It’s Two Ensembles of Familiar Styles for Kate in Birmingham

Happy Thanksgiving to those seeing this Thursday morning!

Kate brought back familiar pieces for two different ensembles as she joined Prince William in Birmingham this afternoon.

The pair started their day with a stop at the Jaguar/Land Rover Solihull production facility.

You can see from some of the photos it was breezy.

The royals heard a presentation on the recently updated plant.

More than 10,000 people work at what is now a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.

Kate met students from Topcliffe Primary School who won a contest for their model car designs. The Birmingham Mail explains they “…made a small electric battery operated car. The challenge is an initiative to introduce children to solar energy, battery-powered vehicles, engineering and design.”

The Duke and Duchess also took test drives in Land Rovers custom-made for the British Red Cross.

More from The Belfast Telegraph:

The royal couple both briefly ground to a halt at the same notoriously difficult spot half-way up a rock crawl, as they were guided around the Land Rover Experience in Solihull, West Midlands.

As well as meeting dozens of the assembly line workers at the neighbouring Jaguar Land Rover manufacturing site, William and Kate chatted with mountain rescue volunteers who use vehicles made at the factory.

You can just see Kate behind the wheel in this picture.

The Duke and Duchess as they were leaving Jaguar Land Rover.

The couple moved to their next appointment at Villa Park, home of the Aston Villa Football Club. Simon Perry from People posted this brief video of them arriving.

William and Kate arrive at Villa Park where they’ll meet local @WeAreCoachCore apprentices taking part in training sessions with children on the football pitch. pic.twitter.com/Uzi5PXzp5Y

— Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) November 22, 2017

Prince William is a devoted fan; more from The Birmingham Mail.

The Duke of Cambridge is famously an Aston Villa fan, and was born a matter of days after the club won the European Cup.

Prince William, who is the president of the Football Association, has previously said he decided to support Aston Villa as it is a club with a great history and because he wanted to be different to all his friends.

The next stop was at Acme Whistles, the world’s largest producer of whistles.

From the Birmingham Mail: “Founded in 1870, the family-owned business has developed and patented over 40 whistle designs during its 147-year history and currently exports to 119 countries worldwide.” Acme created the first police whistle, as well as a model called the Acme Thunderer.

More from Simon Perry’s People story:

Prince William and Kate Middleton were given brass whistles to take home from their trip to a whistle factory on Wednesday — prompting William to say: “Don’t show that to George — we’ll never get any peace!”

It appears the whistles work perfectly!

And from Richard Palmer’s story in The Express:

During the tour the Duke and Duchess, who have a cocker spaniel called Lupo, were shown dog whistles, which cannot be heard by humans. Clearly knowledgable on the subject, Kate said: “There are different pitches for different dogs, aren’t there?”

Chief executive Simon Topman, who runs the business with his wife Debbie, told William: “Yes, your grandmother would use something that is great for her labradors and retrievers but wouldn’t be for your spaniel.”

William, 35, who knows his whistles or had been checked before the visit, told him: “No, we use a 212.”

Now we look at what Kate wore for today’s engagements.

She was in the Washington coat from Goat Fashion. The piece was first worn when visiting New York in December of 2014. As we described it then, the garment “is a swing style with a retro, 1960s feel. It is made of heavy wool crepe, with contrasting tabs at the cuff and on the back with decorative buttons.”A look at Kate today and in 2014.  

The company will be restocking the Washington; they are taking names/emails for those interested in being on a waiting list. (Email customercare@goatfashion.com if interested.)

The Duchess wore a new pair of boots, the Hi-Ride from Russell and Bromley.

The boots are made of black suede in a riding boot silhouette with a block heel (£325, about $440 at today’s exchange rates). It looks like Kate is making a shift to lower heels, at least on casual engagements. Thank you to Kate Middleton Style reader Jenny who quickly IDed the boots.

She carried her Bayswater wallet clutch by Mulberry. (The product images show the piece in black leather; Kate’s is suede.)

We also saw the Kiki McDonough Lauren earrings again.

For the majority of the day Kate’s hair was down.

The Duchess changed into more casual pieces for the afternoon’s Coach Core event.

From The Evening Standard’s story:

After speaking with employers and sporting groups, the couple met youngsters from Prince Albert Infant and Junior School taking part in on-pitch training.

William, who is President of the Football Association, laughed and said: “It’ll be interesting to see if she’s been listening to any of my conversations about football”, causing Kate to joke “I knew I should have.”

The pair looked very relaxed.

They spent time with Coach Core apprentices working with schoolchildren.

Many will remember the Perfect Moment ‘mini duvet’ jacket. The piece remains available on the Perfect Moment site ($400 / £315).

The Duchess wore her New Balance/Sweaty Betty trainers first seen at a London Marathon training event in February.

This is almost the same ensemble as that worn in February.

ID whiz Guilia pointed out on Twitter that Kate is wearing a different turtleneck than the one seen in February. She noted the neck on today’s top is a little shorter, and the knit looks thicker.

The Duchess pulled her hair back for part of the Coach Core engagement.

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Also today, some of the very best Black Friday deals that are already being offered.

• At Sebago take 40% off full-price items and an additional 20% off sale merchandise with promo code THANKSGIVING. This makes Kate’s Bala style $57. At Shopbop the LK Bennett Fern’ pump is on sale for $227.50; use promo code MORE17 to bring the price to $187.

• Also at Shopbop, Kate’s Smythe One Button Blazer is 30% off with promo code MORE17, bringing the price to about $420. This applies to both the navy version Kate first wore in 2011, along with the army green color initially seen in Canada.

• Kate’s Siren Earrings in green onyx are 30% off, bringing the price from £135 to £94.50 (about $125) at Monica Vinader. There’s loads of other jewelry discounted 30% as part of the Black Friday sale, but not the Riva cluster earrings or necklace Kate has worn. Thank you to Stephanie on the WKW FB page for the tip!

• The LK Bennett US site is promoting 30% off everything for orders totaling more $250 with promo code HAPPY30; on the UK site, there is a sizable selection (150+ items) of merchandise that is 30% off.

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A couple of quick bullet points:

• Kate is continuing her work on perinatal mental health. This is from yesterday’s court circular: “The Duchess of Cambridge this afternoon received Professor Carmine Pariante (Professor of Biological Psychiatry, Kings College London) and Dr. Gertrude Seneviratne (Perinatal Psychiatrist, Kings College London).” Thank you to Cepe Smith for posting information about the meeting.
• Earlier this week I wasn’t paying attention and approved a comment about the cost of Kate’s wardrobe. That (understandably) prompted other comments about what is spent on the wardrobe, which brought comments about the monarchy which led to comments on politics and…well, you can guess where this is going. That is a topic we don’t cover. My apologies for not being more vigilant and allowing any comments on the subject.
• Recently there has been discussion about the tone of comments in general, some expressing concern there has been more ‘sniping’ about the Duchess. As many have pointed out, this is a site where we focus on the clothing, accessories and other elements of the Duchess’s style; that subject matter is going to prompt comments about things Kate wears that are not always complimentary. Being negative about an accessory or item of clothing is to be expected, and 99.99% of comments are just fine. But there has been a notable increase in sarcasm towards other readers, as well as hyperbole in talking about the Duchess. It is a good time for a reminder that we need to be respectful of each other, as well as Kate. Comments telling another reader their comment is ‘just ridiculous,’ or that Kate ‘looks like a bag lady,’ won’t be approved. It’s the classic “When in doubt, leave it out.” This is also the ideal time for me to say ‘thank you’ for all of you who do such a stellar job when commenting; I have learned *a lot* from all of your insight.

We’ll see you Friday for the Royal Variety Performance and our comprehensive list of Kate-related sales and savings. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving, with enormous thanks to all of you for making WKW such a delight!

LINKAGE:

• Learn more about Coach Core at the organization’s website here; the charity’s Twitter feed is here
• The Daily Mail’s story by Unity Blott is here; The Evening Standard piece is here; The Daily Mirror’s coverage is here; The Birmingham Mail article is here; Richard Palmer’s Express story is here
• Hello Canada’s article is here; PopSugar’s photo gallery is here; Just Jared’s gallery is here; People’s story is here; the Fug Girls slideshow and Royal Roundup can be seen here