Kate in New Alexander McQueen Frock for Palace Reception UPDATED

The Duchess wore a new dress by Alexander McQueen for this evening’s Team GB reception at Buckingham Palace.

The party at the Palace was hosted by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. The event honored medalists in this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. More from The Mirror:

Usually seen in their sports clothes, the athletes were dressed in their finest as they packed into the State Rooms for drinks and canapés.

They began to arrive from 5.30pm and were joined by the royals at 6pm in the opulent 18th Century room.

Kate enjoying time with the women’s hockey team.

From The Daily Mail’s story:

Team GB collected 27 golds among their medal total of 67 – two more than from London 2012 – for their best-ever haul from an overseas Olympics.

The Paralympics GB squad, meanwhile, returned from South America with 147 medals, including 64 golds.

Below, Prince Harry chatting with Ellie Simmonds, OBE, gold medalist in swimming in the last 3 Paralympics. (That is who Kate is seen speaking with in the first photo in the post.)

In the course of the evening, Kate shared that Princess Charlotte is learning how to ride.

Emily Andrews, The Sun @ByEmilyAndrews

Earlier in the day, there was a parade and celebration in London. Yesterday a similar event was held in the city of Manchester.

Kate’s dress is ivory silk with a red and gray poppy motif, from the Alexander McQueen pre-spring (aka ‘resort’) 2017 collection. It carries a 1970s vibe and features a fitted v-neck bodice, defined waistband above a flared skirt, and full sleeves.

The frock also has gathers at the center waist (below left), and the sleeves are gathered slightly at the shoulder and the wrist. There are two small decorative buttons at the cuff.

UPDATE: There has been a little discussion about the front of Kate’s dress if there was a panel across the bodice where the v-neck dips. I finally managed to find licensable photos; here is a closer look.

UPDATE: A few comments point out that the poppy design also echoes the iconic McQueen skull motif, something I completely missed. If looking at the two red clusters at the top of the design as the sunken eyes, and the bottom as the mouth, I can see the reference.

The dress is longer than what I would call tea length, hitting a few inches above Kate’s ankles. (Though the definition of tea length has changed over the years, I think of it generally hitting mid-shin, maybe 3-5″ below the knee.)

Both: Emily Andrews, The Sun @ByEmilyAndrews

This particular poppy motif is used in several designs for the pre-spring/summer 2017 collection. The skirt of Kate’s dress is similar to that seen in this Silk Open Back Midi Dress from the pre-spring collection, as shown at Saks.

Other pieces in the collection include a Mandarin Collar Blouse in ivory silk ($1145 ) and a Ruffle Dress in black ($3075), both shown at the McQueen website.

A closer look at the print itself. This photo is from the blouse shown above; you can see how well matched the pattern is on the front placket, something that wasn’t accomplished on the side seams of the Duchess’s dress.

Kate accessorized with the Bow-Embellished Suede Shoulder Bag by Miu Miu we first saw during the Canadian tour. 

And her red suede ‘Gianvito’ heels by Gianvito Rossi, we show them at Net-a-Porter. The shoe is also available in all sizes at Luisa Via Roma and in limited sizes at FarFetch.

Kate also wore her Soru Baroque Pearl Double-Sided Earrings (£130).

UPDATE: One more observation arising from a comment on the post: as pointed out in comments, the ivory dress background with the red poppy pattern played well against the Team GB uniforms. Here is a better view of the uniforms.

The red, in particular, popped against the Palace carpeting.

This is one of those events that I think all of the royals enjoy. Kate, William, and Harry seem particularly enthusiastic and very much at ease speaking with the athletes, something that is evident from Kate’s facial expressions.

A final note: there have been mentions about the ‘resort’ ready-to-wear collections, also called pre-spring collections, and their lack of resemblance to resort collections of yore. (My phrase.) It is a good topic for discussion, and we will cover it in our next post.

LINKAGE:

• The Daily Mail’s story is here; The Telegraph’s story is here; Richard Palmer’s story in The Express is here;  Victoria Murphy’s piece for The Mirror is here