The Duchess Goes Green for Generation Earthshot Engagement

The Duchess brought back a familiar style for today’s Generation Earthshot engagement at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Above, you see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they arrived at Kew Gardens with London Mayor Sadiq Khan (2nd from left). Danielle Stacey has more in her piece for Hello! 

Generation Earthshot… encourages students and their teachers around the world to generate ideas to solve the world’s greatest environmental challenges. It aims to unlock the potential of the next generation of inventors, innovators and leaders who will inherit our world and inspire in them the enthusiasm to develop new solutions and protect our planet.  

Here you see the couple with the Mayor, who noted that “it’s never been more important to talk to young Londoners about the environmental challenges we face.”

Today the royals were also joined by Olympic Rowing champion Helen Glover and naturalist/broadcaster Steve Backshall as they spent time with students from the Heathland School. In this image, you see Mr. Backshall on Kate’s right.

Rebecca English shared a video as the Duchess sat down with some of the students. 

And Kate takes her place with the children too….. pic.twitter.com/Yl5B3fvCTt

— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) October 13, 2021

 More from The Evening Standard’s article. 

Guests and students from The Heathland School in Hounslow took part in a series of fun and thought-provoking activities developed as part of the initiative.

Kate and William mingled with young people and VIPs, taking it in turns to join schoolchildren at activity tables and encourage them to discuss environmental issues.

And from Simon Perry’s People story. 

The royal couple joined school children in a magnificent park on the edge of London on Wednesday as they tried out new ideas to help repair the planet. The goal for William and Kate, both 39, was to help spark big, bold plans to save the natural world — visions of change that the students can commit to for years to come.

Another view. 

Prince William brought along his Ant Man action figure because “it’s all about encouraging the children to use a superhero power to help save the world!” per The Daily Mail’s Rebecca English.

More from The Belfast Telegraph: 

The tables were also assigned a superhero action figure to inspire them and while Kate had Wonder Woman, William had Ant Man.

Yusuf Rawn, 12, sat with the duke and said about William’s proposal: “One of the ideas was getting all the superheroes together to lift all the rubbish into space.

The Duchess having a laugh with students. 

A photo of the Duke, Duchess, Ms. Glover, Mr. Backshall, and one of the students.

And a wider shot. 

Today’s event is in advance of Sunday’s inaugural Earthshot Prize Awards, five £1,000,000 awards to people/organizations with ideas that will substantially help the environment.  More about the project from the Earthshot Prize site: 

Taking inspiration from President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot which united millions of people around an organising goal to put man on the moon and catalysed the development of new technology in the 1960s, The Earthshot Prize is centred around five ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious goals for our planet which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for us all, for generations to come.

Here is a video about the awards. 

The Duchess will award one of the five inaugural Earthshot prizes at today’s Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony.  More from this Telegraph story by Hannah Furness. 

The 15 finalists, whose projects are based in 14 countries overseas, will beam in from around the world virtually, sparing the carbon footprint of potentially thousands of aeroplane tickets.

The five awards, which will see winners given £1million towards their environmental innovations, will be announced by the Duchess of Cambridge, Dame Emma Thompson, actress and feminist campaigner Emma Watson, actor and producer David Oyelowo and footballer Mo Salah.

Clara Amfo and Dermot O’Leary are hosting the awards. Below, Prince William and the hosts. 

Sir David Attenborough also has a key role in the awards show.  It is being held at the Alexandra Palace in London.  They will air on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, and globally on Discovery’s Facebook page when it airs at 8pm BST, 3pm EST. 

Now for our look at what Kate wore for today’s engagement.

We begin with her Erdem coat, the ‘Allie’ design. It is from Erdem’s pre-fall 2013 collection and was first worn in New Zealand in April 2014.

Then again, in July 2014 for the start of the Tour de France race.

And a third time in March 2016 for an engagement at St. Thomas’ Hospital.

A look at all four occasions.

The garment is made of a wool crepe with multiple seams and top-stitching, front pockets, along with exposed zippers on the front and at the wrists.

A closer look at the details.

The sweater remains a bit of a mystery. It is very similar to this Zara style suggested by Innominate_93 on Twitter. 

In comparing the sleeve ribbing, the ribbing on the Duchess’s sweater seems to be deeper than that on the Zara sweater.

I am flying out the door for an appointment that couldn’t be rescheduled and will take a closer look when I get back and update the post. UPDATE 6:30pm: This seems likely to be the top the Duchess wore. I’m not sure why there would be a discrepancy in the ribbing depth at the sleeve hem, but it could just be a manufacturing quirk. I’m not 100% convinced, but probably 95% there.   

The Duchess brought back her Pangolin Haka style ($251) earrings by Patrick Mavros.  They were first noted at a Kensington Palace outdoor viewing party with Sir David Attenborough.  

Her trousers appear to be a new style, and her shoes are one of her point-toe black suede pairs. I’m not sure which one yet.  Chrissy suggests to Middleton Maven the belt is the same as that worn in Pakistan for climate and cultural engagements.

I’ll close with one more shot of the Duchess at today’s engagement.

VIDEO: 

Here is a quick video from Earthshot. 

Exclusive footage from our Generation Earthshot event where students from the Heathlands School were joined by @KensingtonRoyal, @MayorofLondon, @SteveBackshall and @Helenglovergb!

Helping inspire the next generation of #EarthshotPrize Finalists ?#EarthshotLondon2021 pic.twitter.com/tXaOWJMFHy

— #EarthshotLondon2021 Awards | Sunday 8pm BST (@EarthshotPrize) October 13, 2021

Here is the Royal Family Channel’s video. 

LINKAGE: 

• The Earthshot Prize site is here; the organization’s Facebook page is here; its Twitter feed here, and Instagram page here. 
• The Evening Standard piece is here; The Daily Mail’s coverage is here; The Daily Mirror’s article is here; The Belfast Telegraph’s piece is here. 
• Simon Perry’s People story is here; Danielle Stacey’s Hello article is here.