Bethan Holt - The Duchess of Cambridge

THE

DUCHESS OF

CAMBRIDGE

THE

DUCHESS OF

CAMBRIDGE

A decade of modern royal style

BETHAN HOLT

Senior designer Toni Kay

Senior commissioning editor Annabel Morgan

Head of production Patricia Harrington

Art director Leslie Harrington

Editorial director Julia Charles

Publisher Cindy Richards

First published in 2020 by

Ryland Peters & Small

2021 Jockeys Fields,

London WC1R 4BW

and

341 East 116th Street

New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

Text copyright Bethan Holt 2020

Design copyright Ryland Peters & Small 2020

Photographs copyright Shutterstock

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-78879-302-5

E-ISBN: 978-1-78879-369-8

The authors moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress CIP data has been applied for.

Printed and bound in China

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I t was in 2010 that Prince William asked his girlfriend of eight years, Kate Middleton, to become his wife and future queen. It was also the year that Instagram was created, that Twitter allowed users to see images for the first time and Facebook reached 500 million users.

Our fascination with what the Royal Family wears is nothing new. Royals are the original celebrities. They have set trends for centuries, through all manner of upheavals, crises and wars, and their steadfast glamour has offered an anchor and been a source of joy and celebration there is nothing, after all, quite like a royal wedding.

Fashion has forever been one of royaltys most powerful tools, a time-defying way to assert influence and communicate messages. Think of King Henry VIIIs magnificently stuffed doublets, Queen Elizabeth Is extravagant ruffs or Queen Victorias decision to wear a white wedding dress, which remains a custom to this day. And, of course, Prince Williams mother Diana, Princess of Wales who dazzled the world with her fashion choices, telling the story of her extraordinary life through the medium of clothes.

When Kate Middleton stepped onto the stage, the landscape had changed beyond recognition from the genteel tradition of portraiture of centuries past. News was no longer reported day by day on the front pages of newspapers, but minute by minute via websites and social media. Anyone, anywhere in the world, could discover what Kate was wearing within an hour of her stepping out, with dozens of images capturing every outing from all imaginable angles.

In this unique combination of circumstances, the scene was set for the future Duchess of Cambridge a sporty, middle class normal girl from Berkshire to become a new kind of royal style icon. Kates normality was essential to conjuring her own brand of majestic magic. Her marriage to William saw her living a fairytale that many young girls had dreamed of for generations before her. This was not another aristocratic Sloane Ranger, but a girl who had been born to a flight attendant and flight dispatcher and was now destined to be Queen Consort one day.

A decade on and Kates effect on fashion is impossible to understate she has had dresses named after her, set trends, inspired superfans around the world and has been credited with boosting the British fashion industry by up to 1 billion in a single year.

Wasnt it inevitable that a beautiful new royal would become an influencer like no other? In a word, no. If Diana dared to experiment with fashion in a way royalty never had before, then Kate has, over the years, created her very own royal style template, which is mindful of both the weight of history and the 21st-century prism through which her outfits are interpreted.

Kates penchant for Zara hairbands and Topshop maternity dresses couldnt be further from the elevated costumes of royals past, but her purpose in choosing those items is exactly the same: a way to tell the world who she is and what we might like to think about her. Where Elizabeth Is armillary sphere earring in one painting signifies her divine power, so the Duchesss high street purchases portray her as relatable and democratic, allowing her fans to buy into her look on the night she wore that Zara hairband in November 2019, it sold out within hours.

There have been glamorous evening gowns, too many of these pieces are custom-made for the Duchess and cost thousands of pounds. These looks are not only befitting of the occasions for which theyre worn, but serve as a reminder of the royals unique place in power and politics.

The Duchesss decade as a royal has coincided with feminism dominating the zeitgeist, raising questions about what it means to be a royal woman today. When Williams brother Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, she declared herself a feminist and made working on womens issues a cornerstone of her work. Kate has not publicly declared her support for feminism, but her extensive work with children and on mental health has seen her address some of the fundamental difficulties faced by women in a more subtle way.

The Duchess of Cambridge wearing a Luisa Spagnoli sweater, jeans and Superga trainers at a Heads Together reception at Kensington Palace in April 2017.

She has certainly been on the receiving end of commentary on the portrayal of women, which has painted her or what she represents in a less than flattering light. Most famous were words from a speech made by the author Hilary Mantel in 2013. She argued that Kate had been depicted as a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung In those days [Kate] was a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore.

Its true that the Duchesss appearance is central to her appeal, a fact that might be disheartening for some. But I prefer to see fashion not as something that has obscured her real character, but a vital and potent device that she has learned to deploy with huge success. Just because it is a device used more often by women than men shouldnt detract from the influence it has nor the respect it deserves.

Kate understood early on that fashion is a tool and that the messages it sends to draw attention to a cause are incredibly powerful, so why not capitalize on that? says Susan Kelley, the founder of What Kate Wore, a website that has documented Kates fashion since her marriage. In an ideal world, there wouldnt be fashion coverage and the discussion would be about early years or childrens hospices, but the understanding was there that thats not how the world operates.