Kate Keeps Her Catherine Walker Coat On For Paris Arrival

The Duchess arrived in Paris wearing the Catherine Walker coat seen earlier this morning with the Irish Guards. Below, the Duke and Duchess arriving at Élysée Palace. Just ahead of them you see French President François Hollande.

The formal three-shot with the Duke, the President, and the Duchess.

The group briefly remained on the Palace steps, allowing another opportunity for photos.

Everyone then went inside to the Salon Des Ambassadeurs. After the media was escorted out the trio spent about 30 minutes together. From Richard Palmer’s story in The Express:

They met President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace in the first of seven official engagements in the French capital.

The group chatted about occasions on which they had met before, including an event in Belgium to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War and also at a ceremony in France last year to mark the Somme Centenary.

Before they left the president took them outside into the gardens of the palace for a second photocall, walking them down a sun-bathed terrace in front of the waiting cameras, stopping to chat occasionally as he pointed items of interest out.

Video 1/2 : William puts his hand on Kate’s back as he ushers her through the door #RoyalVisitParis pic.twitter.com/GyBC4p51Fr

— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) March 17, 2017

The President shakes Kate’s hand as the couple departs.

The duo may have been relieved the official welcome was concluded.

Meeting heads of state can be stressful; it was certainly a change from this morning’s duties.

©2017 MOD Crown Copyright Sgt. Rupert Freres

Now we’ll take a look at what Kate wore for the Paris arrival and welcome. As everyone noticed immediately, she remained in the Catherine Walker coatdress worn for the Irish Guards shamrock ceremony this morning. Richard Palmer has more in his story for The Daily Express:

Kate surprised royal watchers by remaining in the dark green Catherine Walker coat she had worn earlier in the day to present shamrock sprigs to the Irish Guards in London when she met the French president on their arrival.

Aides suggested there had been no time for her to change on the private charter jet that flew them from London. The Duchess, accompanied on the plane by her privately-funded hairdresser Amanda Tucker, had let her hair down after wearing it pinned up under a hat earlier.

One reason Kate may have chosen to wear the coat for the arrival: Catherine Walker was French. She was born in northern France, moving to London while studying for her Ph.D.  

There is no need to repeat all of the details of Kate’s wardrobe, that information may be seen in this morning’s post. Briefly, the shoes are the ‘Rebecca’ style by Emmy London in a new color called ‘Greenery.’ The hat is a previously worn style by Sylvia Fletcher for Lock & Company.

There is one item that wasn’t covered in the Irish Guards post: the maker of the handbag Kate carried for both of the day’s events.

©Polairs/Polaris

The handbag in the center photo belongs to a WKW friend who would like to remain anonymous. It is by Etui, and she suggested Kate’s bag may be as well.

©Polaris/eBay

Etui is based in Poland, and Anna of My Small Obsessions immediately got in touch with the company; she lives in Poland and was able to correspond with Etui. The company confirmed Kate was carrying one of their bags; you can see how excited they were at the news in their Instagram post.

Etui Instagram (@etui_bags)

We should have a better photo of Kate’s bag in the next day or so. Etui does not currently have an e-commerce site, but the bags can be purchased by directly contacting the company via its Facebook page. Several WKW friends report the company has been very helpful when contacted via its Facebook page.

We will hopefully be able to update with more photos before the weekend is out.