Here are more photos of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at last night’s BAFTAs – I covered the first photos yesterday. Prince William is the president of BAFTA and has been for years, so this is showing up for work for him. He and Kate have managed to attend the BAFTAs together three years in a row. I think this was their best year ever – by that I mean, they seemed comfortable around the glitterati, and they worked the receiving line rather well, making chit-chat with all the movie stars.
At first, people ID’d Kate’s dress as Jenny Packham, which is perfectly understandable because it really does look like a Packham design. It turns out that this is a custom McQueen, and she has this same dress in pink – she wore the pink one to Prince Charles’ birthday dinner at Buckingham Palace. She paired the dress with a pair of sparkle silver Jimmy Choo heels, diamond-and-pearl earrings which belonged to Princess Diana, and a diamond bracelet from the Queen. As I said yesterday, I think this is the best “eveningwear look” we’ve ever seen from Kate. Pulled together, flattering, age appropriate and genuinely glamorous.
Kensington Palace posted lots of behind-the-scenes videos from the BAFTAs, including Kate and William making conversation with various celebrities. I love the video of Kate talking to Spike Lee, I would absolutely love to know Spike’s thoughts on the duchess and on royalty in general.
The Duchess of Cambridge congratulates Spike Lee, Director of BlacKkKlansman, which won the @BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. #EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/IDggiywOmF
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) February 10, 2019
There was also this creepy video of a completely silent auditorium as Will and Kate find their seats.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge take their seats for tonight's @BAFTA Awards Ceremony #EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/76hNXDZIxp
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) February 10, 2019
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and WENN.
They look lovely, but they seem so stiff. A good handhold would have been appropriate here!
Probably they don’t feel at ease yet.
Unless he allows hand holding , I don’t think she pushes it, too much in public. Someone said at the Royal Wedding, in May, she tried to hold William’s hand for just a moment , then he pulled his hand away.
William seems to be the warmest towards her at sporting events, like the Olympics. Lol
Why? Not everyone likes to show affection like that. Hell, if they did hold hands the haters on this site would just say they were trying too hard
I saw a video of them entering the Royal Albert Hall and Kate shook hands first, William was really taken aback because his hand was already out waiting for the first handshake. Maybe Kate has seen how Harry is happy for Meghan to go first.
I am seeing signs of Kate starting to assert herself in this marriage and trying to gain more confidence after years of being content being a shadow. She knows that now Meghan is around she needs to step forward, and Kate is testing the waters.
Good for her. She’s certainly more interesting than Will. If she really let loose, she would eclipse him. Of course there would then be hell to pay at home.
I like that she modified Diana’s earrings. Her version has smaller pearls and they look better and less custume-like than Diana’s.
This is not the first time she has done this, I can think of another pese of earrings that used to belong to Diana that Kate had altered.
Now that both William and Harry are both married, we will probably see more and more of Diana’s jewels, since they can now be distributed equally
William will have access to the royal jewelry vaults so it probably makes more sense if Harry did inherit most of Diana’s jewelry to not have William bother him about it.
The pic with Olivia Coleman has me wondering if Kate watches The Crown. “Really looking forward to seeing you play my grandmother in law!” 😂
I had the exact same thought!
I saw the video of Kate talking to Rachel Weisz and OMG Rachel was looking around while Kate was talking. It was so obvious that she couldn’t wait for the chat to be over LOL
That was readily apparent…lol.
Lately, Kate has really been trying to be engaging!!!!
Aw, I hope there’s an explanation for that –
that would be very rude of Rachel Weisz and I always thought she was so professional and polite!
Kensington Palace posted the video on Twitter. Rachel is completely engaged and friendly, making eye contact the whole time. No idea what OP is talking about.
@Kebbie
I’m talking about this
https://twitter.com/ladyhaja/status/1094887351984234496
Me too, that’s the KP video. She’s looking directly at Kate the entire time, fully engaged. I mean I see the “pretending to be interested” tweet along with it, but I don’t see that at all in the video.
I think her joke is just that Kate is boring, so Rachel must have been faking interest (well enough to win a BAFTA.) I don’t think Rachel actually looks uninterested though.
I can’t stand how Kate is always talking with her hands. Between that and her crazy wide open mouth antics, she is annoying to watch.
I highly doubt that. Even if Rachel truly thought Kate was boring, she’s not going to be obvious about it.
Cameras detect the unspoken, always have.
It looked like she had her ear tilted towards her like it’s loud there? I don’t see that as a woman looking around just waiting to be done with it.
@Erinn – exactly, it was obvious that she turned her head to hear her better.
My take as well, Rachel’s attention was on Kate and her head tilted momentarily perhaps to hear her words better. No reason to stir that pot.
I watched that video because I would be appalled to learn that RW could be so rude and puerile. I was glad to see she wasn’t. She seemed perfectly attentive and engaged. Once her eyes strayed – for a second – because of the movements of the man beside her, then she turned her head slightly to hear better what Kate was saying because it was clearly quite loud.
Kate is doing the same thing when Rachel is talking. Her eyes are looking over Rachel’s shoulder. That happens when there’s a lot going on around you, a person can carry on a conversation while still noticing what’s going on around them.
Love the dress and her hair up is so much more flattering on evenings out.
The quiet walk in , even though it was planned and done before for royals , it just came off odd last night. , Like the walk of shame on GOThrones. Lol
Kate had her purse in the hand close to William, maybe planned that way, so as messaging, no hand holding expected, unless she switched hands. I don’t think they would look natural if they suddenly started being all warm and fuzzy over each other in public. I think William likes it that way. It’s not their public persona. Which is fine.
They are sort of a stiff couple, in public anyway , at a lot of events.
My favorite evening wear look from her is still the velvet McQueen – I think that may always be my favorite. What a shame we have not seen her repeat that look (even though her hair was down and detracted from the necklace still my favorite.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2076265/Kate-Middleton-shines-Sun-Military-Awards-strapless-velvet-dress-diamonds.html
I do think she looked really good last night. My comment above aside, in general I prefer her with her hair up for formal events like this. so often she wears a nice evening gown and nice jewelry but leaves her hair down and I think it takes away from the look (thinking specifically of the BAFTA look last year.) I remember once she wore a pink Jenny Packham after they got married and I didnt like it, but we saw it again a few years later with her hair pulled up and the dress looked much prettier.
I also think the one-shoulder look is pretty on her.
I love velvet gowns so so much and would love to have an opportunity to wear one!
I remember that cranberry velvet gown. She looked amazing, especially with the addition of that diamond and ruby necklace. Seriously, why has she not repeated that look???
No shade here I thought she looked lovely – but why didn’t she just wear the pink version of the dress considering nobody has seen it publicly ?? Why have an exact copy made in a different colour? I never understand that about her.
Good question.
And that raspberry shade of pink is very flattering on her.
Yeah I dont fully understand the way she collects pieces that are identical but in different colors. Its one thing to have a pair of trousers in 4 different colors. Its another to have closets full of bespoke McQueen that are all the same design. (okay maybe thats an exaggeration lol but you get my point.) Especially considering no one has seen the pink version of this, seems like it would have been a good opportunity to wear it.
But, overall I do think the white looked good on her.
Maybe she bleached it white?? 🙂 Haha!!
Not a bad idea the other way around. Buy white, dye it pink.
Tash needs be reassigned as a speechwriter when she returns from maternity leave. Kate needs to hang on to whoever is styling her right now because this one of her best looks ever.
When she finds something she likes she buys 2-3 of it. That’s just how it’s going to go forever now. But we’ll probably see the pink one again some day.
Frankly I get her. She know what works and buys it in different colours.
I admit I don’t know that much about “bespoke” pieces, but wouldn’t the price drop after the first one if you’re buying identical? I imagine a good portion of the cost comes from designing, building, and fitting a brand new pattern. Every additional dress is still unique to Kate, but is made just working off a pattern that already exists.
I’ve also seen people mention that buying bespoke is good for royals because the price is unique to that particular dress and nearly impossible to calculate accurately. So the press can’t run prices along with their photos, which prevents the public’s sticker shock. But the actual price is still added to the year-end spending reports, which would “out” a big spender anyways. Assuming they are actually cheaper after the first, buying multiple identical dresses keeps that price down too, while still stockpiling your wardrobe with unique to you designer pieces.
How does ‘borrowing’ work exactly? Who asks,does Kate send someone,does she call up the Queen and ask for a specific piece. Is there like a vault they walk into and request for something???
I imagine, in general, there are several pieces of the queen’s that are known to be available for borrowing. I imagine the communication is all between assistants for those pieces. Then I imagine there are a few other pieces that the Queen lends out for special occasions (like maybe for a state dinner she will have her assistant notify Kate that she can borrow X piece if she wants or something.)
I wonder how it works with Diana’s jewelry. Kate wears a lot of it – I assume it was all Diana’s personal property – but I wonder if it is shared between the brothers, if Harry also has a significant stash of it etc (I know we have seen Meghan in a few pieces but it seems like Kate wears a lot of Diana’s old pieces, but that could also just be a function of Meghan not being a royal for even a full year yet.)
I also wonder about this. I imagine there is a catalog of available jewelry for the stylists to look through. I like to imagine that the catalog gets bigger/better for certain reasons- like the Birth of a Child or a Milestone Anniversary.
I suspect the catalog is constantly edited and re-evaluated to ensure the provenance of each piece clear and legitimate as well as within the political climate and norms of the day. For example, HM would be unlikely to wear a brooch gifted to her by the Shaw of Iran.
The story of Meghan wanting to wear an emerald tiara to her wedding got conflated with Eugenie’s tiara, even though the were different tiaras. The tiara Meghan selected was withdrawn because its Russian provenance in the midst of the Skripal poisoning sent the wrong message.
I would really like to know what Kate was saying to Spike Lee????
I like Meghan? There’s no beef?
I’ll do the right thing and visit Crooklyn , I mean Brooklyn.
Just joking.
Lol
😆
Why is Spike Lee dressed like Barney?
I love the dress but it’s not for her masculine body.
This is a weird comment.
Didn’t you know there’s an approved ratio of muscle/boob/hip in order to have the appropriate feminine shape? God forbid someone is athletic and doesn’t have the required curves in order for some rando to consider them feminine.
Oh and here I was thinking that you need to be as toned in shoulders and upper arms to pull off the dress ha ha. Everyone thinks differently.
So, you don’t take care of yourself and are jealous of those who do. Yawn.
There is nothing masculine about her body. Women come in all shapes.
She looks lovely. White is a nice color on her.
It’s a really good look, one of her best formal outfits.
And it’s such a relief that one-shoulder dresses have suddenly become appropriate and non-vulgar in the last few weeks. The Queen must have changed the protocol. Phew! That would have been embarrassing for Kate otherwise.
She’s worn at least two gowns with similar style on top just from photos I’ve seen– I’ve never much followed her so I don’t think it’s a last few weeks thing.
She has, hasn’t she… Plenty of times. And so has the Queen and basically every other royal lady. Weird then that there were all sorts of headlines calling one-shoulder gowns vulgar and against protocol after the BFA Awards…
She has worn this type of dress as far as 2011. I remember a silver one, Jenny Packham* believe
Oh I hated that Packham dress! Cringeworthy.
Touché!!
And it seems as though the ‘protocol’ about not walking ahead of the ‘true’ royal was ‘broken’ by Kate. Whatever. She looked lovely, though.
The young Queen wore one-shoulder evening dresses in an official capacity and looked fabulous. I hardly think she would have banned them for others.
“The young Queen”, LOL! Did Lilibet, “the old Queen” abdicate? Next time CB covers Camilla, I guess she’ll be referred to as “the middle-aged Queen”. She is next in line as consort, right?
On topic, that one-shoulder DoC gown would definitely be classified as vulgar if you applied the DoS protocol police rules.
Are you being thick on purpose? She was obviously talking about Queen Elizabeth who became queen at age 26 or something and who used to wear gowns like that when she was young, as did her sister.
I love how the dress shows off her arm muscles. I wish fewer women would shy away from exercising their arms in fear of “looking bulky/like a man”.
Her arms are “toned”… big difference than being bulky. Viola Davis also has great, toned arms! Total “arm envy”! lol
I would love to know what she does to work out. Her shoulders and arms look amazing (whoever said earlier that they look masculine can kick rocks).
I imagine she works out with weights no heavier than 10 lbs. That way your muscles are toned but not “Madonna arms”. I’m 66 and work out 5-6 days a week, I don’t have bingo arms, but you have to be dedicated about it.
How much was the dress? It’s nice that she has it in both white and pink.
It’s a bespoke custom-made gown, which apparently means £0!
That is not what bespoke means. In fact, custom-made items (i.e. couture) are generally most expensive than off-the-rack versions because of the customization and fittings. Kate’s wardrobe is paid by Prince Charles from the income from his Duchy of Cornwall estates, I believe.
Beli you have been on fire today with the comments.
Expensive. Which seems ok for formal events like this or when Meghan was at the British Fashion Awards. It’s when bespoke clothes are worn to daytime events at charities that people seem to get bent out of shape, which seems fair.
Yes, but how much. Cause I noticed that there are some who are always complaining about how much DoS spends so I think it’s only fair that both women have the price of everything they wear to events listed to see they likely spend equally.
Olivia Coleman looks genuinely delighted to be speaking to Kate. Very sweet photo.
They look fine.
It’s nice seeing them put in more effort talking to the participants. Granted most people here are celebrities but it’s good for the Cambridge’s to appear more personable.
They seem stiff IMO.
But they are trying so that’s good.
I con’t believe how much better she looks without that crayon eyeliner she usually does.
I think the dress probably looked better in pink because the color helped the look. I wish she wouldn’t just repeat a design but in a different color because sometimes the color may be part of what made the design successful. The skirt needs more structure and to not be so fluttery.
That much white is a statement and her hair should have been softer to balance it. Maybe a side-part. The look needs something to soften it up because it goes past being dramatic and looks a little pulled tight and severe.
A lot about this look works but it’s not a home run for me.
I don’t think it is the dress which looks fluttery though I agree it looks fluttery. But it is Kate who manages to make the dress look fluttery because she has such an angular ungainly body … few things look really good on her in that soft-romantic elegant way.
She is too tall: such flowy unstructured-long-skirted dresses just make tall slim people look unproportionally tall and lanky. I get that she tries make her proportions better: she has a long upper body and relatively short legs while at the same time she has no curves whatsoever. Her neck is slightly jutted forward which is why she always wears low chignons when she puts up her hair.
She wears the high-waisted stuff because it gives her long legs but she over-does it which is why it looks as if her legs were more than 2/3 of her body length.
“She’s too tall and slim for a long skirted dress” might be the most ridiculous comment I’ve heard in ages. What does “unproportionally tall” even mean?
And her dress is properly tailored with the waist actually hitting her waist, for once.
I think she looks stunning. She managed to pull of a white dress without it looking bridal – I just want to say this without people screaming “body shaming”; The girl is athletic, she has a fab figure, I just think she’s a burger or two shy of looking really healthy. Don’t @ me. Louis’ christening, she looked radiant..
She just has “it”. Pretty impressive to outshine s room full of movie stars. She really is coming into herself!!
Kate is dull as dishwater.
Neither She or William have it! Both are so dull.
But that’s ok, not everyone can be charismatic.
You are right, neither of them have an ounce of charisma. Either you have it, or you don’t……they don’t and they never will.
That is their job . They aren’t celebrities, they represent the royal family
@Janet
Best joke ever LMAO
@Janet
I also think Kate has IT as she doesn’t disappear in a roomful of celebrities.
Her white dress makes her stand out. and it is pretty simple to stand out in a white dress when you attend some evening event where most people will wear something dark. But that is all that ever makes her stand out: her clothes.
@Chanel
Actually several female and male guests were wearing all-white/off-white.
She stands out because she’s a duchess so her status makes her the focus, plus she wears that dress well.
I’m impressed how well she stood her grounds in a sea of celebrities.
There clearly has been a visible change in how she performs in public over the last year. Good for her.
She looks amazing but at first I thought it was her Madame Tussad’s wax look-alike. Her face is totally off. Looks like over-waxed brows or too much botox in-between the eyes, but she looks nothing like herself in the upper face.
I think Americans don’t understand that in the UK the silence is a mark of great respect (the more silent the better) They represent an ancient institution,this is not Hollywood.
Spike Lee seems satisfied.
I think she looked amazing. The boob line is weird like Eug’s Zac Posen but maybe that’s the style now? I live in shorts, tanks, and flipflops here in Florida, with the occasional need for leggings. And I wear bright teal Crocs in my house per podiatrist’s orders. I’m no fashion plate.