Here are some photos of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today in London. They arrived mid-day to attend the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit. Tomorrow is Mental Health Day, and so much of William and Kate’s charitable branding these days is about mental health. This is Will and Kate’s first joint appearance at a work event in several months, if we’re not counting Trooping the Colour and Prince Lou’s baptism, which I don’t consider to be “work.”
For today’s appearance, Kate repeated a bespoke Emilia Wickstead dress in a lovely shade of lilac. I remember this dress well, because it was one of my favorite looks from Kate and William’s tour of Germany last year. I believe she wore it on the last day of their tour, and as I said in that post, she saved the best for last. Is it boring? Sort of. But I like the simplicity of it – it’s not too short, the skirt isn’t chintzy, the dress isn’t slathered in buttons, and the shade of lilac is lovely on Kate’s coloring. Plus, I like that she’s getting some use out of one of her bespoke pieces – I worried that we would never see this one again. Still, she styled it almost entirely the same, even down to the same Rossi shoes, I think. The only thing she changed is the purse – today’s purse the Mayfair bag by Aspinal Of London.
True story: after covering Kate’s fashion and styling for a decade, I feel comfortable saying that Kate isn’t a “shoe person” or a “purse person.” Which is fine – different people are different, and I couldn’t care less about shoes either. But I feel like she’s trying to up her purse game because… I mean, clearly, the Duchess of Sussex loves accessories.
Ahead of tomorrow’s #WorldMentalHealthDay2018 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit, which aims to promote better mental health for all. pic.twitter.com/G4HqxuseuU
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 9, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Wow, she looks great.
She does. Baby number three and the late thirties have given her a confidence boost I think. It happens to a lot of people. 40 did that to me, it’s like I stopped caring about stupid stuff.
I agree: something seems to have changed in Kate; she seems happier and more confident.
She looks gorgeous, head to toe. She does seem to be much much more relaxed, in charge…confidence in spades! Even William seems to be looking at her differently now lol
I love that she’s got a real purse, not a clutch. She usually had good bags when not “on duty”. She used a handle bag at Wimbledon, too. Glad she’s using some again now, even if Meg IS the catalyst.
+1. Her hair looks lovely and she looks happy.
Her hair color is different,no?Or is it sun lightened ,and she looks tan,but minus the heavier makeup.Really fresh nice look I think,but boring too;but here’s the thing,like Kaiser says Kate is not a shoe person or really a fashionista,and I agree.Somehow as Kate has matured in the last couple of years,I feel a bit more fond of her,and I realize as I wear my yoga pants and cashmere long sleeve tshirts,in various colors- that I have a SAHM uniform- I feel safe this way,and I guess Kate likes her simple completely repeated outfits.I would love to be a fly on the wall and see Kate at home ,how she dresses,hair in a bun perhaps?
Also think Meghan and Kate can be pitted against one another but I think Kate is quite happy to let us all talk about Meghan ‘s fashion.And think they are going to be decent friends.
@Darla Agree totally with you and the other replies. She looks fabulous. This is a great dress, perfectly fitted, shows off her figure’s best features (small waist, great legs) and she looks radiant. Love the length, the color, the fit, the shoes. Only quibble in my view is the non-matching purse and shoes. Why tan shoes and a grey purse, is the color off on my monitor. why not make them both the same color?
she’s had some gentle work done I’d say, with botox in the forehead and eyes. she looks good though.
@ Darla : I came here to say the same thing. Did she quit smoking maybe?
How does she stay so tiny after so many kids…
Honestly, I think genetics play a big part. Look at Carole, she’s still pretty trim and in shape. I do think Kate watches what she eats (she probably does not chow down on caramel popcorn like I did this weekend) and works out a lot, but genetics definitely help.
Nature and nurture.
Genetics, and she was taught growing up to eat healthy and exercise and it’s engrained in her lifestyle. The family is very sporty, at least the women.
She works out with a personal trainer through pregnancies and she stays out of public sight. When she reappears many forget she’s had 5-6 months of working out constantly and rarely being seen to get back to her preferred size.
I think her body type, luckily for her, tends to be long and lean but I’m sure she also works out and has a trainer.
Just jumping in to say that she really does look great here: confident and more at ease than usual.
And also: having had a baby about a week before she did, and going back to work full time at the 4 month mark (my second kiddo), I feel like I could just cry for the lack of time I have in my schedule right now to work out. Like… I’m so exhausted and overwhelmed with work and parenting, that if I could just have 2 hrs a week to work out by myself (much less with a personal trainer) I think I could possibly start feeling better. I guess it’s embarrassing to admit, but I’m painfully jealous of moms who have more family support or financial means to carve out time postpartum to exercise more.
Your partner can’t watch the baby? Can you walk or run with baby in the stroller?
Sorry Lindy, I remember those early months so well. It does get better!
Yeaaah. FT working mom of two here too. My baby is 6 months old and I saw a candid of myself from this weekend. Eek. I look like the Penguin from Batman.
also, Gigi, I can only speak for myself, but my husband is a full partner…he also works FT, cooks dinner, one of us does bedtime and the other cleans the kitchen…that said, there still seems to be no time left in the day. Once all is said and done, it’s 9pm and I just want to relax on the sofa for a half hour before I have to shower before bed.
I’m sure you are doing amazing!! If it makes you feel better, I am also painfully jealous of Kate’s shape and I didn’t even have a baby.
It’s a really pretty and appropriate dress.
I do like this dress, and in general I am glad we are seeing her wear some repeats from the tour last summer. The dress is a pretty color and kind of boring, but it has a nice flow to it.
It is a timeless style/silhouette. She could recycle this in twenty years and it would still be classy. Yes, color is a bit boring but I think appropriate for this occasion.
She looks good in it but I find it boring and dated looking. It’s bespoke, but it’s just not that great.
This dress is screaming for a statement necklace.
Is it me or is her hair lighter? Her hair looks great
I thought the same – that she had highlights. Couldn’t figure it out if it was just the sun or other lighting in the pictures or if she did color it.
Her looks a bit lighter and she looks tanned to me.
I think so, plus it looks like she’s had a strong tan.
Looks like at least one sunny vacation recently, maybe back to the south of France. The tabloids were too busy with Meghan to track the Duke of Westminster’s jet this summer.
It’s a plain dress but I appreciate that it’s not one of her typical coat dresses (I hate those, regardless of who wears them). The color is very pretty and works for her. She looks good.
She looks very pretty!
Lavender is nice colour on Kate. Recycled look from Europe tour last summer 2017….and I see hair is longer… I prefer the shorter with center part. Pippa due any day now. …will she get more BBC coverage than Eugenie’s wedding?
It would be kind of funny if she gives birth on Friday, to see how much coverage that would get in comparison (hehehehe). Sorry, but I just can’t get over the pretentiousness of this wedding: 850 (!!!) guests in a chapel that doesn’t have the capacity for that many, peons to wave, and a carriage ride around town so she can get an ego boost (well her and her parents). I heard taxpayers are also being stuck for the cleanup costs to the tune of over £250M .
By clean up… Yes even more perhaps. We’ll never know.
I can’t stand the colour purple but this is the absolute worst colour of purple out of them all. I can sort of get on board with a dark purple but lilac? That’s a no from me, dawg.
On a positive note – her hair looks fantastic. Very Kelly Garrett from Charlie’s Angels.
Kate definitely does deep jewel tones better. Pastels wash her out, present outfit included.
She looks great! Envious of that trim figure after three kids. My two did a number on my stomach. It’s not really baby fat anymore since my youngest is almost 3…
Please don’t feel like you should compare yourself to women like her, who have enormous resources and access to all sorts of interventions, medical and otherwise, to look the way that they do.
Your body created LIFE, which is pretty damn impressive!
Clare, thanks so much for that reminder!! I appreciate it! <3
Agree with Clare, your body created a miracle TWICE.
No babies for me; I just had gastric-bypass surgery at the end of July at age 58 to help “control” my T2 diabetes. I probably haven’t lost quite enough weight for my metabolism to truly kick in.
But I’m SO grateful for ALL of our miracle bodies!
She looks like Elizabeth Hurley in these pics, and she looks very tanned.
Ha, you are spot on. IMO she looks better than ever.
The dress is cute, but I don’t like the color at all, reminds too much of candy.
Looks like Botox for her forehead.
The dress is pretty.
Oh everyone gets Botox let her be, her highlights look great, the dress colour is good on her. It’s a style yes from Kate for once.
It was an observation, not a criticism.
No Botox. She has a telltale line across her forehead, which is still visible. I’m sure she’ll get some injections once she stops nursing.
The deep lines across her forehead are more shallow, even in the non photoshopped pictures. The botox is back, plus from the first to pregnancies, she seems to stop nursing around the 6 week mark.
Girl looks tanned and healthy. The lilac is a lovely shade, little more Easter than fall, but meh. I’m obsessed with whatever highlights she has in her hair.
Shoes are well … the shoes.
She looks great and the dress looks really good on her.
She looks very nice, especially with the new lighter hair. However, that deep tan is making her look older. Very Pippa like.
Wow. She really looks great.
Nice dress. She spent her time off losing the baby weight.
Matching shoes and purse doesn’t always work, but the texture and color of purse doesn’t work with the shoes.
I really hate dresses with long sleeves.
do you live somewhere warm?
I wish. Itchy arms I guess.
I love them. But I live in the Northeast US.
I like them because they hide my scrawny arms.
I love long sleeves on anything, because air conditioning is freezing when you’re inside in Florida, and I’ve got long, skinny arms
She looks great. She’s still nursing and has such a trim stomach (I’m jealous as that’s the one spot that’s holding on to fluid for me and everyone tells me it’ll drop once I stop nursing).
No buttons, no sausage curls, no fidgiting, no fly ups and no manic grinning. Bar is low but she’s crossed it.
Maybe she’s finally found her fashion groove, what works for her.
She looks healthy, pretty…and quite smug. (Who’s waiting now b——!) 😉
She looks lovely. Lilac really suits her.
The style and color look great on her, and I love her hair like that. I don’t mind her sausage curls, but her hair looks better like this
She looks really nice. I love purple, even kinda twitchy odd versions like this, and she looks well rested (guessing by that tan, Mustique?).
If people are always slamming Meghan for her “breaking protocol,” Kate is here, with her bag that must be held in the hand. They’re supposed to be clutchable or able to be carried on the arm like TQ’s hand bags.
I like the style of dress and hope we see more like this instead of stuffy coat dresses, but am not sold on the colour. Either going a bit more pink or a bit more purple would suit her well.
The bag’s good. More bag game, bring it on!
Is she finally wearing less eyeliner below her eyes? Hallelujah!!!
I was hoping someone else would notice. I think it looks much nicer.
Yes, that’s what I couldn’t figure out. Then I zoomed in on some of the pics, and sure enough–not much, if any, eyeliner there.
IT LOOKS BETTER LIKE THAT, KATE! KEEP DITCHING THE HEAVY EYELINER!
Kate looks great and more relaxed.
I do not know if she did anything to her face, but she looks “softer” more natural. I like it.
Less eyeliner! She looks amazing.
She looks beautiful, and she’s working. Two thumbs up from me.
Not a colour I like except in nature but it’s lovely on Kate, as is the dress. A really nice clean look.
I like the minimal make-up…it looks more youthful!
Love the colour and quite like the dress for an event like this. She just needs to stop with the “Barbie feet” shoes! She’s looking good these days.
I like this dress a lot. The color and texture of the fabric is nice. In one photo, the hem looked longer in the back than the front. Is that an optical illusion? (I hope so.)
Does appear as if she is wearing the same shoes with this dress. I’m a shoe person, so that’s one of the first things I notice. I would have picked something entirely different. I like the bag! That’s a nice new addition to her collection (I would have picked a different color though).
She looks like Kate. Not seeing a “wow” factor.
She looks very good. I like the highlights in her hair and her whole look is softer. Good for her on the repeat too!
She looks lovely, but I’ll never understand why you would have something so simple & boring made bespoke.
She’s looking good but looking very much like Jecca. Will’s certainly has a type
She looks great. I love her new confidence and I’ve always liked her style. She’s always impeccably dressed and neat-looking (too short hems and flyaways notwithstanding). I think that all the royal women share fashion thoughts. It’s interesting how once one of them begins wearing a designer, others will follow and how there are subtle influences between them. It’s great if Meghan’s purse love means that Kate pays more attention to that area. But, while I love that she loves accessories, I really haven’t liked not one of Meghan’s purses. I think they’re all child-like with strange dimensions. I don’t like Kate’s purse here either, but thankfully they don’t care what we think about their purses.
Kate near single-handedly ushered in the age of the nude patent leather pump. I mean, it was a whole industry for a while and I totally loved them and followed her style shoe-wise then, as did many others. Then, The Countess of Wessex began wearing them, and others. And it was the Countess who really ushered in Emilia Wickstead to the royal fold and word on the street (ha!) is that after Wickstead’s post-wedding blunder, she begged the Countess to reach out to Kate and Meghan so that her whole career and company wouldn’t fall apart.
She changed her hair parting, I think.
I’m not feeling the look -hair down with this silhouette -it’s a bit little girl-ish. Kate looks like a confident woman in her 30s and this dress doesn’t say that.
I love how soft the color is and I liked how she looked when she first wore it on tour. Maybe because she was with the kids and it was an image of a young family, it changed the feel of it for me? IDK.
Kate looks beautiful 💜
That being said, do these visits actually DO anything? For example, the work a doctor, teacher or lawyer does is easily identifiable and useful. The work a royal does is not. Aside from talking about what Kate looks like, is there really anything useful to this work? 99% of the time I have no idea what organization is being supported or the impact of the royal visit. It sort of seems like a photo op/excuse to wear ridiculously expensive clothing for the royals than anything meaningful. I guess it (the royals) all seems so pointless and silly 😞
Considering mental health is their serious cause and that’s the reason why they don’t attend as many bread and butter engagements, all they did here was sit on a chair, have a brief chat and paint something on a wall. They didn’t even stay for the entire workshop about children. This was treated with the same seriousness as attending a county fair. There wasn’t even a reason for both of them to attend this, outside of boosting their numbers for the year.
I’m not sure what you expect?
Are the four of them (w&k, H&M) expected to solve the mental health crisis in the U.K? Fix the NHS? Do what our current government can’t do?
Let’s slag on Kate since that’s such a favourite topic for you and ignore everything this appearance actually means to the millions of people who suffer from mental illness in this country.
What it means to so many that the topic has become so open and available to many. That stigmas are being broken and changing. So many people no longer have to live in the shadows or feel shame.
The exposure of this topic alone. Just seeing the words Mental health associated with the BRF is life changing to so many.
@Reese. People send them money for their Foundation. Awareness and breaking stigmas are important but when people are donating their hard earned money to this cause, it is okay for people to stay aware of how Will, Kate and Harry are handling their responsibilities. Don’t act like staying aware of how this topic is approached is equal to people expecting the BRF to solve a mental health crisis.
I’ve posted on this so many times so either you’re oblivious or you’ve never read what I’ve written.
Forgive me as I’m half asleep so this will be short, I work for the NSH in mental health.
Kate and Will can do more. Absolutely. I will not argue about that.
In my clinic I’ve seen way too many examples of how their involvement has helped people seek help. How it’ gives people comfort. They don’t care about their day to day involvement. From a professional level we simply cared that they are involved, period. Show up, smile, make a headline and get out of the way and let those who are working in this field make the difference.
They would be the LAST people I would want to be personally involved in a intimate level on this subject. I’ve said it before and will say it again. I don’t believe this to be their role in regards to mental health.
Stand there and make the headlines. Show up and take a picture. Smile. Get the word out there about awareness. Make it be known that it ok to seek help. All these things they say and do. All this is important to help break down the stigmas surrounding mental health.
@Reese. I’ve read all your posts. No one is disputing what you say about awareness and breaking down stigmas.
The issue is *after* they raise awareness, the BRF takes money in the form of donations.
The questions are about whether the BRF is demonstrating appropriate seriousness seeing as they are willing to accept money from people. Also apparently Kate is heading something up next year where she will be more hands on.
If the BRF said don’t donate to our foundations or Kate wasn’t being more hands on in her own initiative next year, then it would be a different story. Awareness is good -again, nobody is disputing that. Removing stigmas is good.
But if the BRF has their hands out, I’m going to question how they go about things.
If they just stuck to awareness and tweeted a list of reputable organizations for donations, then that would be fine. They’re not doing that. They are choosing to get more involved so people are going to look at what is happening. No one is against awareness or removing stigmas.
As much as I have issues with how much money is spent on the royals, the donations from the public go to their Heads Together charity, not themselves. Does their foundation siphon off money that would otherwise have gone to other mental health charities? Yes. Is their foundation worse than other mental health charities in terms of efficacy? We don’t know.
@Tina. Right, I’m not going in with the assumption that they’re doing anything wrong and I don’t at all think they’re personally pocketing the money but I would like a discussion on whether their foundation is better. I don’t think think there’s anything wrong in talking about how they’re going about things. That doesn’t take away from raising awareness.
I normally don’t have a lot of time for William and Kate and think they’re very lazy. But it can’t be denied that their taking up the cause of mental health has done a lot to raise the profile of mental health issues in this country. They don’t do a lot of work, for sure, but them merely being associated with the issue does a fair amount of good. Harry in particular, as an ex-serviceman, has done a lot to break down the stigma around men seeking help for mental health issues.
Other royals do much more actual work. Charles’s work with the Prince’s Trust has genuinely helped hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people. Anne has been a hands-on patron of many different organisations. And anything that the Queen is involved with is taken extremely seriously. So they didn’t do any actual work on this visit, but the mere fact that they made it is helpful.
She looks boring. Its like a churchy Easter dress. That color is basically for bridesmaids and Easter in my opinion. Fits her well though and she obviously looks amazing for having had 3 kids. I saw some of the videos from inside and she looked very happy and relaxed, maybe more relaxed in public than I’ve ever seen her. I like to think its partly that she and Meghan are becoming very good friends and having her around helps take some of the pressure off Kate and just makes her life a little less lonely. That’s my secret hope anyway.
Pink in autumn???
Pink for a mental health summit?
I mean we aren’t talking pink dress and serious dark jacket or something. We are talking baby barbie pink and nude heels.
I can understand why Waity avoids orange colours. It would compete with her tan.
cute for a first date.
cute for a twenty-something.
But a royal at a mental health summit in autumn?
Maybe it’s something you should take an interest in.
@ Claire
You have some personal experience?
SBS=Same Boring $#i+
A tan and softened makeup. Makes her look warmer. Not so harsh. And good for her! I hope she doesn’t loose any more weight. She looked fantastic with a little extra weight.
Barbie pink dress and flowing locks of hair underlines the seriousness of Waity Katie Dolittle and Whiney Willy on mental health issues.
This is the best I’ve seen her look…ever? Hair and highlights look great, tan is amazing (helps if you get a month in Mustique) and THE EYELINER (or lack thereof)!!!! Someone toned down the eyeliner and blush. Maybe is due to the tan- but keep this hair and makeup going, Kate!
Kate looks great but it surprises me that more people aren’t noticing that it’s her actual face that looks more youthful and less drawn. So besides the good hair style, to me it looks like very well done fillers and Botox. Not all cosmetic tweaks are bad and there’s really no other way to achieve noticeably different results like that.
Sorry, but she looks damn hot! Go, Kate!
Kate hasnt looked this good since she got engaged-she had something tweaked IMO
Kate looks nice. Not special but nothing egregious about her look either. But I must nitpick because it’s what I do best. Her face looks a little fuller. I was wondering if fillers were involved. Also, the dress is ok but maybe she should wear a slip. I’m old school I admit it, but I can’t stand when skirts wrap around and between my legs. Wear a slip, stop that cling, and the skirt hangs nice.😀👗
The hemline looks uneven. I think that’s par for the course for the EW bespoke stuff Kate owns, though.
I think it’s longer in the back. Not surprising, coming from Wickstead. I do tailoring, I notice stuff like that.
Surprised no one has commented on her very obvious hair extensions. They’re still there, just a bit shorter.
Extensions or not, I think her hair looks amazing here and I’m super jealous!
Why do people keep calling the dress Barbie pink? Are they colorblind?
Hasn’t been put up here yet, but Kate appeared tonight solo in the FIRST EVER Erdem dress that I have ever liked. No – adored. It’s a great dress. She looks absolutely stunning – opening a new photography exhibit at the V&A. Hair lustrous and fresh (she must not be nursing any longer as the highlights look considerably refreshed, really cute jewelry, and she looks radiant.
She looks amazing! More carefree and confident I like it!