Kate’s Calendar Filling Up & Your Favorites from 2017!

We are back with an overview of a busy ten days for the Duchess, as well as some poll results. 

We begin with the multiple additions to Kate’s schedule. Following is info on several of the engagements, a bit more than what is in the individual listings on the Kate’s Calendar page. 

Tuesday, February 27: The Duchess will visit the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to learn more about ways to reduce newborn and maternal mortality rates around the world. Kate will hear more about the RCOG’s Leading Safe Choices program in South Africa and Tanzania, and also take part in a roundtable discussion on the stigma which surrounds women’s health, and in particular maternal mental health.  

Tuesday, February 27: Kate will visit St. Thomas’ Hospital to launch the Nursing Now campaign, created to raise the profile of nursing worldwide. She will visit a specialist ward, take part in a roundtable discussion and deliver a speech to mark the launch of the Nursing Now campaign.

• Kate’s participation and speech are part of a global launch for the campaign, with other activities scheduled in Geneva, Switzerland.
• There will be a live stream available from both the London & Geneva locations. (It will be shown on the Nursing Now website. The site notes that events are slated to run from 1300 – 1500 GMT / 8 am – 10 am ET.)  
• Kate’s great-grandmother, Olive Middleton, was a nurse. More from a Daily Telegraph story by Hannah Furness: “Olive Middleton, is known to have worked as a nurse, caring for wounded servicemen after the Leeds estate belonging to a cousin was turned into a field hospital. There, in Gledhow Hall, she is reported to have nursed men severely wounded on the Western front, learning the full horror of war.”
• The Telegraph story also notes that when looking at this function in tandem with the RCOG engagement shown above, “The combination of events appear to be a clear new direction for the Duchess, aligning her more closely than ever with serious women’s issues.”

Wednesday, February 28: In her role as Patron of the National Portrait Gallery, Kate will visit the ‘Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography‘ exhibition. 

• The exhibit includes the Gallery’s first “Patron’s Trail,” featuring works Kate has selected and also written personal captions for that will be displayed alongside specific photographs.  
• The Duchess has also written a foreword for the exhibition catalog. This is a good fit for the Duchess; more from an Artnet story: “Her interest in 19th-century photography dates back to her time studying art history at the University of St. Andrews where she chose the topic as the subject of her undergraduate thesis.” 
• An article from Artlyst reports that in the catalog foreword Kate “…explains that photographs of children, which feature predominantly within the exhibition, are of particular interest to her. The Duchess also points out that Queen Victoria and especially Prince Albert, became enthusiastic patrons of the new art form following its invention in 1839.” 

Kate will have six engagements between Sunday night’s BAFTA Awards and the NPG event on the 28th. 

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Now we have some poll results! We’ll begin with results for the Favorite Evening Gown category, which saw your favorite well ahead of the second and third place choices. The surprise for me with this vote was how close the blush pink Marchesa dress worn to the Spain state dinner was to the blue Jenny Packham dress, especially considering the poor photos we had of the Marchesa. (I did not include a photo of the Marchesa gown here because the pictures were so dreadful.) 

This is how the voting turned out. 

You might remember that for this year’s polls you could also vote for “other,” and leave comments. The feedback on evening gowns included three “none of the above” comments, one expressing “hope she goes back to more classic styles,” as well as one in favor of the red Alexander McQueen dress from the tour.

Next, the Cocktail Dress you liked the most from Kate’s 2017 selections.

I liked the way the voting came out in this group because three very different dress styles were selected. “Other” comments were limited to one liking “all” of the dresses and one expressing a desire for more “classic, timeless” dresses. Below, the votes for this category.  

When it came to your Favorite Day Dress, the Erdem Evita was the clear winner. 

But look how close the other three dresses were – each garnering 9% of the vote. Comments accompanying the “Other” votes in this collection included several liking “all” and one saying “none of the above.”  

And now for your votes in the Favorite Hat poll. This is quite a mix in terms of design; the first and second choices are distinctive in their difference from the other three hats. 

Those picking “other” and leaving comments were vocal in saying “none,” while the Alpaca Fur hat seen at Christmas was also mentioned in one comment. I know a few comments wondered why that and/or the grey alpaca hat from last January weren’t included. They were not part of the poll because I was trying to limit the voting to the more formal, or dressier, hats.  You see here how close the voting was on the third, fourth and fifth place finishers. 

How are you feeling about a Favorite Jewelry and/or Favorite Shoes and/or Favorite Suit polls despite how deep we are into the New Year? If those are something you would like to see, let me know in comments. I am still planning the “Things We Missed During the Tour” post as well.

That is it, for now; we’ll see you Sunday for the BAFTA awards at Royal Albert Hall. There will be a live stream from the red carpet starting at 1700 local time, that is Noon ET/9 am PT in the US. We will be able to watch the feed on the BAFTA Facebook page and Twitter account.

I will keep an eye out for any more details on the feed; if there is more info I will add it here, as well as on the Facebook page and Twitter.