The Princess of Wales has some very peculiar style quirks, which is notable because most people find her style kind of boring. She’s a big fan of theme-dressing, she’s a big fan of dressing in flag-colors, and she’s also an ardent copykeener, especially when it comes to mimicking Princess Diana or the Duchess of Sussex. What else is Kate known for? Repeating the same looks with minor tweaks, to the point where people are always questioning whether she buys duplicates with small variations. I still want to know if her coatdress at the Sussexes’ wedding was actually Kate rewearing the white McQueen coat she wore to Charlotte’s christening. But I digress. Kate’s most recent public outing was on the balcony on Remembrance Sunday. At the time, no one ID’d her coat, and I just figured it was some overpriced bespoke piece and that’s why people were being squirrelly. But according to People Mag, Kate wore an old Catherine Walker coat, she just had the buttons redone and they added some velvet pieces.
Kate Middleton is becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to reimagining her signature style. While the royal is well-known for re-wearing pieces (her beloved brown tassel boots from Penelope Chilvers have been in her rotation for over 20 years!), her style team is getting creative when it comes to upcycling her more formal — and often costly — outfits.
“We’ve seen Kate upcycle more lately and I think it’s a great message to be sending, especially so soon after William’s Earthshot tour,” Bethan Holt, Fashion Director at the Daily Telegraph, tells PEOPLE after Kate perfected the chic tweak when she stepped out on Nov. 10 for Remembrance Sunday.
At first glance, the sharp, military-inspired black coatdress—complete with a velvet bow at the collar and velvet-covered buttons — looked like a fresh addition to her wardrobe. But it was actually a Catherine Walker & Co. piece she had worn for the same occasion four years earlier, proving that timeless elegance is always in style.
“I think she recognizes she has lots of beautiful pieces already in her wardrobe, which, with a few small tweaks, can look entirely new,” explains Holt, who has written extensively about Kate’s love of recycling in her book, The Duchess of Cambridge: A Decade of Modern Royal Style.
In fact, this marks the third time Kate has reimagined this outfit. Initially worn with tasseled epaulets on the shoulders in 2020 for her balcony appearance at the Cenotaph, she had the tassels removed for a second outing in September 2022, when she wore the same piece to greet Commonwealth troops at the Army Training Centre Pirbright in the days leading up to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
I’m looking at the 2020 Remembrance photos – I’m adding them at the end of the post – and I really can’t tell if this is the same coat or if Kate went to Catherine Walker and asked them to make a very similar coat without tassels and with different buttons. The waist detail seems to be the same, as does the collar. I mean… it’s possible that Kate “upcycled” the same coat in this case. But I also think she buys duplicates with small variations a lot of the time. Or she used to – I’ve wondered a lot if Kate’s clothing budget has been slashed since William got his hands on the Duchy of Cornwall slumlord money.
The 2020 Remembrance photos with the Walker coat:
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 08: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge during the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph on November 08, 2020 in London, England. Remembrance Sunday services are still able to go ahead despite the covid-19 measures in place across the various nations of the UK. Each country has issued guidelines to ensure the safety of those taking part.,Image: 567991508, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 08: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge during the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph on November 08, 2020 in London, England. Remembrance Sunday services are still able to go ahead despite the covid-19 measures in place across the various nations of the UK. Each country has issued guidelines to ensure the safety of those taking part.,Image: 567991512, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 08: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge during the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph on November 08, 2020 in London, England. Remembrance Sunday services are still able to go ahead despite the covid-19 measures in place across the various nations of the UK. Each country has issued guidelines to ensure the safety of those taking part.,Image: 567991660, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge during the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph on November 08, 2020 in London, England. Remembrance Sunday services are still able to go ahead despite the covid-19 measures in place across the various nations of the UK. Each country has issued guidelines to ensure the safety of those taking part.,Image: 567994979, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: COPYRIGHT DAILY MIRROR GOOD FOR SYNDICATION, Model Release: no, Credit line: Ian Vogler / Avalon
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- Catherine, Princess of Wales watches from the Royal balcony as veterans and dignitaries gather at the Cenotaph for the national service of commemoration for those lost to war, November 10 2024.,Image: 932642107, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Editorial use, commercial use may require additional licenses. We don’t use AI to make images which could be mistaken for news photos. AI use will be clearly indicated. Supplied on condition you ensure personal data is processed in compliance with DPA2018, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Tony Kershaw / SWNS / Avalon
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- Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 10/11/2024. London, United Kingdom. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales and Sophie ,Duchess of Edinburgh attend the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph in London.,Image: 932704666, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Licenced to i-Images Picture Agency. All Rights Reserved. UK copyright law applies to all print & online publications. i-Images space rates apply to all images. Magazines contact agency for fees before use. Images Single use only then repro fees apply. Info@i-images.co Tel: 07860204379, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stephen Lock / i-Images / Avalon
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- Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 10/11/2024. London, United Kingdom. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales and Sophie ,Duchess of Edinburgh attend the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph in London.,Image: 932704679, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Licenced to i-Images Picture Agency. All Rights Reserved. UK copyright law applies to all print & online publications. i-Images space rates apply to all images. Magazines contact agency for fees before use. Images Single use only then repro fees apply. Info@i-images.co Tel: 07860204379, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stephen Lock / i-Images / Avalon
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- Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 10/11/2024. London, United Kingdom. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales , at the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph in London.,Image: 932704748, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Licenced to i-Images Picture Agency. All Rights Reserved. UK copyright law applies to all print & online publications. i-Images space rates apply to all images. Magazines contact agency for fees before use. Images Single use only then repro fees apply. Info@i-images.co Tel: 07860204379, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stephen Lock / i-Images / Avalon
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- Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 10/11/2024. London, United Kingdom. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales , at the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph in London.,Image: 932704778, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Licenced to i-Images Picture Agency. All Rights Reserved. UK copyright law applies to all print & online publications. i-Images space rates apply to all images. Magazines contact agency for fees before use. Images Single use only then repro fees apply. Info@i-images.co Tel: 07860204379, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stephen Lock / i-Images / Avalon
I still think the velvet ribbon at the neck looks infantile.
Get rid of the bow, keep the black buttons Those pockets or whatever they are under the tabs in the old picture, get rid of them as well. It’s good that the fringes have gone. The new hat looks far too grannyish. Apart from that, I actually quite like the coat, but it is over decorated.
They are both bad. As Tim Gunn says, “I question her taste level.” And frankly that of every “journalist” who pretends that she has style.
Exactly, it was ugly the first time and upcycled or not it’s even uglier now. These people have ridiculous amounts of money coming in, her budget is what ever she decides she wants. I doubt she’s pinching pennies with any wardrobe choices.
Nope she theme dresses and that’s about it. I bet her wardrobe budget has been severely cut by Peg because of the negotiations. If she will be seen so little why does she need a large wardrobe budget.
What a difference four years makes. I could see how the bow hides the space in the collar, and the addition of velvet buttons and changing the waist accents could make it the same coat. However, even if she has upcycled this particular coat dress I feel like she still has a ton that look just like this, so it’s fairly impossible to tell. It’s not odd that she has a style uniform so to speak as far as colors she prefers, but why does she buy so much stuff that seems to be the exact same style?
Kate had her coat altered…ok. Kate has so many old black coats why didn’t she just wear one of those instead of spending money to get this one upcycled?
Yeah if I had worn a coat three times in four years (getting it altered in between) I would not be considering that good value for money/cost per wear! Sure part of her ‘job’ (ha) is being photographed but she could be way ‘thriftier’ than this. The things they ask us to applaud.
She looks as if she’s been crying for weeks, not days. And yes, noticeable difference between Chuck’s financing of her wardrobe and that of Bill her husband.
There really is a shocking difference considering it’s all the Prince of Wales’ money. Not a good sign when the one that is not your husband keeps you in shinier buttons.
Royal Fashion police on insta covered this in depth (subscription only). That account says it’s a “reworked” walker so I go with that too. That account does a lot of research and has strong contracts. (No interest on my part – I just like fashion).
I am so frustrated she is now subscription only… pretty much! But I agree she does seem to have some sort of contacts.
So? Better than buying a whole new ensemble.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s wearing the same things over again, because I wouldn’t be surprised her clothing budget was slashed. William didn’t seem to mind how much she spent when someone else was footing the bill, but once it started to come out of his own pocket those doors slammed shut fast. And I can’t seem to drum up any sympathy at all for her.
That’s what I was thinking too.
I agree there was a real shift once William got the Duchy. Charles must have been quite generous. William is not.
Zero sympathy. She could ‘shop her closet’ & still wear things that we’ve never seen before. This is a woman who has several dozen baby blue coat dresses, after all. She could be like Anne & never buy anything new ever again & be OK.
I can believe she upcycled the coat. The velvet bow is twee but seems like something she would add. It’s like adding party pieces to her coat😂. While I’m sure Kate enjoys the attention she gets for being thrifty and up cycling and rewearing things, I think she’d rather wear something new. It still feels like her budget was slashed and this is a way of hiding that. But maybe I’m wrong and it’s a whole new dress? I think that she will likely be wearing something new for her Christmas special. So if she’s on a budget she would have to pick and choose which events to buy something new. And remembrance when she has to have a stoic face just isn’t worth something new. Especially when she has so many black coats already. Now if she had unlimited funds…I do think she’d get a new coat for her first entrance back after her year of illness.
Huh. You know, it could be the same (although she’s known for multiples of very, very similar styles), but she could be wearing a brand new dress underneath just to make herself happy.
Some who don’t have access to extreme royal wealth, recycle as habit or by necessity. Kate has access to money to buy wardrobe (unless William is reducing her “income”). So it seems patronizing for Kate to “save” money. That “crown” she had created for Coronation did not come cheap. William can sponsor Earthshot but he still is a privileged Prince with lots of Duchy Money.
While I know making changes to a coat like this is going to be cheaper than buying a new Catherine walker coat – I’m assuming the changes still weren’t “cheap” per se. I don’t understand why she didn’t buy 2-3 quality black coats/coatdresses at the beginning of her tenure and just rotate through them each year. It seems stupid to even upcycle a coat because you only see her from the balcony; so by the time you factor in the changes to the coat and the new hat (which seems overly fussy to me) – it seems like a lot of money for a relatively brief balcony appearance where the focus is not supposed to be on her.
She has over 10 black coat dresses
oh i know! That’s my point. For this event, she just needs a handful of high quality ones that she rotates throughout the years. She doesn’t need a dozen black coats/coatdresses when she rarely wears them besides this (because even for the remembrance concert at Royal Albert she usually wears a black dress, not a coatdress.)
THIS!!!!!!!! If this is the same coat. The extensive amount of custom tailoring it took to “recycle” it to the degree that she did is enormously expensive. This is something that doesn’t get talked about enough when it comes to Kate’s clothing. Even her “off the rack” clothes are extensively tailored. This is very expensive. Those costs are never discussed. The fact that she is getting praised for custom tailoring a coat when she could have just reworn it is ridiculous. She paid all that money to stand on a balcony for an hour. That is not the true essence of sustainable fashion. The tailoring is adding to the cost of the original purchase so it is not actually saving money. At this point she has multiple black coats that she could wear without all the tailoring.
I don’t see a lot of custom tailoring, just the removal of the fringe, the change of buttons and the added velvet bow. The rest looks the same to me. Unless, maybe, she had it altered to fit because she’s thinner now, but that would have been the case no matter what she wore.
Since we know Kate wasn’t replacing the buttons herself or removing the tassel from the shoulder, that means there was a cost to have someone make these changes. This is silly make work nonsense. Just rewear something else that doesn’t require all these extensive changes.
And learn to accessorise, even just switching up the jewellery and hat would really change the look. She’s painfully unimaginative.
For some reason, I woke up this morning totally bored with the RF. And I can only imagine what’s going on at the tabloids as they’re reduced to reporting on a change of buttons on an old black coat.
This story is KP managing their image. The coat was so extensively tailored. That it looked brand new. Kate wearing two new outfits in less than 24 hours (the festival concert the night before and the balcony appearance did not fit with William”s earthshot message) Especially since he made a point of letting everyone know he was wearing clothes from second hand shops and eco conscious brands. Kate was probably so annnoyed she wasn’t getting a new coat that she went overboard with the tailoring to make it look new. Just like for the coronation she was so annoyed she didn’t get to wear a tiara that she had the tiara like headpiece created.
Ok I know the pandemic years were hard on all of us, and Kate in particular has gone through an illness of some sort, but yeesh. The last 4-5 years have made such a huge physical impact on how Kate and Will look, it’s jarring. For the sake of their kids, I hope they both get the assistance they require.
It’s truly jarring how much it shows on her face. The pandemic was indeed hard on all of us, but I imagine that years of obsessive envy, crushing jealousy, deliberate lying, and clandestine plotting against one’s sister-in-law can really take a toll on one’s appearance.
I’m very much in support instead of buying 20 coats in the same color
I don’t begrudge her all the coatdresses in every color of the rainbow, but yeah, she doesn’t need 20 blue ones (for example). Actually, I think someone once counted 17 in the same shade of royal blue.
Honestly, I wonder if she even has access to them because there is no way she is storing her coatdresses at the “cottage”.
Kate simply does whatever will get her praise and attention at that moment. I bet she will keep wearing “upcycled” clothes to big events while spending tens of thousands on “high street” brands for herself and her children. My question is, why does Remembrance Sunday require anything but the same simple black coat, perhaps with different broaches? Why must Kate use it as an opportunity to get press for her clothes?
Contrarian here — I like her look and it’s very on brand. And she’s cosplaying neither Meghan nor Diana — doubt either of them would touch that look.
oh no, for Remembrance Day, she usually veers more towards military in her cosplay. You can see it more in the original version of the coat.
Diana and Meghan would know it’s inappropriate to cosplay toy soldier looks on Remembrance Day, especially when she hasn’t served herself but could have after university.
If we look at what the Queen used to wear, or what Camilla and Sophie have worn, they stick with black dresses without all the faux soldier nonsense. Only Kate thinks it’s okay to do this.
Well….not just Kate. Some of the rest wear unearned actual uniforms.
This is what we’re paying for? An article about a coat? Seriously? I know the woman has had health problems but, surely KP can find a better story than tailoring a coat. Harry is headline news at the moment with his Canadian visit promoting the IGs. Yet, we (the UK taxpayers) are supposed to accept focusing our attention on a “coat” (worn several weeks ago) is value for money? SMH
Meanwhile, Anne’s probably like, “fuck my drag, right?” She’s been recycling her way to being the best-dressed woman in the family for decades now.
To me she looks great because she’s alive and here to raise her three young kids and she didn’t die of breast cancer, but okay.
Breast cancer? Huh? That’s never been publicly stated by KP.
???? That’s a new one.
They discovered breast cancer during her abdominal surgery?
Breast cancer? Well, the plot thickens.
You say this is what Kate looks like after 4 years. Wow. I shudder to think what another 4 would look like Bearing in mind the woman does not work and has a huge staff.
Hats are very expensive too. Did Kate change the embellishments on the same hat to go with the upcycled dresss? Anyway, I don’t think a Remembrance Day appearance is the time to make a fashion statement. What is the occasion about again?
This is Kate we’re talking about here. She had Catherine Walker make her another coat, just with different details. She had something similar done with a baby blue coat, slight change to the pockets or something & a longer length.
She really does look like she was hysterically crying for hours before this event and she looks rough. It could be related to her health but IMO she had an argument with William and lost. I don’t know if we will ever get a separation announcement and I know the recovery after chemo can be hard. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we got an announcement sometime next year.
As for her making modifications to her coat, sure. She’s modified coats and dresses in the past and it does look like the previous one. It looks better without the tassels and with the black buttons.
She looks rough.