Newsbits and Bytes, First Trimester Style Poll

We are back with a few newsbytes and the first of our polls looking at Kate’s maternity style.

We begin with the news of a new patronage for the Duchess. We learned this week that Kate is the new Patron of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Duchess is the first royal patron in the 166-year history of the V & A. More from a BT story:

The V&A, which is a short distance from the Duchess’s Kensington Palace home in west London, is the world’s leading museum of art and design. 

It was founded in 1852 and named after the Duke of Cambridge’s great-great-great-great-grandparents Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

More about the museum from its website: 

The Museum holds many of the UK’s national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theatre and performance.

Many will remember Kate visited the museum last June. 

She was there to take part in the formal dedication of the V&A’s new Exhibition Road Quarter, the biggest architectural project the Museum has undertaken in 100 years.  

From an Art Daily article: 

Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A said: “From its foundation by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, the V&A has enjoyed a proud history of Royal support.

The Duchess’s personal interest in photography, textiles and the visual arts, alongside her support for the role of art in supporting mental health and nurturing young people’s creative talent, fits naturally with the collections and civic purpose of the V&A. 

An image from last year’s Pink Floyd exhibition. 

The V&A news release noted that “The Trustees, staff and members of the V&A look forward to working with Her Royal Highness across our museums in South Kensington, Bethnal Green and Dundee.” 

This fits well with Kate’s patronages of the Natural History Museum (located across the street from the V&A) and the National Portrait Gallery.   

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With this week’s showing of the Jenny Packham 2019 Bridal Collection we have a better idea about the design origins of Kate’s gown at this year’s BAFTA awards. 

One of the dresses in the 2019 collection, the Sweet Pea, looks much like Kate’s BAFTA dress; we show it below right.

It certainly appears this is the inspiration for Kate’s BAFTA gown; it is nice to know a little bit more about the piece. Our thanks to Laura of UFO No More for noticing this and sharing the information on Twitter.

When drooling looking at the rest of the collection, I also noticed the Thistle Gown (below right) and its similarity to the inky blue Jenny Packham dress Kate has worn on multiple occasions. You see the original frock below left.

As always with Jenny Packham, there are some stunning designs in the new collection.

 

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As promised, we are back with the first of our polls looking at Kate’s maternity style. Our timeline has the first trimester covering August, September, and October. The next trimester will encompass designs seen in November, December and January; the final three months include February, March and April. Of course, we do not expect to see the Duchess in April until Baby Cambridge #3 arrives, so the actual styles will be from February and March.

The first time we saw Kate in August was on the way to church services at Balmoral. Because we see so little of her ensemble, I am not including this in the poll but wanted to be sure we mentioned the occasion.

Now to the ensembles included in our poll. For the late August events honoring Diana, Princess of Wales, the Duchess chose a silk dress by Prada. This was to be Kate’s last engagement for several weeks as she once again coped with the symptoms of Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Kate returned to official duties in October at a palace reception marking World Mental Health Day; she wore a dress by Temperley London, the brand’s Eclipse style in blue. We saw the Duchess the following week at a Charities Forum event at Paddington station; Kate chose an Orla Kiely dress from the a/w 2013 collection for that function. 

If you were thinking, “Hey, wait a minute, there were two other engagements in October,” you are right. Those styles are part of a separate poll featuring casual looks that we’ll be including in another post early next week.

NOTE: I have had quite a few questions about Kate and William attending Easter services this year. There’s been no definitive news from Kensington Palace about this; Emily Andrews of The Sun reports the Cambridges are staying with Kate’s family for the weekend. I think the chances are 50-50 at best we’ll see the couple at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor on Sunday. Below, Kate and William on their way to last year’s service. 

LINKAGE:

• Learn more about the Victoria and Albert Museum at the V&A website here; the Museum’s Facebook page is here; its Twitter feed is here; the V&A Instagram is here; the V&A online shop is here
• There was big news this week about HG, the debilitating disease Kate and millions of other women cope with when they are expecting. Read more about the research breakthrough in this HER (Hyperemesis Education and Research) news release or the UCLA news release.