The Duchess Wears Pink McQueen & Monica Vinader Diamonds for Portrait Gallery Visit

Tonight the Duchess wore a look by Alexander McQueen to the National Portrait Gallery.

Kate was at the Gallery to view the Vogue 100: A Century of Style exhibition, featuring work in British Vogue from 1916 – 2016. Kate was photographed for the cover of the magazine’s centenary edition, published this week. Two photos of the Duchess from the cover story are included in the Portrait Gallery exhibit.

Kate reconnected with Josh Olins, who shot her cover story for Vogue. From Victoria Murphy’s story in The Mirror:

[she] greeted photographer Olins, who gave her a bound collection of prints from their shoot, warmly and said: “Josh, how lovely to see you again. “How have you been? Still jetting about?”

The Duchess has been patron of the NPG since 2012, it was one of her first choices of organizations where she would serve in that capacity. Below you see the Duchess speaking with British Vogue and Portrait Gallery staff who worked on the exhibit.

The show features more than 280 prints from the Condé Nast archive, it is really a remarkable collection. Below, Kate in front of the two centenary issue photographs from her shoot that are part of the exhibit.

And a :20 video from the Press Association’s Catherine Wylie.

Watch: The Duchess of Cambridge views portraits of herself at the @npglondon #Vogue100 pic.twitter.com/Le3p1Aqa67

— Catherine Wylie (@wyliecatherine) May 4, 2016

Back to Victoria Murphy’s Mirror piece:

The Duchess of Cambridge admitted she found coming face to face with herself a surreal experience tonight. An aide said it was a “surreal” experience for Kate seeing the pictures but that she had enjoyed the process enormously.

From Victoria Murphy of The Mirror we see one of the images showing one of Princess Diana’s covers.

Kate viewing the exhibit.

Watch: Kate arriving in the room which features the Princess Diana cover. #Vogue100 pic.twitter.com/K0fh6xKM5z

— Catherine Wylie (@wyliecatherine) May 4, 2016

Now to what Kate wore for her visit to the Gallery, she was in an Alexander McQueen dress that was first worn in Australia in 2014.

It is the label’s Wool Cashmere Peplum Dress in a 90% wool/10% cashmere blend, probably a very lightweight weave. The dress has a high/low draped hemline that is longer in back than in the front, and there is a structured peplum at the waist. Looking back at that 2014 post I was reminded the original high-low hemline was more dramatic on the original dress, at least in the ‘poppy red’ version sold at Lane Crawford. In 2014 we thought perhaps Kate had her dress altered to minimize a bit of the difference in hemline from the front and back, I still think that is the case.  

Kate carried a new clutch from LK Bennett, we first saw it at today’s earlier engagements. It is the Nina style in the trench colorway.

While not yet available for sale, the retailer is offering customers a chance to sign up for an email list, they’ll be notified when the bag is going to be available.  They are doing the same thing with Kate’s Fern heels in the trench color, shown below.

Kate fashion followers recognized her jewelry right away; the Duchess wore Monica Vinader’s Riva Diamond Cluster Bib ($3200) and matching Diamond Cluster Drop Earrings ($1190).  Kate previously wore the pieces to the Natural History Museum in 2014 for an awards gala.

A closer look at the jewelry. Both pieces are done in a rose gold vermeil atop sterling silver, with pavé set diamonds.

The diamonds on the necklace total 0.84 carat, while those in the earrings come to 0.32 carat. The necklace has 21 interconnecting hoops with an adjustable 18″ chain; the earrings measure 1″ x 1.25″.  The Riva collection encompasses a variety of pieces and styles, the designer says it is inspired by her travels “and the glamour of the Italian Riviera.”  Another look at the necklace on Kate.

The timing of Kate being seen in the pieces is of coincidental interest; a profile of Monica Vinader ran 4 days ago in The Daily Mail.  In the story Ms. Vinader explains that Kate didn’t own the pieces when first wearing them.

And then, in 2014, Monica hit the jackpot. The Duchess of Cambridge – who, let’s face it, isn’t short of jewellery options – wore the designer’s Riva collection earrings (£745) and necklace (£2,000) to an evening gala at the Natural History Museum.

‘I knew nothing about it as my press team had lent them to her people and they’d told them to tell no one else in the company,’ says Monica.

Monica’s mobile didn’t stop buzzing with texts, while the UK offices received a flurry of calls and emails through the night, and the rest of the collection sold out in the U.S. that evening. 

‘It doesn’t get any bigger than her,’ Monica smiles.

We don’t know if the pieces were ultimately purchased and added to Kate’s jewelry collection, or if they were on loan again; my guess is Kate now owns the jewelry.

Kate also wore her Cartier Ballon Bleu wristwatch for all of today’s engagements.

There are a number of Vogue 100 items available from the Gallery’s gift shop, including a hardcover book and postcard set.

There are many other items in the Gallery’s store, like tote bags, scarves and pillows. Below, pillows featuring two of my favorite covers, the May 1926 Eduardo Benito (L) and July 1932 Edward Steichen, (R).

We leave you with the Gallery’s 1:10 video on the exhibit.

LINKAGE:

• the NPG’s microsite for the exhibit is here; it’s background piece on Kate’s involvement in the centenary issue is here
• the Gallery’s home page is here, its Facebook page here and Twitter feed here
• Click here to see the Vogue archive of cover images from all 100 years of publication
• British Vogue’s story about the photo shoot is here; its piece about Kate’s style is here
• Visit the Josh Olins website here, or see more of his work here
• Victoria Murphy’s story in The Mirror is here; Rebecca English’s piece for The Daily Mail is here;
• The Telegraph has a 32-slide photo gallery of today’s engagements viewable here ; PopSugar has a 7-slide gallery here