The Cambridges as a Family of Five at Trooping the Colour 2019

The Duchess wore Alexander McQueen for Trooping the Colour.

And we saw all five members of the Cambridge family on the iconic balcony of Buckingham Palace.

The event is the official commemoration of HM’s birthday.  

It’s believed the initial Trooping the Colour was during the reign of King Charles II. Below, HM at her first Trooping the Colour in 1947. 

Another view of the Duchess today, riding in a carriage with the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 

The Welsh Guards. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 

The Grenadier Guards. 

The Earl and Countess of Wessex, Lady Louise, and just barely visible in the lower left corner, James, Viscount Severn.  

The event is also known as the Queen’s Birthday Parade. 

It involves more than 1400 parading military personnel, almost 300 horses, and 400 musicians. 

From The Telegraph’s coverage:

Trooping the Colour originated from traditional preparations for battle. Colours, or flags, were carried, or “trooped”, down the rank so they could be seen and recognised by the soldiers.

Below, the four Royal Colonels, from left to right: the Prince of Wales as Colonel of the Welsh Guards; The Duke of Cambridge, the Irish Guards; the Duke of York, the Grenadier Guards; the Princess Royal, the Blues and Royals.

 

HM reviewing her troops at Horse Guards Parade. 

A few of the younger royals watched the action from inside Buckingham Palace. 

That is Prince Louis, about to make his debut on the Palace balcony!

Another view of HM. 

After the trooping part of the day ends it is time to head to Buckingham Palace for the flypast.

 

It was quite a crowd watching the RAF Red Arrows race across the sky. 

As noted above, Prince Louis joined the celebration for the first time. 

The photos from this part of the celebration are always fun. 

Kate pointing something out. 

One of the Red Arrows taking part in today’s flyby. 

The Duke and his youngest son. 

Mother and daughter.

I think Charlotte gave Louis lessons in royal waving.

 

In this one, it looks like maybe Kate was trying to get Louis to take his thumb out of his mouth. 

Another view of the family. 

And a cute one of Louis with his mother. 

We’ll do a quick look at what some of the other royal women wore, starting with HM, who wore an Angela Kelly tweed dress in pale pink, mint yellow, and gold. Her matching hat is also by Ms. Kelly.  Ella Kay of the Court Jeweller reports HM has worn the same brooch at Trooping the Colour for more than 20 years, the Guards’ Brooch. 

The Duchess of Cornwall wore a Bruce Oldfield ensemble in green with white embroidery and a hat by Philip Treacy. Many thanks to Sara and Carol for their comments noting the Duchess wore this for the garden party celebrating the Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday just days after last May’s royal wedding.

The Duchess of Sussex was in a navy design by Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy with a hat by Noel Stewart. 

Princess Eugenie wore an Amanda Wakeley dress with an Emily London hat, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, was in traditional morning dress with a top hat worn for the carriage procession. Lady Louise was in the same navy frock worn for Princess Eugenie’s wedding. Sophie is in a Suzannah dress with a Jane Taylor hat. Many thanks to UFO No More and Polka Popp for some of the ID work on this trio of ladies. 

Sophie Winkleman and her husband, Lord Frederick Windsor, Prince Michael, newlywed Thomas Kingston, Princess Michael, and the other half of the newlywed couple, Lady Gabriella Windsor, whose wedding we recently covered.

Now for our look at what Kate wore. 

She was in a soft yellow dress by Alexander McQueen that featured a v-neck with double elongated collar, inset waistband, and slightly peaked shoulders.  Many immediately recognized her hat; it is the Philip Treacy worn for last May’s royal wedding.

A look at the Duchess’s updo. 

Kate also wore the Queen’s Bahrain Pearl and Diamond Drop earrings, so called because the pearls used for the earrings were a wedding gift to Princess Elizabeth for her wedding. More information comes via Her Majesty’s Jewel Vault:

One of the wedding gifts received by Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in 1947 was a pearl shell containing seven large pearls from the ruler of Bahrain at the time. According to the Royal Collection, two of these pearls were used not long after to create this pair of earrings.

The earrings each contain one large round diamond and four smaller ones, three baguette diamonds, and a Bahrain pearl dangling below.

They were first worn for Remembrance Sunday in November 2016; then again at Royal Ascot in June 2017 and a church service in Scotland with HM in August 2018. The Duchess also wore a cross pendant.

It is not the same pendant we have seen Kate wear on other occasions. Below left you see the necklace worn today and on the right, the pendant worn on several occasions.

The Duchess carried a white clutch that is similar to an Alexander McQueen style. UPDATE: The clutch is called the Butterfly Box Clutch and it originally retailed for £2050.

Many thanks to a Facebook friend who wishes to remain anonymous for sharing the photo and information about the bag.

Town and Country, and several other publications noted that Prince Louis may have been wearing the outfit Prince Harry wore for Trooping the Colour 1986.

 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For his debut on the Buckingham Palace balcony today, Prince Louis wore the very same shirt that his uncle, Prince Harry, had worn on the same balcony decades ago. The blue and white smocked outfit reads as traditional, as it likely did even when Harry wore it. Click the link in our bio for on Louis’s sweet nod to Harry at #TroopingtheColour. #princeharry #princelouis

A post shared by TOWN&COUNTRY (@townandcountrymag) on Jun 8, 2019 at 6:33am PDT

We’ll leave you with this image of the family at Trooping the Colour 2019. 

For more on the children have a look at today’s What Kate’s Kids Wore post here.

For more on the Duchess of Sussex, visit What Meghan Wore by clicking here.

VIDEOS:

This one from ITN’s Royal Family Channel is about 3 minutes; it has the carriage rides and some of the parade.

And this one is all video from the balcony. At about 2:17 you’ll see Prince George do a classic wave goodbye.

 

 

LINKAGE:

• The Telegraph’s story is here; some of The Daily Mirror’s coverage is here
• A Hello! story is here; the Bazaar photo gallery is here; Town and Country’s gallery is here
• The Washington Post has a more in-depth story about HM in this piece