It’s ASOS Maternity for Children’s Centre Visit, The Duchess Talks Due Date, & A Longtime UFO Is Resolved

The Duchess opted for a $63 polka dot dress from ASOS Maternity for today’s visit to Brookhill Children’s Centre in London

Kate was at the Centre to learn more about Home Start-UK, which operates the Brookhill Centre. The organization describes itself as “a family support charity that helps parents to build better lives for their children.” More from The Daily Mail:

Home-Start is one of the UK’s leading family support charities, it recruits and trains unpaid volunteers to support parents who have at least one child under the age of five.
The charity was set up in 1973 and now has 288 local Home-Starts, among them Home-Start Greenwich which has been running since 1993 and last year supported 200 families and 350 children.

Kate meeting volunteers and families receiving assistance from Home-Start UK. More from the Home-Start Facebook page:

The Duchess of Cambridge is now talking with volunteers about our new programme Big Hopes Big Future which will get children ready for school. She’s also hearing about the regular family support they provide.

The Daily Mail’s Rebecca English shared a photo of Kate admiring an oversize card the children at Home-Start UK made for her.

A video from the Press Association’s Alex Diaz:

Kate meeting children in the crèche #duchessofcambridge #Royals https://t.co/hE99SOEAzY

— Alex Diaz (@alexjldiaz) March 18, 2015

More from The Daily Mail’s piece:

Kate also commiserated with some of the mothers at the coffee morning about sleeping patterns and feeding routines. ‘It can be hard, can’t it,’ she said sympathetically. ‘So often it’s about giving you the confidence to interact with your baby.’

She also spoke with a group of mothers, who did not wish to be identified, who had suffered with post natal depression. ‘The Duchess made clear in advance of the visit that she was keen to speak to them as post-natal depression can have such a knock-on effect on every aspect of family life,’ explained head of communications Annie O’Brian.

While at today’s engagement a volunteer asked the Duchess about her due date; Rebecca English’s tweet has Kate’s response:

Kate looked vibrant and healthy, eager to learn about the programs offered by Home-Start UK.

As mentioned earlier, the Duchess wore an ASOS Maternity dress, the brand’s exclusive Wrap Skater Dress in Polka Dot ($63).

The dress is rayon with 4% elastene for stretch; it features three-quarter length sleeves, a broad and deep vee neck, empire waistline seaming, and wrap styling. ASOS notes the frock is designed to fit through all stages of pregnancy. It is $63 and out of stock. However, the folks at The Mirror Royal Twitter account shared that ASOS expects to have more dresses in stock next week. Our thanks to Charlotte at HRH Duchess Kate, she quickly IDed the frock.

The Duchess accessorized with her Mulberry Bayswater clutch.

And her Stuart Weitzman Power pumps ($355).

The shoe is black suede with a 3-3/4″ heel.

In the jewelry category we saw the Kiki McDonough Pink Morganite Earrings ….

…Kate’s Mappin and Webb Fortune Pendant…

…and her Cartier Ballon Bleu wristwatch.

Back to the UFO (Unidentified Fashion Object) Coat mentioned earlier in the post. Not only did Rebecca English of The Daily Mail fill us in on what Kate said about her due date, she also resolved one of our longest and most perplexing UFOs. Remember this photo of Kate back in October of 2012?

The Duke and Duchess had enjoyed an evening out at Loulou’s, a private club in Mayfair. Upon seeing the photographs many of us were intrigued (a slight understatement) by the coat the Duchess was wearing. It turns out the garment was made by “Kate’s private dressmaker,” according to the information Rebecca received today.

We had several requests via Twitter and Facebook for enhanced images to better show the coat details. Here is one graphic showcasing the ruffle trim at the front coat placket; it looks like pleated/ruffled black tulle. I do not believe it is actual fringe, it is more of a ruffled or pleated embellishment.

Carly at Kate Middleton Style has a very interesting theory about the “private dressmaker,” you can read about it in her post today.

Because some may not have seen the info regarding the dress Kate was wearing that evening, it was the ‘Rozalia,’ from a 2009 Reiss collection. This was a major Tip of the Tiara to Julie G on the WKW Facebook page, as well as Beth, who found the link to an eBay auction for the Rozalia. (There’s a bit more info about the ID in this post from 2012.)

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A quick update from our friends at Seraphine Maternity: Kate’s ‘Marina’ coat is back in stock.

The Duchess wore the wool tweed coat when arriving in New York last December.

The coat is available in all sizes, is $495.

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One additional note: Kate and William have three engagements next week in South London.

• the first is at the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, where the couple will meet board members and tour the facility
• the second engagement is at XLP (eXcel Project) at Christ Church, William and Kate will watch an Arts Showcase program at the church
• the day’s final engagement is at the Hazel Grove Estate where they will see an XLP-r8 Community Bus and the XLP Mobile Recording Studio

LINKAGE:

• The Home-Start UK website is here, its Facebook page is here, its Twitter feed is here, and the group’s YouTube channel is here
• To read Home-Start’s story/news release about today’s visit, click here
• Rebecca English’s photo-rich story in The Daily Mail is here, The Daily Mirror’s live blog and photo gallery can be viewed here , The Express coverage is here
• Press Association reporter Alex Diaz shared some Vine videos: one with Kate arriving is here, another is here and another may be seen here.
• A quick video from The Daily Mail is here,