It’s Emilia Wickstead for Prince George’s First Day at Eton

The Princess of Wales wore Emilia Wickstead as she and Prince William accompanied Prince George to his first day at Eton College. 

It was a rainy morning at the school in Berkshire, located about ten minutes from the Wales family home in Windsor. 

More about the school from this CNN piece.

Eton College, located in the English county of Berkshire a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle, educates boys aged 13 to 18 and accepts around 270 students per academic year. Students live on campus in its 25 dormitories. Each boarding house has around 55 students and is led by a house master.

It is one of Britain’s most famous and prestigious fee-paying schools, with a notable list of alumni that also includes celebrities and 20 of the country’s 59 prime ministers.

Former Conservative prime ministers Boris Johnson, who led the UK from 2019 to 2022, and David Cameron, who was in office from 2010 to 2016, are both former students.

Other famous Old Etonians include actors Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Redmayne.

A video of the trio arriving, posted by Lizzie Robinson of ITV. 

Prince George has arrived for his first day at Eton College. The 13-year-old, who is following in his father’s footsteps, was accompanied by the Prince and Princess of Wales. They were met by the headteacher Simon Henderson and Provost Sir Nicholas Coleridge. pic.twitter.com/BnKxi4O46L

— Lizzie Robinson (@LizzieITV) September 8, 2026

We learn more about the setting from this piece in The Times by Phin Hubbard.

Eton has its own language and its own traditions, and rather like Harry Potter’s first few weeks at Hogwarts, new boys take a while to understand it, as I did when I started on a scholarship in 2016.

Each house has a “dame”, Eton’s word for a matron, who will regularly pop in for a chat with George and the other F-Blockers. Dames notice if their wards have dirt behind their ears or if they look under-slept and ask how they are doing twice: first, so the kid can give the cursory, automatic: “I’m fine, thanks! You?” and a second time for the inevitable: “Well, there is this one thing…”

Then George’s “uncle” (no, not him) and his “timelord” will make themselves known to the prince. Both boys are in the same house, in older years, and are effectively his buddy and mentor for the first few weeks.

Who can forget the photos of Prince George’s first day of nursery school in January 2016?

Or his first day at Thomas’s Battersea in 2017?

And here he is today, being greeted by headmaster Simon Henderson and Provost Sir Nicholas Coleridge, who is chair of the school’s governing body.

More from The Mail’s story by Rebecca English. 

The family emerged from the arch beneath Lupton’s Tower, the 16th-century gatehouse clock tower, and walked across the cobbled Yard. He and his parents strode briskly through Eton College’s historic quadrangle – known to pupils as School Yard – in the heavy rain.

‘George welcome, good luck, enjoy,’ Mr Henderson smiled. He then shook hands with Catherine before the provost introduced himself and they exchanged a few pleasantries.

After the welcome, George, William and Catherine were shown into the fourth-form passage in the original school building, which is understood to house the world’s oldest classroom.

Like other families, the couple will help George settle into his new bedroom. Pupils from other years will return to Eton when the school starts tomorrow.

Kensington Palace released three photos of the new student, shot by Matt Porteous. Below, Prince William on his first day at Eton in September 1995.

More on the uniform from this People article. 

While Prince George wore “home clothes” for the official greeting, new photos were released shortly after his arrival showing the royal sporting Eton’s distinct uniform. Matt Porteous, a photographer who regularly gets behind the camera for official images of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ family, snapped the three images of George posing in his uniform for the first time.

Like his father before him, George will adhere to the dress code during his time at the prestigious all-boys boarding school: a black tailcoat, waistcoat, pin-striped trousers and a stiff white collar.

Another photo taken by Mr. Porteous. 

We return to the Daily Mail piece. 

He is likely to be joined by a number of friends from Lambrook, the co-educational prep school in Berkshire he has attended with his siblings in recent years.

It also helps that William has genuinely fond memories of his own time there.

In an interview to mark his 18th birthday and imminent graduation from Eton, the heir spoke of how he had enjoyed attending Eton as ‘just another student’ and even admitted he’d ‘always liked the uniform’.

He also spoke of how much he had appreciated the support of staff such as his housemaster, Dr Gailey.

Below you see photos of the Prince of Wales shortly before his graduation from Eton in June 2000, and Prince George today.

We now turn to our look at what Kate wore today, beginning with her bespoke Emilia Wickstead midi-length dress.

The design is similar to the Emilia Wickstead ‘Kate’ dress worn to the Anna Freud Center in 2019, with a squared neckline, defined waistband, and contouring darts. 

Initially, it looked like the same dress worn when the Prince and Princess welcomed Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel to Windsor Castle in November 2023, seen below right. But when you compare the dresses side by side, the color appears different, with the 2023 dress having more blue than today’s garment.

The Princess accessorized today with her Gianvito 85 Pumps ($850) in brown suede with a 3.5″ heel.

She repeated her Cartier Trinity Earrings ($3850) and brought back her Laura Lombardi Portrait Necklace ($192), a chain-link design in 14K gold-plated brass. 

I will leave you with one more photo from today.