**UPDATE** NO Temperley/Kardashian Collaboration In The Works, Plus Those Maternity Hemlines & Latest Lindo Wing News

We are back with several updates and a bit more analysis of Kate’s most recent maternity wardrobe. First, the updates:

• There is a new photo on the cover of today’s NY Daily News showing Kate out with Prince George; I expect many readers will have already seen it by this point. In the picture Kate appears to be wearing her maternity jeans, possibly the J. Crew Maternity Broken in Boyfriend Jean, or perhaps one of the Topshop pairs seen with Prince George’s pregnancy. It also looks like she is wearing her Mint Velvet sneakers. Prince George looks to be wearing Start-Rite’s Flexy Soft Sneaker (£40) and a pair of Petite Bateau’s Baby Boy Dungarees (£46). From what is visible in the photo it appears George *might* be in a Harris Tweed jacket, a fabric we have written about previously (including this post), and long hoped to see the Duchess wearing. It would be grand if young master Cambridge was in a jacket made from the traditional Scottish fabric, manufactured only in the Outer Hebrides. Our thanks to the Prince George Pieces folks for speedy IDs on the jeans and sneakers. (If you’ve not seen the image, it is viewable here.)
• OK! magazine has published the photos seen last week of Kate and George spending time at Snettisham Park, you can see all of the pictures on the OK! website.
• Kensington Palace reports that Prince William finished the current segment of his air ambulance training early, and he is now in London with Kate and Prince George. They also released news that the Prince will take his two weeks paternity leave, followed by several weeks of unpaid leave, allowing him to spend time with Kate, George and the new baby.
• Activity at the hospital is picking up. Rebecca English reports in The Daily Mail that “Police were making their final security checks outside St. Mary’s Hospital today…..officers were out in force, pulling lamp posts apart as they scoured the area for anything troubling.”
• Journalists have been allowed to stake out their places in the press pen at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital. Below, Rhiannon Mills and Rose Hughes (both stellar folks to follow on Twitter ) of Sky News are seen setting the network’s broadcast position at the Lindo Wing.

• Royalists, fans, and others are gathering at the hospital in growing numbers. Below, an image of the group at the Lindo Wing this morning, as shown in a photo shared by Ms. Mills.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

UPDATED April 21, 2015 5:30pm EDT
I have heard back from the good folks at Temperley; they verify there is no collaboration planned with the Kardashians, calling the reports “categorically untrue.” Therefore I am deleting the majority of the content dealing with the topic. Our deepest thanks to Jessica at Grazia for giving us the heads-up that the reports were erroneous.

UPDATED April 21, 2015 1:30pm EDT:

Jessica Vince of Grazia Live tells me there will not be a collaborative collection. Following are the tweets she sent me this afternoon:

UPDATED INFORMATION: Here is the headline to the original story about the hypothetical collaboration.

Should anyone want to read the original story, click here. Below, content from the original post that is unrelated to the Kardashian rumor, essentially a Temperley London primer that allows us to show pretty pictures of Kate in the designer’s clothing! Some quick background on the brand: Alice Temperley founded her company in 2000, there are now 5 standalone Temperley London stores, and the label is sold in 28 countries. We show the designer and businesswoman in November of 2013, wearing one of her own creations.

There are two lines, the primary collection is Temperley London. Below, the Duchess wearing the Temperley London ‘Amoret’ gown.

There is also a Bridal Collection. Alice Temperley is actually in New York this week, showing the spring 2016 wedding gown collection at Bridal Fashion Week.

There was a secondary line, ALICE by Temperley, that has been folded into Temperley London. Below you see Kate wearing an ALICE piece at a 2012 dinner in Tuvalu, it is the ‘Beatrice’ dress.

Kate has worn many Temperley styles over the years.

Other Temperley pieces we’ve seen Kate wear (l to r): the Lotus Leopard print scarf in the Brisbane airport, the ‘Odele’ leather and suede coat, and ALICE by Temperley ‘Rodeo’ blouse, seen at the Calgary Stampede in 2011.

There is also a diffusion line, Somerset by Alice Temperley for John Lewis. Kate has also sported a style from this collection, wearing the Somerset Boat Print dress for a February visit to Portsmouth.

As shown above, Alice Temperley designs are an important element in the Duchess’s working wardrobe. But Kate is not the only Middleton fond of the brand; below we show Pippa Middleton at the Temperley runway show back in September of 2011, she is sitting with (l to r) the late Peaches Gelfdof, and actress Rosario Dawson.

Pippa Middleton wore a bespoke evening gown designed by Alice Temperley to her sister’s wedding reception in 2011.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Our other topic today involves Kate’s maternity wardrobes, a comparison between hemline lengths when Kate was expecting Prince George, and those seen in this recent collection of maternity styles. Below, a look back at some of the OTR (off the rack) styles Kate wore when pregnant with Prince George: the Moloh ‘Workers’ coat, Topshop dress, and Goat Redgrave coat atop another Topshop dress were all fairly short.

Compare those with the following images of the shorter styles Kate wore during this second pregnancy. Left to right we show the Seraphine Marina coat, Goat Washington coat, Wrap Skater Dress in Polka Dot by ASOS Maternity, and Madderson London’s Naomi dress.

Some of this may merely be a function of season and/or perception: winter styles are worn with dark hose, or tights, visually minimizing the impact of a shorter hemline. This effect is enhanced when those black tights are worn with black heels – they create a continuous line that the eye follows. In other cases, the length change was minimal, at best. Below we show Kate in Goat Fashion’s Redgrave coat in March 2013, and in Goat’s Washington coat last December.

Others have felt that some looks were inappropriate for someone in her position, that longer styles would be more fitting in many circumstances. More on the topic from this Guardian story written during last year’s tour of New Zealand and Australia:

When reports started circulating, three months ago, that the Queen had decreed that the Duchess of Cambridge’s hemlines should be lower, they sounded a little preposterous.  But the duchess’s New Zealand and Australia tour wardrobe so far seems to have proved those rumours right.

Below, more styles from Kate’s first maternity wardrobe that were on the shorter side: a Joseph coat worn to Cheltenham; a yellow Emilia Wickstead coat seen at one of the Queen’s garden parties shows that even some of the designer pieces were shorter in 2013; the Duchess wore a Tara Jarmon coat and dress by her own dressmaker for a children’s hospice visit; we saw a Mulberry coat when Kate took part in the annual Scouts Parade at Windsor Castle.

Of course there were longer styles during both pregnancies, we show two of them here: the vibrant red Armani coat worn in Scotland during an April 2013 visit, and the new Catherine Walker coat seen this St. Patrick’s Day.

On the whole, the length of Kate’s clothing is longer during this pregnancy than what she wore when expecting George. Whether this is the result of a gentle nudge from someone in the Palace, or whether the Duchess merely decided she preferred a more conservative look, only Kate and a very few insiders know. Again, this perception may come more from the absence of something – those shorter dresses – rather than the presence of something, in this case, the longer dresses and coats.

We leave you with an interesting piece from CNN about Prince George’s Silver Cross pram, including the fact an adjustment was made to it following a request from Carole Middleton. That adjustment was the addition of mosquito netting – that netting is now standard issue on all Silver Cross prams.

Please forgive the length of today’s post; it was started last week and unforeseen circumstances prevented me from getting it completed before there were so many updates requiring inclusion. Arrgghh!

LINKAGE:

• Happy Birthday to HM! The Queen celebrated her 89th birthday today; Hello! shares photos of the best moments from the last decade in this piece, ABC News posted a stellar collection of photos of HM through the years, you may see them by clicking here
• The Daily Mail has a piece from Bianca London showing how “Kate Made High Street Look High End” during this pregnancy
• Anna of My Small Obsessions has done a number of posts this week looking at Kate’s jewelry, click here to go to Anna’s blog
• Gordon Rayner has a fascinating story in The Telegraph about the possible financial impact ( as much as £1,000,000,000!) of a little Princess Cambridge
• Victoria Murphy’s story in The Mirror notes that Prince Harry will also be back in London this weekend, albeit for a brief time.
• Rebecca English’s story in today’s Daily Mail has more info on Prince William’s plans and schedule
• Sky News has a piece viewable here that includes several good videos from the Lindo Wing in 2013
• This last link is to a piece unrelated to Kate’s wardrobe. It is an essay from a woman also expecting a child, it takes the form of an open letter to Kate in The Daily Mirror. It may be read here. (It is simply something I thought very well done, offered merely for your enjoyment separate from the blog, if that makes sense, certainly not designed to provoke debate about motherhood.)