It’s an Australian Label for the Duchess at Royal Easter Show, Hospice Visit & Manly Beach

William and Kate had a number of engagements today, all in the greater Sydney area. The first was the annual Royal Easter Show, showcasing agricultural exhibits, livestock, fine art and crafts, music, and other activities.

The Show goes back to 1823. It is held at Sydney’s Olympic Park. Crowds were big, as was the police presence. The Duke and Duchess were joining more than 150,000 at the Show today.

Royal reporter Robert Jobson says that permission to use the word “Royal” in the Show’s name was granted by Queen Victoria.

Kate made a new friend – that’s Fred from Wellington. Rebecca English has more in her Daily Mail story.

At the sheep arena, the couple were also introduced to Fred the fine wool merino ram, who is something of a local celebrity.

Both gave him a stroke – Kate more gingerly than William  – and laughed when Fred bowed to them by bending his front legs.

It turns out this isn’t William’s first time meeting Fred, in a manner of speaking.  Wool from Fred was made into a suit that was presented to the Duke at the time of his wedding.

Kate was particularly taken by this young lady.

The Duchess wore a dress from an Australian brand, Zimmermann. (We profiled the company in this post.)

It is made of one of Kate’s favorite textiles, broderie anglaise, more commonly called eyelet.

The motif in the material used for this dress is a floral pattern, hopefully, you can see that in the photo.

Kate’s frock is the “Roamer Day Dress,” our thanks to Patricia on the WKW Facebook page for letting us know the style name. The dress has a round neck with no collar, elbow-length sleeves, and an exposed zipper. It is part of Zimmermann’s summer swim collection slated to be in stores sometime in June, but apparently, the company is moving up the release date for the frock. Once again we saw the impact of the “Kate Effect,’ as Zimmermann’s website struggled to accommodate the traffic load. The dress is priced at AUD$495, which is about $462 USD at today’s exchange rates. Zimmermann was started 23 years ago by sisters Nicky and Simone, they continue to run it today. 

After a quick stop to see Prince George the couple headed to Bear Cottage, the only children’s hospice in all of New South Wales. The organization describes its mission this way:

Bear Cottage is a special home-like environment that provides care and support for children with life-limiting illnesses and their families. The only children’s hospice in NSW, Bear Cottage relies almost solely on community donations to keep their doors open to families.

 

As you can see in the photo, this is where the Duchess gave a brief speech. The visit was emotionally wrenching for both Kate and William. More from a Hello! story:

The Duchess of Cambridge, née Kate Middleton, gave her first speech of the Royal Tour in Australia on Friday afternoon, before later admitting that she was “ready for a big sob”, after the emotional visit.

During the visit Prince William met a nine-month-old named Max McIntyre, and the young baby reportedly reminded William of his son, Prince George.
“I welled up and was really worried I would start crying”, William later said.

You can read the entire Hello! story here.

This dress worked well at the Easter Show, as well as for the Hospice visit. Below you see the Duchess giving a short speech while at the Hospice.

The Duchess accessorized her look with the Natalie handbag from LK Bennett.

And her Stuart Weitzman Minx Espadrille Wedges.

The shoe has a padded footbed, slightly elastic closure, and a 5″ heel on a 1″ platform; effectively you’re walking on a 4″ heel. The color Kate wears is called ‘camel laniard’.  It doesn’t appear the Stuart Weitzman website offers the Minx anymore, nor could we find them at Nordstrom.  However, we were able to find them at Zappos, and in a broad range of sizes. The shoes retail for $395.

Coincidentally, flash sale site RueLaLa is featuring Stuart Weitzman shoes and handbags this week; they actually have the Minx on sale, priced at just $199.99. The image below shows all three colors offered in this sale; I’d not previously seen the dark charcoal/black color in the center of the photo below.

A heads-up if interested in the shoes, the sale ends on Sunday. For anyone unfamiliar with RueLala, it is a ‘members only’ (ahem) site offering flash sales of discounted merchandise. If you would like to join you can do so by going to RueLaLa.com, or using my invitation link. Full disclosure, should you end up buying something I receive a $10 credit.

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Today we have a special Tip of the Tiara. We are fortunate the WKW community has such strong international bonds, there have been a number of WKWers on scene in Australia sharing photos and information. This includes two intrepid young ladies, Rachael and Kylie. Here is one of their photos from Manly Beach.

Another one from the Manly Beach event.

The pair even had one of their photos used by Clarence House in its Storify feed.  The tenacious travelers and royal watchers have even shown up in mainstream media pictures, this is from the Herald Sun. Rachael & Kylie can be seen on the far right.

They also took some great photos at yesterday’s Blue Mountains engagement.

So today we have a dual Tip of the Tiara for Kylie and Rachael, with thanks for the photos they have shared.

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We’ll leave you with a few photos from the day’s events. Kate with patients and families at Bear Cottage.

Swimmers and life-saving volunteers at Manly Beach.

One more, this image is from Rebecca English.

NEXT ENGAGEMENTS: (for Saturday, the 19th)

• Travel to Queensland, with the first stop at the Royal Australian Air Force base at Amberley, located about an hour from Berisbane. This is the RAAF’s largest operational base, employing about 5000 people.
• There will be an inspection of the Guard, then viewing of aircraft and their crews.
• William and Kate will also go to the Amberley Memorial Garden, where they will plant a tree
• The tree-planting ceremony is followed by a reception with those on active duty with the Air force, along with veterans and their families.
• Travel to Brisbane where the first event is a reception hosted by Queensland’s Governor and Premier. The focus of the reception is young people, and the function is being held right in the city centere, there is an expectation William and Kate will be meeting some of Brisbane’s citizens and visitors

LINKAGE:

• Read more about Bear Cottage by visiting its website here, or following the organization’s Facebook page 
• a transcript of Kate’s remarks at Bear Cottage may be read here
• the SkyNews video story about the Hospice visit may be seen here
• Rebecca English’s Easter Show story is here (with loads of photos), her story about the Manly Beach event is here
• you can read Victoria Murphy’s story in the Daily Mirror here, the paper’s live blog is here
• PopSugar has loads of photographs, click here to see them
• 7News coverage is here, including some videos
• ITV’s coverage can be found here