themselves to sponge off the royal coffers and taxpayer and I include Normal Bill as he won’t want to spend any of his money on supporting them. The only people who could run a successful business are Mike and Carole and they should be retiring, not propping up their co-dependent children but then again that’s how Carole raised them to be.
Her new hat has a butterfly incorporated on it.. wonder if this is her subtle way of saying she is in her metamorphosis stage? She’s become a full time royal (whatever that is, as long as it includes new clothes)
@ Cricket
Can you imagine how much it’ll cost in new clothes to get her to work full-time? So far, she won’t buy clothes that can be mixed and matched as separate pieces and be re-worn several times. Her pattern is that she’ll buy one-piece outfits for each ‘work’ event, which can’t be re-worn except maybe twice or thrice and then shelved and none of them are classic staples that hold up to the test of time.
In the past few events, she’s worn at least $10k worth of clothes. Imagine if she worked once or twice every week? That might add up to a $500k per year clothing budget on clothes that can’t be re-worn as the years go by and the fashions change. In ten years, that’ll run into the millions. Imagine if she worked for three decades? All that money could have supported an entire small country and then some. LOL. Anyhoo…
so that then begs the question.. where are all her ‘recyclables’? she must have a wardrobe/closet that rivals Kim K at this point.. sheesh, one alone for all her black coats and lace dresses for sure.
How many black coats does one need? Couldn’t she wear the one from last year.. doh! that’s right it was the exact same coat as Sophie! Clutches pearls! I’m very surprised she went back to Sarah Burton again this year after that mishap. But then again this year’s fugly coat is a sure winner in that it won’t be copied by anyone. and yet another ill fitting boob button closure, and I’m not even a tailor nor a fashion guru. It’s only been a year and she has taught us what bad tailoring looks like and how many ways to wear lace.
@ Cricket
Sometimes I think she gets her tailoring done by using her mother as a model, since I think Carole borrows her clothes and thus it must be made to fit Carole. I just get the feeling that Carole has that much control into Kate’s life especially as it seems the former lives vicariously through the latter.
Like the dress this time. It works much better in black than it did in that plum lace number she wore a few weeks ago. I also liked her balcony Remembrance ensemble: very correct, lovely hat and veil.
Kate is lovely in this black lace!
Kate is lovely in this black lace.
Nice jowels Kate, and what on earth does bill look like with his silly glasses on……..
I badly want to set those shoes on fire
1. In the picture of her walking by herself, at first glance I thought she was wearing a beaded or jeweled narrow headband, and I thought, “That’s interesting. Different but at least she’s trying something new with her hair down.” Then I realized it was just the lighting and was inexplicably disappointed.
2. I love Keeping Up Appearances! It’s on PBS on Saturday nights, so I dvr it and watch it every week. My sister also has room for a pony but she doesn’t drive a Mercedes, lol. And none of us are named after flowers.
There is a lot of episodes of Keeping up Appearances on youtube!