Royal Style : the Cambridges Go Caribbean, we go full on gemoholic

[Maireas]

There may be no such word.
You get the gist

The thing about the flag thing is it is OBVIOUS. Which is a strength in itself. People will always look for meaning - look at the Queen's EU hat for example. So what Kate does is give them a meaning up front and blatant, no speculating about her intentions.

She's also pretty much stuck to the same range of designers for tours and her working wardrobe for her whole career.

If you look at the Australian/New Zealand tour from 8 years ago you'll see the same names - Catherine Walker, Alexander McQueen, Packham, Wickstead, even Tory Burch was there. The Vampires Wife is a more recent addition but otherwise it's very much a case of 'as before'. Because it works.

BBC News - Queen's delight as teapot factory comes to her
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60869176
Here's HM, looking at teapots and enamel ware from a UK company, Halcyon Days. She looks bright and well. I like the floral dress, it's pretty and softer than her usual strong block colours.

@hopeishere

I love both the last dresses! I love that light jade colour and the neckline.

Does anyone follow elizabeth holmes on Instagram she really analyses the outfits and is quite critical of some elements - Suzanne earrings are a no-no apparently due to their treatment of women in South America. It's interesting to see an American perspective that on it all!

Yes, I follow Elizabeth Holmes. Her observations on this tour (both fashion and otherwise) have been spot-on.

Gosh I didn't know Halcyon Days was still going!

HMQ looks delighted with the teapots! I've not seen her looking so happy since she met with Justin Trudeau earlier this month. Let's face it, who wouldn't be happy to meet him??

The Queen looks lovely and very happy!

@KillingMeDeftly I love Elizabeth but think she maybe over analyses it all a bit and gives them too much credit for the amount/lack of thought that goes into it all.

@Northernlurker I completely agree about Kate and her team defaulting to what they’ve always done, because this tour in particular have highlighted that for various commentators everything will always been deemed unacceptable for some reason. She’s been boring, obvious, matronly, too juvenile, overdressed, too casual, patronising (i.e. dressed like a tourist), radiating colonialism (wearing the Queen' jewels and then orders in accordance with the dress code), not enough local designers, problematic individual item choices, too expensively dressed…. It must be exhausting keeping all those potential angles in mind when planning a tour wardrobe. No wonder she generally goes for obvious and predictable!

(And yeah, Prince William, the actual blood member of the family with the problematic history gets a total pass on everything except the content of his speech. )

I love the photos of Queenie with the teapots! Her dress is very pretty and cheerful.

Not such a big fan of Kate's teal dress.

I love all the outfits in that photo of the Queen. Especially the woman in the pink dress. Lovely spring colours and patterns.

Serenster- spot on there with your description of the way they just can win. It must be exhausting mentally to know that your every move is scrutinised for fault to be found. On here, I think on balance it is just kept to the clothes and is mainly fair and positive.
The Queen looks fabulous there- really springlike and soft. 🌷

I agree with you @RomainingCalm re planning the wardrobe for a Royal Tour and all the things you have to factor in. Plus the weather rarely behaves.

It must be very stressful for K&W. Diplomatically you may be walking a very fine line.
One slip and all hell could break loose in the media.
You're worried about your safety and you have 3 young children at home.
All it takes is one nutter.
You have to keep smiling and engaging.
I'd definitely need a holiday after that !

Princess Alexandra's granddaughter is the lady in the pink dress, Zenouska Mowatt, I think. Marina Ogilvy's daughter.
Now I may be wrong.

I think Catherine’s done very well on this tour. I like the nods to the respective flags, they’ve been done with some flair and without being too ridiculous. It’s not what all royal women do but she clearly has taken that tack right from the beginning and as long as it’s done well I think it’s fine. I can even get on board with the aquamarine dress - it’s different, which tbh is good enough for me! Just the tiniest tweaking of footwear and it’s been perfect for me so far.

I’ve realised that it’s her dressing at home on visits/big occasions that for the most part is just far too prescriptive for me - I find it far too samey and hence, far too dull. But, that may well change as her role and stature within the family changes.

I don’t envy the media side of her life, tbh - in terms of ease of being Pippa certainly got the better end of the stick didn’t she...

Well no, the outfit on arrival to Belize wasn’t perfect. That was very meh for me. But other than I’ve liked everything she’s worn.

She's also pretty much stuck to the same range of designers for tours and her working wardrobe for her whole career.

I agree that ahe has a formula for all the reasons stated below by Serenster. And that she can't win! She wears something too many times she is not fashion forward. She wears something new it's too extravagant etc. Add to that the pressure of having every outfit photographed close up and published and analysed across the world; I think you would have to be mentally very strong not to take it personally.

I hope she gets to relax in some scraggy tracksuit bottoms occasionally and eat a bath bun, preferably with clotted cream and raspberry jam

I reckon her "formula" dressing is also designed to give her a limited degree of freedom, so that when she is out in public on the rare occasions when she goes to the supermarket for example, she is not immediately recognisable. Ditto with the dc. When you see a rare picture of her off duty her silhouette looks quite different to her work outfits.

@LadyEloise1

Princess Alexandra's granddaughter is the lady in the pink dress, Zenouska Mowatt, I think. Marina Ogilvy's daughter. Now I may be wrong.

Well spotted, yes I think that is Zenouska. Must be quite nice to be her and get some of the privileges of royalty without any of the drawbacks!

@Eaumyword

Gosh I didn't know Halcyon Days was still going!

Kate was wearing a bracelet made by them when she left Jamaica earlier this week!

The Queen does look absolutely delighted to get the chance to see all the pretty things. It’s nice that even though she’s not very mobile she still gets to take part in activities (I assume she is choosing to do so, at any rate, rather than sitting around).

As for Kate’s arrival dress in the Bahamas, I thought it was just a bit bland. A muddy aquamarine blue, and and a fairly dull style. I’d put that at the bottom of her outfits to date I think - I even preferred the Belize lace dress to it!

The aquamarine blue referenced the flag. She’d already done yellow so unless she wore gold it was going to be that as she couldn’t wear black.

I agree it was dull but they at least try to do something with the neckline/collar. I was just glad it didn’t have buttons on it!

*they did at least try...

Although buttons might have improved it!

It’s hard to please everyone. She should take a leaf out of Max’s book and just please herself (although I guess that’s what she’s already doing, tbf. She does seem to have a very conservative bent when it comes to fashion. Which is fine but not as interesting for us!)! I wonder if we'll see a blossoming over the next 5-10 years. I’m still hoping that one of these days she’ll do something cool and edgy with her hair...

She can’t even cut her hair in any drastic sense because if she did the papers would likely scream ‘DIVORCE’ or ‘MENTAL BREAKDOWN’.

@Nnique

She can’t even cut her hair in any drastic sense because if she did the papers would likely scream ‘DIVORCE’ or ‘MENTAL BREAKDOWN’.

I wish she would though. Into a nice long bob or something. I think it would take years off her.

I just think it’d be fun to see!

I like the green dress, very elegant, agree the hair is a bit severe but I do think she should wear it up more often generally it looks good up.

HMQ looked lovely in the white lace didn't she, shame Kate didn't copy the shoes too. I also hate the white stilettos, all a bit 80s Essex girl, a different shape, open toe, sling back, strap, something that isn't a plain pointy toe stiletto would have been better.