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Kate Wears Mulberry for Buckingham Palace Press Party

Tonight Kate opted for another emerald green dress, selecting Mulberry for tonight’s press reception at Buckingham Palace.

The gathering was hosted by the Queen, she welcomed journalists to the Palace who are expected to cover her Diamond Jubilee next year. Other senior royals attending the party included Prince Philip, Prince William, Prince Charles & the Duchess of Cornwall. More from Richard Palmer’s story in the Express:

The royals chatted with journalists, broadcasters and bloggers about the final preparations for five months of nationwide events beginning in February to mark the Queen’s 60 years on the throne.

Here are better images of Kate’s frock.

Mulberry Shirt Dress in ‘Cabbage’

The dress showcases Mulberry’s ‘exclusive Peace and Love’ jacquard (meaning the motif is woven into the fabric, not printed or appliqued onto the material) pattern. The “Full Pleated Shirt Dress” is 100% silk and the color is called ‘cabbage’. The dress features a Peter Pan collar, pleats just about everywhere, and long sleeves gathered at the cuff, it is $2200. 

The dress remains available on the US site, but only in Size 2 as of this writing. As an aside, Mulberry has oodles of things in the ‘Peace and Love’ or ‘Love and Peace’ motif, much like the company’s Polly Push Lock collection. Items available include jewelry, apparel and accessories.

The Mirror’s Gilly Ferguson was quite taken with the frock in this story titled “Kate Middleton Fashion Verdict: Boho Mulberry Peace dress is her most trend-led yet”

It’s arguably her chicest dress to date (Sarah Burton wedding gowns not included). Full-length photo or not, it’s the details that mark this dress as the dress that gave Kate fashion kudos.”

While it is difficult to make a determination without seeing better photos, we respectfully disagree with Ms. Ferguson’s analysis. The color is a lovely green, the detailing looks exquisite, and I’m sure the dress is more-than-pretty on Kate, very flattering with her coloring, but über-chic? No, not in my opinion. Judging by many of the comments from the WKW Facebook Community, few would categorize the dress as anywhere near one of Kate’s “chicest” looks.
 
Victoria Arbiter of CBS News shared some insight about a possible motive for the Peace & Love motif, suggesting perhaps the Duchess selected it with tongue planted firmly in cheek:

Victoria Arbiter Twitter Feed

Her Majesty looked lovely in shimmering green and aqua tones. Below, you see her with Prince Philip. I believe the monarch is greeting royal photographer Arthur Edwards.  

Our thanks to Richard Palmer (that same Express columnist whose story we quoted up above) for alerting us early on in the evening that Kate was in a green Mulberry dress, which made identification relatively simple. We also want to thank WKW FB friend Sara for reminding us to look at Elle’s runway photos from the spring. 

The other fun part of the evening involved the Palace’s creation of a “Tweet Suite,” an area specifically set up so journalists might tweet from the reception.

Via Rory Cellan-Jones Twitter Feed

From what we read online, many of those in attendance were enjoying themselves so much they really didn’t want to leave the party.

Via Tony W Twitter Feed

As noted in today’s earlier post, I love seeing the Monarchy embrace social media as a way of getting its message out.

UPDATE: The Duchess also wore her charm bracelet. 

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Tonight’s other function was the British Fashion Awards; Kate was not named Britain’s most stylish, Alexa Chung was given that honor for the second year in a row. However, Sarah Burton was named Designer of the Year, and Tabitha Simmons received the Emerging Talent Award for accessories.

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One final note, we thought some might enjoy this Slate story about Fashion icons, the always-wonderful Simon Doonan includes Royal Fashion Icons in the article.

Royal Style Icons. These gals deserve their own group. Though they tend to be restrained and sometimes even downright turgid in their personal style, they are often hugely influential. In the ’80s the ordinary woman on the street switched allegiances to Princess Diana. Now Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is the go-to royal. Their discreet and excessively scrutinized fashion choices must reflect a sense of appropriateness while simultaneously communicating self-denial.”

To read the entire piece, click here.

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Kim

Thursday 1st of December 2011

It seems to me that the Duchess wears very conservative dresses when around the Queen. ??? I think she needs to stop doing that and just be herself. Like when she wore the DVF green dress to Zara's pre-wedding party... I thought the purple dress she wore in Canada would have been more cocktailish than the green. JMO.

Lili

Friday 2nd of December 2011

She really can't stop doing that. She married into a certain position that requires her to observe a certain decorum. She has always dressed fairly conservatively anyway; she's clearly something of a traditionalist, as her various life choices indicate. As for the dress, perhaps she just wanted to wear something Christmassy, and she thought "Peace and Love" on a green dress worked rather well for a holiday season cocktail party.

Caroline

Thursday 1st of December 2011

I know I'm in the minority here but I really like the dress on Kate--it's fresh (great colour) fun (cheeky peace and love reference for the press--ha!ha!) and trendy ("70's are very big in fashion right now, but definitely for the younger set ).

I think it's got to be awfully tough for Kate to dress her age but conservatively without looking too businessy. I think she did well here.

Having said that, I could never get away with wearing this dress--you have to be young thin and beautiful like Kate to pull it off. On me, yes the dress would be frumpy and look like I stole it from my mother's closet--on Kate--well, I'm sure she looked like a breath of fresh air.

Naomi

Thursday 1st of December 2011

Kate looks swell in all her clothes, how I wish I could afford them, Well I can dream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maddy

Friday 2nd of December 2011

Right?!?!?!?! Ugh me too haha!!!!! :(

Stella

Thursday 1st of December 2011

I think "chic" translates to "expensive" in this case. Xp This dress is bordering on dowdy. Chic? No.

TheChangingHouse

Wednesday 30th of November 2011

I would've liked to see more pictures of her in that dress.

k

Tuesday 6th of December 2011

http://t.co/8AqvLgWN

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