The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge haven’t done a public event together since July 24th. So, they took one month off, to vacation in France and recover from that vacation at Anmer Hall. Prince William was out and about yesterday – he went to Dusseldorf, Germany and ended up meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel for the first time ever. Kate did not travel with him to Germany. But Kate did step out today with William in Luton. They have a full day scheduled in Luton, but these photos are from their first stop at Youthscape, a youth charity that was just renovated for £3.2 million. The rest of their day will include a plaque unveiling at Keech Hospice and a tour of those facilities, then a stop by the engineering company Hayward Tyler to open a new “centre of excellence.”
For the day’s activities, Kate wore this £245 LK Bennett dress, which is a repeat – she notably wore this in 2014 during the Australian leg of the Aussie-New Zealand tour. It’s a pretty dress and it deserved to be repeated, I guess. My opinion: the repeats wouldn’t be so disappointing if we actually had more fashion-friendly photos to choose from. Like, I don’t begrudge Kate wearing high-profile repeats that everyone remembers. I begrudge Kate wearing a repeat to one of her very few public appearances this summer. Oh, and the Daily Mail took a little swipe at the Cambridges for their “holiday tans.” Ha.
Meanwhile, People Magazine did a piece yesterday about Will & Kate’s “entourage” when they spend a week in Canada next month. Basically, the entourage sounds like it’s mostly Kate’s glam squad, or whatever passes for her glam squad. Wiglet wrangler, eyeliner applier, biscuit-revealing-dress-choosing stylist. And one nanny! George and Charlotte only have one nanny, but Kate needs like five people to NOT add weights to her hems.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
The dress is nice. The shoes could be better. And I much prefer her hair down, she looks less harsh.
I think the dress is just okay. The square neckline and awkward sleeves don’t do anything for me.
I think it’s a lovely dress. At the time she first wore it, I saw it (or a knock off of it) in Nordstrom but they didn’t have it in my size :(.
You can get it again at LK Bennet (or you could a few weeks ago). They do that same dress in different colors (but always a white background). LK Bennet runs a little boxy for me but I have to admit to owning that dress with pink flowers. It’s basically a rip off of a $1000 Lela Rose dress.
I like the dress too, but the shoes are so dull and while I don’t hate her hair partially down, she almost always wears it completely down, flying in her face. She’s just not at all practical, reasonable or when it comes to hair, dresses and shoes. Everything is mostly expected!
Diana reportedly had that short haircut because it was easy to get styled and convenient for her lifestyle. I bet they have to spend 3 times as much time and money getting Kate’s to look halfway neat for these events; she seems to have a daily blowout. Her hair probably costs 40000 a year or something awful.
I sort of like aspects of the dress. The pattern is nice, the skirt won’t fly up. That said, the neckline doesn’t really work for her and the sleeves are dowdy. The kick pleat is too high, too.
The hair is ridiculous. The accessories are boring.
She is dull and her oaf of a husband is too. It’s been nice they’ve been on vacation.
I have absolutely no problem with her repeating clothes but the clothes she chooses are terrible choices if you want to repeat them. A dress will be a dress the next time and whether you wear blue or nude pumps is irrelevant. She looks the same. There are clothes you can mix and match, why doesn’t she do that???
They do look … well rested.
Must. Not. Mention. Hair.
I agree. I do not begrudge her for this dress, it is actually my old time favourite of hers.
Her hair looks like a blanket though.
Yep, she straight up looks like she’s wearing a full wig in this photos.
She seems to like what she likes and only wears that. She doesn’t really branch out or experiment. I agree she could get better at buying separates and mixing it up. However, I would much rather she repeat clothes even if they look the same over her habit of buying dresses that cost over a thousand pounds in three different colors (especially when two of the colors are black and dark navy blue) or a new expensive coat dress that is one shade darker and has one more button than the one she wore before but both fit and are finished atrociously. It is clear she doesn’t know how to build a wardrobe or the importance of tailoring (and posture) that would at least make the clothes look as expensive as they are. This is a cheap dress for her and it looks better than some of her more expensive pieces with her DIY, beginner level adjustments like a noticeablely uneven hem.
I know she could do more but… I always feel like she’s at the mercy of wills deciding her public schedule, so I fault her less for it. Plus if she wants to spend time with her small children and be more of a stay at home mom while they’re young, I don’t begrudge her that. If she were the Royal born, I’d feel differently. Wills needs to pick up the slack and quit being such a condescending oaf though.
If she wanted to be a SAHM she chased and married the wrong man. As long as they accept the 50 room palace, the 10 bedroom mansion, the millions in security, and the $4 million a year allowance they are required to do royal work. At least as much royal work as the 90 year old and 95 year old linchpins of the Family Firm.
20 hours a week of charity work is not asking too much in exchange for such a life. All of the other royal parents managed to work more than these two while raising young children. So many excuses for her life-long laziness, so little time.
I know SAHMs who do all kinds of charity work and they don’t have live-in staff and nannies. Children take naps and go to bed early. It’s not like she doesn’t have months and weeks off to spend with the kids. Some of her charities are getting very little attention and could use her help.
RE: “Plus if she wants to spend time with her small children and be more of a stay at home mom while they’re young, I don’t begrudge her that. If she were the Royal born, I’d feel differently.” >>> This is entirely backwards for me. I’d judge someone born into royalty far less than someone who married into it. As Will and Harry have said, it’s important to make sure you find someone that understands the job. Will said in their engagement, he and Kate dated 10 years because he wanted to expose her to his life and give ample time to understand and back out. Much like Chelsy did with Harry, you have to decide if the lifestyle is for you.
Also, as Nota said above, a “full time Royal” is not the same thing as a “full time employee”. A full time royal is equivalent to part time employment in the real world.
I don’t have a problem with her spending time with her children while they are young either. When they’re in school will be a different story. However, if that’s what she wants to do, her husband needs to step it up instead of doing the bare minimum. And they should both quit saying how keen they are to muck in and do something about their cause du jour. Because they never really do.
Exactly how long do you think Kate would still be so “keen” on staying home if Charles called her bluff? He should shelve plans to downsize the Firm for now and bring the York girls out of the cold. Unfortunately, the economy being how it is and with the Yorks doing most of her events Kate’s clothing and vacation budget will need to be reallocated. I’m sure she’ll consider that a fair trade off. What does a stay at home mom need tens of thousands dollars worth of vacation and wardrobe for? I wonder if Granny would lend her granddaughters some of her baubles for the glamorous night time events. That would certainly garner a lot of praise and attention. If Charles took this route do you honestly think she wouldn’t suddenly find a renewed sense of civic duty?
OMG. Will not isn’t wearing his blue suit!!!
These two are so tiresome. Why would anyone go to see them? I hope they’re booed or ignored when they come here to Canada.
And what could William have to say that Angela Merkel would want to hear? Good to know that his being so NORMAL got him access to the de facto leader of the EU./s
I need more coffee.
There won’t be much booing. We’ve got some monarchists here and they’ll turn out. The rest of the country who don’t care won’t show up or will at least be polite about it.
I promise to be polite. It’s unlikely I will show up, but when their cavalcade is holding up traffic, I won’t roll down my window and curse at them…….I promise
Not sure Will’s outfit is much of an improvement. The pants look ill-fitting and do they already have a stain on the leg?
Canadians are too nice & polite to boo.
I live in Victoria and plan to utterly ignore them. I’ll be busy that day rearranging my sock drawer…or something.
That placement of her hands strategically placed over the royal woo-ha always disappoints. I just don’t get it.
That’s a common pose.
It’s not unusual to see women around her in photos doing the same thing. You’ve probably see many women and men do that while you’re out and about, in stores or waiting in line. People do that all the time during press conferences and the like.
I think she stands out so much when she does that because of her proportions or something along those lines. I don’t mind it because I know what she’s doing, but I see why it looks odd.
The digging in of the clutch doesn’t help either. She seems to press it into herself pretty hard, which draws your eye and makes it look even more unnatural. The clutch alone draws more attention to her hands and to some degree limits what she can do with them especially with her two handed carry.
But, Kate does this all…the…time, walking standing, sitting, makes no difference,her hands are constantly guarding the royal woo-ha, does the Queen keep the crown jewels in there?? maybe the nuclear codes?? I agree with Lindsey, Kate draws far too much attention to this part of her body, it also makes her bad posture about 10 times worse.
She drives me nuts. I have a cushy job, but I still have to show up-or log in-every day. Someone would notice if I wasn’t answering emails, on conference calls, or showing up to meetings. I would kill for her access and influence-she has the ability to CHANGE THE WORLD. She can LITERALLY change the world. How many people can say that they truly can change the world? I mean, yes, we should all do the good we can do, and you never know who you might be influencing, be it the next Barack Obama, the next Adele, the next Simone Biles…BUT, she has access and influence for days. She can make things happen. So what does she do with her time?
She suns her biscuits, she shows up occasionally to fluff her hair and bat her eyes at Ben Ainslie, she watches some tennis, she occasionally walks through a hospital or a school. I am serious. What the HELL is wrong with this woman? Any normal, decent person would say, gee, I’m the Princess of the UK, I think I’ll pick a cause and make a difference.
For some reason, she just enraged me this morning with her transparent attempts and thriftiness and fitting three events in one day so she can justify another break. I need to go do some yoga.
+1
The problem is I think we are dealing with a woman who is about 1/2 inch deep. Her lack of depth and intellectual horsepower prevents her from asking herself these questions. Same for that hubby of hers.
This is what annoys me about the two of them. I’m a poor school teacher and have spent a fortune doing dog rescue, trying to make than world a bit better place for our four-legged friends. She has money, access, and a huge megaphone. How can she just nit spice a s$$t about anything? Really? The only thing she’s keen on is Ben Ainslie???
I have to say, Carole gets all these kudos for being so loving and normal and middle class. Huh!?! Most middle class parents I know help their kids understand that they need to earn their way in this world, and maybe lend a helping hand sometimes. But Carole and Mike have raised three amazingly useless human beings. I don’t blame Pippa as much, because she seemed to try to find a place in the charitable world before she gave up to chase her billionaire, but her brother is a total marshmallow and Kate is really a waste of human space, even if she wasn’t Royal. I bet she does less for the world than 90% of the people on the planet. It’s all done for her. I really and truly dos,Ike her and that useless dolt she married, WillNot.
LIzLemon -everything you said. +1
Sarah, thank you for doing the rescue work you do — if we all keep pitching in in our corners we can make a difference even without tiaras.
That purse is so meh
I completely agree. It’s why I can never find her beautiful in anything because I really have no respect for her. They both seem like such a waste of space. Entitled and so spoiled. It’s sickening.
It seems to be getting worse every day, too. I used to like Kate and William, now I don’t.
I wonder why they have changed up their routine i.e. they are doing more than one appearance in a day and they are doing more things together. Their upcoming Canada tour schedule also has more events per day than iirc any other tour.
Someone told them off and explained to them the concept of “consequences”, “responsability” and “public funded”.
I’m sure they’re getting more money and holidays if they show up and appear more visible to the press and public.
I believe they scheduled these days because people complained (comments in The Daily Mail) about their tours, how they are willing to spend a whole day/week in another country attending events, but never locally.
Sharon and Cee, I agree that they may be giving in to complaints. But it’s been easily 3 years that people have complained about their workload, I still wonder what caused them to finally give in at this time.
They just do this occasionally. They have very short spurts where they act like they are keen and turning over a new leaf. But then, very quickly, go back to their old habits. I don’t know why they do it, no one believes them anymore when they say they are changing things. It just highlights the fact that they can do these things they just simply don’t want to.
That’s how you rack up your ‘work’ totals for the year, do more than one 30-minute appearance a day.
I always imagine captions for her, like what she is thinking at any given time. Usually, when she is looking extra crotch-clutch-y and squinting a little harder I imagine she is thinking, “act like you care, act like you care, act like you understand…”
Maybe that’s why her posture is horrible.
Anybody else think she’s back on the Botox? In one of the pics from today, she has her eyebrows raised, but only the arch while the remainder of her forehead is unwrinkled. Another poster said on a previous thread she thought Kate was using her holiday to get refreshed, and I think I agree.
absolutely. she clearly refreshed over the hols.
If so, she should demand Charles’ money back, cuz her face still looks like she’s spent A LOT of time crying recently.
Botox won’t fix that.
Kaiser, two nannies plus night nanny.
At least they showed up for a few hours of work after a month of idleness.
I actually have never seen that they have two nannies. I remember the night nanny when Charlotte was born, but have not seen two day nannies (well, unless you count Carole!). Where did you see it?
I have seen it a couple places too. There were comments about the show they put on a Charlotte’s Christening, including Maria in uniform to make it seem like they only have one. I also think some of it is semantics. They have one nanny that went to school for it and that’s all she does, other people assist but are not officially called nannies. For example, the crazy ad she took out with tons of responsibilities for next to nothing salary wise included taking care of the kids.
I don’t care what Kate looks like; I’m too appalled by that jacket and that red face and bald pate and shiny navy chinos on William. He’s like a cliched retired major from an Agatha Christie novel and he’s just departed his twenties, for crying out loud. He’s starting to look like Kate’s curmudgeonly old uncle – and it’s not like she’s even young in appearance for her age, either.
He was such a beautiful youth. How the hell did he morph into this by thirty? Is he the anti-Dorian Gray? Is there a gorgeously dewy portrait in the Amner attics?
Lol!
STAHP! I’m laughing so hard my colleague wants to know why.
Oh god, they do look 50. And before the 50-year-olds come for my head, it is perfectly fine to look 50 but not when you’re mid-30s! Let me rephrase, they don’t look 50. They look dowdy. Like they’re about to retire to the country. Wait ….
I wonder what Celine Dion’s stylist could do with them.
Lol. Ditching the blue suit has done nothing for him. His father and grandfather look more stylish.
Say what you will about Kate, she is beautiful indeed.
I think she’s a pretty woman. So what? Does pretty earn you points for good works? What does pretty do?
I was very pretty as a young woman and my mother always hammered into me that looks are a lucky genetic accident. It’s your character and soul that matter. There, she is sorely lacking.
Eh. She can be pretty when the press isn’t mad at her and Photoshops her to the max but that is really the only thing she has going for her and with the stress, smoking, tanning, and malnutrition it is rapidly disappearing.
Besides, half of what you are seeing is FAKE. Fake teeth, fake hair, injections, and last by not least – her accent.
I think “beautiful” is a stretch. She’s average looking … boring … average looking …
Can anyone help me understand why some of the European royals can look so stylish and business-like and appropriate and modern and well-groomed while these two look like they’re morphing into George and Mildred?
Because these two don’t care about anything other than vacations.
Because you can be born with taste, class, and fashion sense or it has to be learned over time. If you’re not born with it you have to realize you need to learn. I think they’re both too stupid to realize this.
KM probably thinks the more expensive a dress is the more “classy” it is, simply because she’s a dope with no fashion sense.
OT: Why do they keep trying to make this woman happen? And, BTW, she’s not Royalty. If she and Bill divorced she would lose her status, immediately, while Bill would continue to be a Prince. She’s a “B-list celebrity” nothing along with Bill. She’s so B-list she should try to get a walk-on part in the next Sharknado movie … but now that I think about it, it would require her to work. She should just sit in a cave.
That wiglet is making me itchy in this heat.
LOL!
Love it. Me too, LAK. Kate is Vain with a capital V. It’s all about appearances with her.
She is so basic, they are so lazy, and the hair is ridiculous.
I agree. Basic. Blah. Lazy. Shallow and the Duggar hair is back.
😆 That ‘Duggar hair’ comment made me snort!
First, I noticed William looked quite tan from his appearance in Germany. Kate looks pretty much the same now especially since she’s dropped the gringe look. The lack of accessories from Kate really stands out here (she’s doesn’t seem keen on hats and/or scarves etc) unless she counts big blue as the only accessory she needs, I suppose. I don’t know- the dull, lazy and truly uninspiring Cambridge show inches along.
Ugh that hair. Way to big and blown out. Only one wiglet at a time dear!
I love the dress and don’t see any reason to complain about it. She looks lovely.
The dress has a high slit in back which should have been stitched at least 3 inches. With her proportions of long torso, short legs, it reaches up uncomfortably high. Good thing there are no photos of her bending over to greet kids or a view of her getting out of the car taken from the back. Just a photo of her standing with her hand on her arse, as if she knows the slit is too high but she didn’t do anything to fix it.
So boring. Those beige shoes…the worst.
Is William packing a royal bulge??
Yes; a bulge it is …
I think she looks lovely as well. Gorgeous hair!
I love this dress, and I especially love the pattern.
I love this dress, and I especially love the pattern.
I feel foolish for asking, is she pregnant again? I read it somewhere.
Cute dress – youthful and current. Some of her stuff looks out of date and matronly (buttons!) However, I really wish she’d change up her shoe game. They make more than pumps in the world!!!! Even some that are not all one color. 🙂
LOL…………..
as a fellow shoe lover, I had a good laugh at your comment. Kate just doesn’t have an artistic bone in her body. If she did, we’d see some great shoes and jewelry. But: It. Isn’t. Going. To. Happen.
I knew without even looking that she’d be wearing the nude pumps with this. I hate her shoes. I hate that she never mixes it up. Ugh. I’m over Duchess Kate, sorry. They’re going to need to trot out Prince George and his sister to get me to care again (or — even better — Prince Harry).
+1
Nice tans!! It’ll need topping up when Canada comes around. And yes her face does look refreshed – she had a little lift when in France.
Re: her repeat dress. She only repeats high street clothes; Hobbs, LK Bennet etc.. She almost never repeats some of the high end stuff that she butchers with bad tailoring – thou there maybe one or 2 exceptions.
As for the hair *sigh* it looks more and more like one of those Princess wigs her parents are flogging every time she’s seem out with a fresh do. She needs to get a PROFESSIONAL hair dresser and stylist – not the bad amateurs she’s currently got.
That drives me insane! If she needs something altered, have McQueen’s team do it, not her inept staff who can barely sew on a button. A once smart dress or coat gets butchered and looks cheap once basic Cathy Mid gets her mitts on it. I think she’s the only person who can actually make McQueen look cheap! Mind you, the shoes, make up and hair never help, but you would think she would learn after seeing a few photos!
Does anyone else think Kate is co-dependent on William and/or Carole? Or is it just me.
I’ve been learning about narcississtic co-dependent relationships and William, Carole and Kate sound like a triad with Kate being the one who needs to wake up and smell the coffee .
I like the dress but the least said about the shoes and hair the better. Having her hair loose and fiddling with it all the time is unhygienic and unprofessional but to be expected from Waity. Her face doesn’t look as haggard as it did a few weeks ago. Must be the Botox.
Loved one of the previous comments where they were likened to George and Mildred. A very amusing image.
This couple. YAWN.
Repeat shmepeat – has anyone looked at William’s *ahem* royal package?
What! Is he wearing he looks like a footballer!!!!
Maybe she likes the dress…