The Colors of Kate’s Third Maternity Wardrobe

We are back with a couple of updates and our look at the colors of Kate’s maternity wardrobe.

The first update covers what Kate wore at the Houghton Horse Trials this weekend.  I know almost everyone has seen this, but for anyone who may have missed the story over the weekend, Kate took George and Charlotte to the Houghton Horse Trials over the weekend.

Jane shares photos from the event in her From Berkshire to Buckingham post. The Duchess wore a dress from Zara, the brand’s Flocked Print Dress in ‘sky blue’. The cotton dress is sold out online; it is being offered by quite a few sellers on eBay’s UK site as well as on the US site. The price range is $70 and up. Kate also wore her Catherine Zoraida Two Leaf earrings ($212) and she carried a tote by Little Makes Big, a brand Pippa Middleton has been seen carrying. The Classic Monogrammed Tote ($189 AUD, roughly $142 USD) is sold out but you can sign up to be notified when it is back in stock.

For those fond of the Zara pattern/print, the motif is offered in a sleeveless top in both blue and white ($39.90). Thanks for the dress ID from the inimitable UFO No More; Irish Sara pointed out Kate’s earrings and one of Jane’s readers identified the bag.

Trotters confirmed to us that Princess Charlotte wore the Hampton Canvas Plum shoes in ‘rosa’ and Prince George wore them in navy.

The style also comes in adult sizes for women.

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Now for our review of Kate’s third maternity wardrobe. Here is the big picture of just about everything worn by the Duchess when she was expecting Prince Louis. (A few things are not included, primarily pictures shot through car windows, the sort of event where we see very little of Kate or the garment.)

How does this stack up to what was worn during previous pregnancies? At the risk of making everyone’s eyes glaze over, here is an overview of the Prince George maternity wardrobe.

And one more trip down memory lane, here are the pieces worn when Kate was pregnant with Charlotte.

(Okay, even my eyes are bugging out looking at all of the photos!)

Let’s start our review with a look at the ‘pink’ outfits, a very loose term indeed, for I’ve included salmon and berry hues in this category as well. We saw Kate wearing these colors six times when expecting both George and Charlotte and seven times when pregnant with Prince Louis. (One thing to keep in mind when looking at the stats: the number of engagements grew with each child, so the numbers in any category are quite low for the wardrobe worn when Kate was expecting George, and higher for this most recent wardrobe.)

Pink is not a big color in Kate’s wardrobe, although she does wear a fair amount of berry/wine/maroon shades.

No one will be surprised to see how much Kate wore blue when expecting Prince Louis, as well as when she was pregnant with Charlotte. Again, the low number with George is reflective of the lower number of engagements.

With Charlotte the case could be made that one or two ensembles might have been better placed with the green hues; notably the Séraphine Florrie dress. In this next graphic we added it to the other two “green” pieces Kate wore when she was expecting Charlotte; none are strong greens, and you could make a case that Kate didn’t wear anything green during her second pregnancy.  

We saw more green this year than we did in the other years. I did not include the repeat of the Catherine Walker coat initially worn in Stockholm at the end of January; you may remember Kate wore it again for the St. Patrick’s Day Irish Guards engagement, and that would boost the number of green items to eight.

Black/white and solid black continue as mainstays of the Duchess’s wardrobe, as shown in this next graphic. Again, the top number and image are for what Kate wore when expecting George, the next for when she was expecting Charlotte, and the third for when she was expecting Prince Louis.

What colors did we not see much of? Red has not been a favorite for the Duchess when expecting, although many of us think it is a lovely color on her.

The number of prints and patterns Kate chose increased with each pregnancy.

Oddities or anomalies? In going back over all of the images from Kate’s three pregnancies there were really only three items that jumped out at me. Below (l to r), the Emilia Wickstead ‘Marella’ coat worn to a garden party in May 2013; the much-discussed Erdem ‘Stephanie’ gown Kate wore in Sweden in January, and the Boden ‘Lena’ coat we saw the Duchess in for a January engagement.

For all three pieces I think the striking element was color. The Marella coat was a color we’d not seen Kate wear with any frequency at that point; yellow is now something we see her wearing more often. The Erdem dress was striking for a variety of reasons, the most pressing in this case was my inability to find a place where it fit well with other colors in the montage; it just didn’t work well no matter where I put it. And the vibrancy of the Boden coat made it stand out, it seemed much brighter than what we generally see the Duchess wearing.

What about you, was there anything that struck you as a wonderful part of Kate’s maternity wardrobe, or perhaps something you didn’t think was the ideal addition to the royal closet?

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Also today, a quick note primarily for readers who might be in the greater Detroit/Ann Arbor area on Sunday, June 10th. I am delighted to be part of an absolutely wonderful event happening that day, a “Royal Wedding Garden Party” at Zingerman’s Cornman Farms.

The party features cocktails in the garden followed by a proper afternoon tea prepared by Kieron Hales, someone who knows his royal garden parties. Kieron is a chef from the UK who has cooked for the royal family at Buckingham Palace; he now lives in Michigan and owns Cornman Farms. More about Kieron from this WDIV story:

Hales is from England and is an expert on British food. He’s traveled the world, cooking for some pretty heavy hitters, including U.S. presidents and the queen of England.

“When I worked at Buckingham Palace, for the garden parties, I did much of the sandwich work and the aspic work,” Hales said.

 

In addition to the incredible food we’ll all be enjoying, I will be doing a presentation with my friend Micki Maynard on (what else?!) the royal wedding and royal fashion! Micki is an absolute whiz on royal family history, with fab info and insight on royal wedding traditions. Of course, wearing your favorite fascinators and festive attire isn’t just welcome, it’s encouraged! For more specifics on the event, visit the Zingerman’s Cornman Farms site; advance registration is required. This is going to be a grand garden party and it would be terrific to meet some of you in person!

NOTE: I know some readers are not receiving posts via email as you should be; we are working on getting the problem fixed. I am sorry it has been an issue, and hope to have it remedied shortly.