Princess Kate’s spokesperson made a weird clarification to the ‘no fashion IDs’ thing

A few weekends ago, Kensington Palace announced that they would no longer release information about the Princess of Wales’s clothes. Royal sources huffed and puffed about how the time had finally come for Kate to be seen as a woman of substance, and that identifying which designers she wore distracted from the important busywork Kate does every now and then, when she feels like it. As I pointed out, this was not the first time KP had tried to pull this “don’t talk about Kate’s fashion” sh-t before, and they had to walk it back all of those other times too. Just like they’re doing now. It seems that several British papers published critical columns of Kate’s new “substance over style” complaint. So now Kate and her office are complaining and explaining, will you look at that.

Kate Middleton’s office is clarifying the official policy for releasing details about her clothing following recent backlash over new palace guidance. After a week of discussion surrounding the Princess of Wales’ clothing and the possibility of changing the formal policy on sharing her fashion details, Kensington Palace issued a rare statement.

This follows a Feb. 1 Sunday Times article titled “Princess of Wales: Focus on my work, not my wardrobe,” which quoted a royal source saying that Kate “wants the focus to be on the really important issues, the people and the causes she is spotlighting.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, a Kensington Palace spokesperson responded with a statement to PEOPLE: “Over the last week, I have received numerous questions about a story regarding The Princess of Wales’s clothing and how Kensington Palace shares information about her outfits. To clarify, the comments that appeared in the article were from me, not The Princess of Wales,” the statement continued. “The comments that were reported should not be directly attributed to The Princess of Wales. To be clear, there has been no change in our approach to sharing information about Her Royal Highness’s clothing.”

In response to the Sunday Times report, several op-eds criticized the notion that Kate’s style should be downplayed, emphasizing the vital role it plays in shining a spotlight on British designers and boosting the British fashion industry. Critics also pointed out that her fashion choices not only pay homage to the legacy of Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth but also serve as an important tool for connecting with the public and should not be minimized.

[From People]

This is bullsh-t, all the way around. First of all, the Times and other outlets made it clear that the “substance over style” quotes were not coming from Kate directly, but the quotes were attributed to an unnamed palace source. I knew what it meant – it was coming from Kate’s office or it was coming from Kensington Palace in general, meaning Prince William’s staffers might have had a hand in it too. Why was Kate’s spokesperson unable to go on the record the first time, when he or she ranted to the Times and other outlets about not releasing fashion IDs? Why complain and explain nearly two weeks later, but not even make a point of changing the new and unpopular policy? It’s basically just an acknowledgement that Kate’s idea is unpopular, that she doesn’t actually have much substance to begin with, and that Kate and her staff are boneheads for orchestrating this completely unnecessary mess. Kate’s staffers are too incompetent to even fall on their swords properly – this clarification just made things dumber.

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