More Item IDs, Updates & How *Is* Kate Spending Her Time?

Once again we have all manner of bits and bytes to share, many from London Fashion Week, as well as several other updates.

We begin with several item IDs, credit goes to the always-wonderful WKW Facebook community for discovering many of the updates. Our first item is something several of us have been trying to hunt down for a long time, the black jacket Kate wore over her Issa dress when she & William attended a wedding last October. The eagle-eyed Ashley Margot discovered the jacket is from none other than Libelula, a brand Kate clearly likes. The jacket has a nipped in waist, peak lapels and slanted front pockets; it is no longer for sale but we’re hoping another version of it may be available next spring.

Also identified this week, Kate’s silver mesh earrings, the Duchess is seen wearing them at the 2008 Boodles Boxing Ball. Our friend Anna from My Small Obsessions believes the earrings are the Elsa Peretti Mesh Earrings from Tiffany; I think she is correct, especially as we have seen Kate wearing other Tiffany pieces. Here is how the earrings are described:

Earrings in sterling silver with round brilliant diamonds, for pierced ears. Size small, 3″ long. Carat total weight .10.

Elsa Peretti for Tiffany®

The earrings are £570 on the Tiffany UK site and $650 on the US site.

A final jewelry note, this time on Kate’s Calgary Stampede earrings.

We shared back on the 6th they were made by Canadian jeweler Corrie McLeod, we heard back from Corrie this week, she gave us more information on how the Duchess ended up wearing them.

I made these earrings along with a 17″ solid turquoise necklace as a gift. One of the stampede contests had the honor of meeting the Duke and Duchess and was “looking for something special to give Kate.”  I make semi-precious stone jewellery and offered to do something special for Kate. I feel that turquoise if a symbol of our North Americian heritage and western culture. I hoped that when she looks at this jewellery she will remember her trip to the Calgary Stampede.

Corrie is still working on getting her website up and running, we’ll let you know when it is good to go.

A quick accessory tidbit, Kate’s LK Bennett Sledge2 is back in stock.

LK Bennett Sledge2

The pumps are £175, roughly $270 at today’s exchange rates. Several WKW Facebook friends have received pairs they recently puchased and comfort/size seem to be a mixed bag. Many are finding them *extremely* comfortable with a fit that runs true to size, others aren’t entirely convinced on either point.

Our final wardrobe note, the Reiss Shola-Now-It’s-Lola dress is now online in three colors, including a very Kate-like beige, the “Soft Cappucino” version, thank you to Lia for alerting us to the dress availability.

Reiss Lola

As of this writing it looks like the Soft Cappucino is available in all sizes, the blue and red versions are well-stocked as well. Also for Reiss fans, our friend Chiara let us know about a very cool contest the retailer has going, click here for more on how you could win a trip to London.

For those curious about how Kate is spending her time of late, a Telegraph story explains some of it is devoted to training for her role as a senior royal.

In recent weeks experts on government, the arts and the media have been asked to visit St James’s Palace to give the Duchess one-to-one tutorials to ensure she has a thorough knowledge of the Establishment.

Obviously the wise thing to do, no one would want to see her headed down the path Princess Diana faced, more from the Telegraph story:

As well as meetings at St James’s Palace, the Duchess is spending time carrying out private research of her own.”

The Duchess, 29, is understood to be dividing her time equally between London, where she is also meeting representatives of charities and good causes to decide which of them she would like to support, and the couple’s home on Anglesey.

To read the story in its entirety, click here.

Another interesting tidbit came to us via a lovely reader named Bea, she is studying the work of Mariano Fortuny in Venice. Mr Fortuny was an amazing designer of the 1920s-1930s. One of his better known gowns is the ‘Delphos,’ and Bea pointed out the similarity of Kate’s Alexander McQueen gown at the BAFTA gala to his Delphos silhouette.

Thank you Bea, you have a great eye.