Kate Blends Old & New for Children’s Mental Health Announcement

Kate mixed new and old styles for today’s Heads Together engagement at Roe Green Junior School.

Students greeting Kate waved Heads Together flags as she arrived.

In Simon Perry’s video, you can hear the children singing to Kate.

Watch: Kate being serenaded by school kids @RoeGreenJS as she arrives for @heads_together Mentally Healthy Schools project pic.twitter.com/PasbIWOBxe

— Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) January 23, 2018

Kate was at the school to launch a new program that will help children with mental health issues while also providing support to their teachers and school administrators. The project is centered around a website that will provide vetted information for school personnel.   

The Duchess spent time with students, who were “… making rainbow spectacles that gave them the power to talk positively about themselves, one of the activities highlighted on the new mental health website” according to this story in The Telegraph. 

The Duchess also met with teachers and additional school personnel, as well as other stakeholders in the new program. Roe Green is one of the pilot schools in the program. 

The new endeavor is called ‘Mentally Healthy Schools.’ As mentioned above, its focus is on a new website designed to give teachers and school staff information and practical resources to help them support students. The Sun reports “The Duchess brought together Heads Together charity partners, teaching organisations and mental health experts to create the online project.”

Victoria Murphy of The Mirror shared this video.

Kate joins in a discussion about the new Mentally Healthy Schools initiative at @RoeGreenJS pic.twitter.com/9yzIVwY1oW

— Victoria Murphy (@QueenVicMirror) January 23, 2018

In her story for The Telegraph, Hannah Furness explains the new site is “…intended to provide a resource for teachers and schools, to help them talk to children about issues from bereavement to anxiety to eating disorders.”

Kate delivered a speech about the initiative while at today’s function. This People story offers more:

During the event, Kate gave a moving speech in support of the new project, saying, “We know that mental health is an issue for us all – children and parents, young and old, men and women – of all backgrounds and of all circumstances.”

“What we have seen first-hand is that the simple act of having a conversation about mental health – that initial breaking of the silence – can make a real difference,” said the royal. “But, as you here today know: starting a conversation is just that – it’s a start.”.

Heads Together has posted Kate’s full speech on You Tube. The new website is expected to be up and running sometime this spring. The project is being led by The Royal Foundation with collaboration from these Heads Together partner agencies: the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, Place2Be and Young Minds.

Utterly unrelated, but darling, the flowers adorning the podium and other areas that are decorated with student photos in the center.

Now to what Kate wore for today’s engagement. Many of you will recognize the coat, worn to the Emma Bridgewater plant in 2015 when the Duchess was expecting Charlotte.

It is by Sportmax. The Mirror’s Danielle Stacey describes the brand this way: “Sportmax is one of Italian brand Max Mara’s fashion lines, with a focus on tailored pieces.”

The style most closely resembles the “Gerbera,’ and it features an A-line silhouette with oversize lapels and on-seam pockets. Here is how it looked in product shots.

Another view of Kate in the coat today and in 2015. 

Although MaxMara now ships to the US, it appears Sportmax still doesn’t ship to North America. YOOX stocks the brand, and LuisaviaRoma carries a good selection; Matches Fashion also offers some styles.

We saw Kate in a new (to us) dress by Séraphine Maternity.

The Royal Blue Tailored Maternity Dress dress is done in a poly/viscose/elastane blend. It features an empire waistline, inserted front waistband with gold button detailing, a side and back peplum, and belled sleeves. A Tip of the Tiara to Evangelina for her dress identification, with thanks also to Danielle Stacey of The Mirror for confirming the ID with Séraphine and letting us know the piece was originally priced at £99 (roughly $140 at today’s exchange rates).

UPDATE JAN 27: Thank you to Lindsay for her comment sharing info she received in an email:  “The bespoke Seraphine maternity dress created exclusively for her at our London studios by our talented team of in-house tailors. The Royal Blue Tailored Maternity Dress will be available to buy later this season.”

While Kate’s dress is sold out, Séraphine offers a similar style, the Tailored Blue Maternity Dress (£65, about $90).

Kate’s scarf is by Beulah London, the Elena style in a navy ‘Henri’ print ($112). It is available for pre-ordering; Beulah expects to start shipping the item the week of February 19. Our thanks to Giulia for identifying the scarf!

The Duchess wore her ‘Malory’ pumps by Rubert Sanderson.

And carried her Frome clutch by LK Bennett. UPDATED: Kate was carrying her Muse bag by Stuart Weitzman, not the Frome, arrggh. (I’m not sure where my head was when I wrote this!) Many thanks to everyone who DMed and commented to let me know about the error. Kate would likely have purchased her bag at Russell and Bromley.    

We saw Kate’s tanzanite earrings and necklace from G. Collins and Sons. (Similar to the G. Collins pieces in the montage below; those styles are shown for illustrative purposes only.)  

 

Kate’s hair had a loose curl and was worn down.

Here is a collage showing everything Kate wore today.

There is another bit of news I’ve been meaning to share involving two of Kate’s patronages, Place2Be and the Art Room. Those two organizations have merged. More from a news release: 

Under the merger The Art Room will continue to run its provision from eight sites in Oxfordshire, London and Edinburgh. In the coming months, the two organisations plan to pilot ways of integrating The Art Room provision with Place2Be provision, evaluating the impact to inform future developments.

The Art Room has passionately followed its goal of providing help for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties through its well-defined programme that uses art-making as a vehicle for its work. The Art Room currently works with 530 children a week across eight specially designed Art Room ‘studios’ in Edinburgh, Oxfordshire and London.

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One more quick update: There have been a few questions asking if there will be a poll on Kate’s hats, handbags and/or shoes. A resounding ‘yes’ to all of those, I am working on them and hope to post them by the end of the week! 

We’ll see you tomorrow for Kate’s visit to the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute at King’s College and the Mother and Baby Institute at Bethlem Royal Hospital.

LINKAGE:

• Learn more about Heads Together at the organization’s website here; its Facebook page is here; the Twitter feed is here; you can watch Kate’s entire speech here  
• The Centre for Mental Health website is here; its Facebook page is here; the group’s Twitter feed may be seen here
• Visit the Anna Freud Centre website here, view its Facebook page here, the Instagram feed here, or follow the group on Twitter here
• Learn more about the Place2Be program at the organization’s website here; follow the Facebook page here, the charity’s Twitter feed is here
• The Young Minds website is here; the charity’s Facebook page may be seen here; its Twitter feed is here  
• The Telegraph’s story by Hannah Furness is here; Robert Jobson’s story for The Evening Standard is here; Siofra Brennan’s Daily Mail story is here; Erin Hill’s People article is here; The Express story is here; The Sun’s piece is here    
• Danielle Stacey’s fashion piece for The Mirror is here; PopSugar’s photo gallery is here;