Oodles of Updates on Canada Tour and Kate’s First Solo Overseas Trip Announced

With the royal tour of Canada just 48 hours away there’s lots of little info nuggets to share, but first we’ll look at plans for the Duchess’s trip to the Netherlands. 

Ten days after returning from the Canada tour Kate will undertake her first overseas engagement on her own. More from The Telegraph:

The one-day trip, planned for October 11, will be a royal milestone for the Duchess as she will be travelling abroad by herself without the Duke.

A tour of Malta in 2014 was scheduled to be Kate’s first solo trip but she had to cancel as she was suffering from acute morning sickness while pregnant with Princess Charlotte.

She is going to have a busy schedule:

• When she arrives Kate will pay a courtesy call on His Majesty King Willem-Alexander at the royal residence, Villa Eikenhorst.

• She will then visit the Mauritshuis Art Museum to see an exhibition titled At Home in Holland: Vermeer & his Contemporaries from the British Royal Collection.” The Duchess will meet children involved with the Museum’s learning program, followed by a brief reception with museum supporters. 

• Following the Museum engagement, Kate heads to the British Ambassador’s residence for a roundtable discussion about addiction, intervention, family and mental health. Participants from two of Kate’s patronages, the Anna Freud Centre and Action on Addiction, will take part in the conversation. There will also be professionals from the Trimbos Institute (the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction).
• Kate will go to Rotterdam to Bouwkeet, described by The Telegraph as “…a community initiative that provides a public workshop in an economically deprived district, with its facilities aimed at teenagers. Residents pay by sharing their skills with others, providing education, skills and positive role models within the neighbourhood.”

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Now to our look at the “lady in red.” Not only is it one of Canada’s national colors, it is a shade Kate wears well. It’s likely we’ll see the Duchess don a piece or two in this color, be it an accessory like a scarf or shoes, or perhaps a coat, a dress or other garment. We begin with a look at two different Catherine Walker ensembles in the color, both outfits debuted when Kate was on tour.

Above left you see Kate in a look created for the launch of the 2014 tour of New Zealand and Australia, worn when arriving in Wellington, New Zealand at the start of that tour. In the center the Duchess wears another red coat and dress ensemble from the brand as she leaves Canada in 2011; those pieces were worn again this year for Order of the Garter (r).

There are many different shades of the color we’ve seen Kate wear, but we’re not thinking so much of the tones shown in the following montage with the (left to right): Glamorous maxi dress worn in April on the tour of India and Bhutan; GOAT Fashion’s Scarlett dress, seen at a July 2014 MPACT school visit; the Eponine London skirt suit worn to a March 2016 XL Mentoring event; the suit by Paule Ka seen at an October 2012 engagement; or the Whistles Sofia Rae frock we saw when Kate’s portrait was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in January of 2013.

We’re focused on the rich red seen in the Luisa Spagnoli suit Kate has worn several times: for the Queen’s Christmas lunch in 2015 (l); in Christchurch, New Zealand, during that 2014 tour (c); and for one of Kate’s first formal appearances following the announcement of her engagement to Prince William, a University of St. Andrews visit in 2011 (r).

It’s the same shade seen in the LK Bennett Eugenie dress the Duchess sported for a Heads Together engagement in August; the Cayla dress worn to Wimbledon in 2015, also by LK Bennett; an Alexander McQueen bespoke dress first seen at the Jubilee River Pageant in 2012; and the Ascot dress by Katherine Hooker, worn for a November, 2015 EACH engagement.

Kate’s fondness for the color is also evident in her outerwear choices: from left to right, the red Zara jacket seen at the Queen’s birthday spectacular at Royal Windsor in May; Kate’s Armani coat worn for a Scotland visit in April of 2013; the Jonathan Saunders Athena coat seen on a different Scotland trip, that visit taking place in May, 2014; and the red LK Bennett Ami we have seen multiple times, beginning with a 2011 UNICEF engagement in Denmark.

The Duchess opted for the color when attending her first State Dinner last October, wearing a Jenny Packham gown.

It is also the color of two Beulah London evening gowns we’ve seen the Duchess wear. Below left, Kate in the Juliet gown at a reception in Bhutan during the April tour; on the right we see the Duchess in Beulah’s ‘Sarai’ dress, worn to the 100 Women in Hedge Funds Dinner in October of 2011.

We have a quick note about Beulah: the luxury retailer is offering WKW readers a 10% discount off everything. The promotion runs through Saturday, be sure to use promo code WKWB10 to receive the discount.

What do you think, will Kate wear a red dress or coat…? Or will she stick to smaller doses of the red, if she wears it at all? Do you think Kate’s red Gianvito Rossi heels will make an appearance? (The heels are back in stock at Net-a-Porter.)

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Now to our tour updates, starting with the schedule for Saturday.

I will be making graphics tonight and tomorrow for the other days of the tour and and will add them to this post, and also share them on our Canada Tour pages and on the WKW Facebook page. In the interim, it looks like this site has all of the engagement times.

There are several news stories you might enjoy looking at:

• What Will the Duchess of Cambridge pack for Canada? This piece in The Telegraph from Alice Newbold looks at a number of Canadian brands, including several I would love to see Kate wear. From the piece:

The Duchess of Cambridge is known for her diplomatic fashion choices, and support of homegrown talent. The last royal tour to India and Bhutan, for example, saw Kate mix Indian designers, such as Anita Dongre, with the best of British, like Alexander McQueen. Next week’s trip to Canada promises to be no exception.

• Royal visit: What will Kate wear? is a Canadian Press article covering the topic. Here is a snippet:

The public’s fascination with the duchess extends not only from the fairy tale story of marrying into the Royal Family, but also her appearance of being approachable and authentic, said Noreen Flanagan, editor-in-chief of Fashion Magazine. “She has brought a grounded realness to the Royal Family,” Flanagan said.

• Hello US has a slide show, What will Kate pack for her Canada tour?
• On our What Kate’s Kids Wore site we look at What We Might See George and Charlotte Wear in Canada. From that story:

Seeing how Kate dressed George for that tour offers insight into how both children will be attired on this trip.

I don’t believe Kate intends to have Charlotte echoing her brother’s style, she’ll want the princess blazing her own path with her own identity. I can see her opting for designs a little softer and more feminine.

• From The Daily Mirror: The royal tour entourage: From super nanny to stylist, the 12-strong team joining the Cambridges in Canada
• The Daily Mirror’s Danielle Stacey examines Which jewelry will Kate wear on the Tour?
• BBC News Toronto has an interesting piece titled Royal couple will help “Tell Canada’s story” 
• Where to see the royal tour in Victoria, BC (with times)

EVENT TIMING:

• The Canadian government has updated its itinerary with some specific engagement times 
• From BC Local News: UBC Okanagan offers alternate ways to take part in Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit

LINKAGE:

• The Royal House of The Netherlands website is here; the King’s bio & other info is here; King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima’s official Facebook page is here;
• Action on Addiction’s home page is here; the charity’s Facebook page is here & Twitter account here
• The Anna Freud Centre’s home page is here; its Facebook page is here & the organization’s Twitter feed is here
• The Trimbos Institute website is here & Twitter account here
• The Mauritshuis home page is here; the Museum’s Facebook page is here; its Instagram feed is here and Twitter page here
• The Mauritshuis page on the exhibition is here; the Royal Collection’s information on the exhibit may be seen here
• The Bouwkeet website is here; its Facebook page here and Twitter account here
• The City of the Hague website is here; its Facebook page is here and Twitter feed here