Mail: Princess Kate’s ‘substance over style’ will hurt the British fashion industry

As some people pointed out in the comments yesterday, it does seem like the Princess of Wales’s field-trip outing on Tuesday was designed as a copykeen event. Last year, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in Colombia, they toured a local school and one little girl wanted to be Meghan’s bestie, so the girl held Meghan’s hand as they walked around the school. Kate managed to “recreate” those images on Tuesday, as she exited a school bus and walked into the National Portrait Gallery, holding a child’s hand (a side-by-side comparison tweet is at the end of the post).

Meanwhile, something sort of hilarious is happening with Kate, her fashion and Kensington Palace’s announcement that they would no longer provide IDs on Kate’s ensembles. The British press is not reacting well, but they’ve also enabled Kate’s BS for so long, they have to bury their criticism behind a mountain of “obviously, she’s the most stylish woman ever, HOWEVER.” I was reminded of that as I read this Mail piece on Kate’s NPG ensemble:

‘Do we need to be officially always saying what she is wearing? No. The style is there, but it’s about the substance.’ Back in the dark ages, some people – usually men – subscribed to the notion that style and substance couldn’t co-exist.

If you were interested in clothes, you were frivolous. If you had a towering intellect, meanwhile, you didn’t care what you wore, your mind being preoccupied with far more worthy things. But clothes are important. They semaphore who you are, and what you want to say. They can be the cherry on an otherwise dry cake, driving interest not only in the wearer, but in whatever else they might want to convey, from their current mood to their charities.

Admittedly, yesterday’s outfit wasn’t among the most scintillating. But this only further proves the point that clothes can speak volumes. This was the first public engagement Kate had undertaken since Kensington Palace’s new ‘substance over style’ diktat. Presumably, it would have been deemed hypocritical to rock up in the latest Alexander McQueen.

That the princess was, in fact, dressed in a chocolate brown blazer by designer Petar Petrov, a chic polo neck by Reiss, Jigsaw trousers, Sezane ‘Bruna’ earrings and an £150 Halcyon Days ‘Salamander’ Torque gold bangle, are not details provided by the Palace. But nor did they need to be. In 2025, we no longer need to rely on official channels. (The Palace still shares Kate’s outfit choices for significant occasions but not for routine engagements.) The details behind Kate’s look right down to which foundation she wears (Bobbi Brown) can be gathered far faster online.

Instagram accounts are dedicated to tracking her style, identifying the provenance of her clothes with impressive speed and accuracy. But even a quick Google Image search, or similar, can usually yield a positive ID. The Palace knows this, just as it surely knows people will continue to be curious her wardrobe. It may be able to control what it says about Kate’s style, but it can’t control the public’s interest.

Besides, there was never any danger of Kate being known solely as a clothes horse. Which is why attempts to emphasise her substance over her style seem puzzling, as well as poorly timed. London Fashion Week kicks off in two weeks’ time. Many designers are fighting to keep their businesses afloat. And Trump’s proposed tariffs won’t boost sluggish US demand. But Kate will.

[From The Daily Mail]

Remember when these horrible people screamed “we pay, you pose” at a newly postpartum Meghan? The whole idea being, a princess’s main job is simple – pose for photos, let people talk about frivolous things for a second, promote British fashion. That’s the implicit understanding for how royal women are supposed to function, unless we’re talking about Princess Anne. Basically, there’s a growing discontent about Kate’s attempts to be taken seriously and they’re edging up to saying that she’s hurting the British fashion industry. Her ensemble yesterday absolutely hurt the British fashion industry.

I am sorry, but there is something seriously wrong with Kate Middleton and it has nothing to do with cancer. pic.twitter.com/DfDoJQ0bnZ

— Queens R. Made (@QueenRMade1) February 4, 2025

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.