Two more engagements have been added to Kate’s Calendar.

• Wednesday, November 12: In her role as Patron of SportsAid Kate will attend a workshop at the Human Performance Lab. She will watch athletes being measured in a variety of ways, including strength and power tests, cognitive assessments, and more.
• Wednesday, November 19: Kate will attend the Place2Be Wellbeing in Schools Awards in the Kensington Palace State apartments. The Duchess is the organization’s Patron, there is more information about the awards here.

You can always see the updated list of engagements on our calendar of engagements.

A reminder that Kate and William have two engagements in Wales tomorrow (the 8th). The first is at the Pembroke Oil refinery, where the couple will view a display of the facility’s history in the community. They will also meet workers and members of community groups supported by the refinery and view a performance by the Young Actors Studio. Because it doesn’t appear they will be touring any outside operations, I don’t think we will have another ‘hardhat moment,’ it’s more likely Kate will be in one of her standard daywear dresses and a coat.

The second engagement is the rugby match between Wales and Australia at Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. Weather in both locations is expected to be in the low 50s, with an 80% chance of rain. The stadium has a retractable roof so weather shouldn’t impact the match in any way. For those planning their Saturdays, the match begins at 14:30 local time, 9:30am ET. Cardiff is about two hours by car from Pembroke (a chopper ride between the two cities will be much shorter), so if backtiming from the 2:30 match start it is obvious the Pembroke engagement will be in the morning; my guesstimate is 10am-ish.

This is not Kate’s first visit to Millenium Stadium. She attended a rugby match there in November 2012 and the Welsh team also played on that occasion. The team’s primary color is red; fittingly the Duchess wore her red LK Bennett ‘Ami’ coat and carried a red Gucci clutch.

Michael Steele – WPA Pool/Getty Images

At that time Kate was in the first trimester of her pregnancy with Prince George, not dissimilar to her current situation. A closer look at Kate’s bag.

PA Wire

Look for Kate to be wearing red again, and for both the Duke and Duchess to be wearing poppies. With Remembrance Sunday this weekend, and Armistice Day next Tuesday, we will be seeing many poppies.

We also expect Kate to view Remembrance Sunday ceremonies. The official service at the Cenotaph begins at 11am local time, 6am ET. The BBC’s coverage starts at 1025am. In past years it has been shown on BBC America although I don’t know if that is the plan this year.

Clarence House has started its rolling blog covering Remembrance activities through next Tuesday. Click here to go that site.

The British Monarchy

NOTE: Your trusty correspondent is out of town Saturday and will be attempting her first post via the iPad. To mangle actress Bette Davis’s quote in All About Eve, it could be a bumpy ride.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The poppy conversation is a convenient segue to our other topic today, an update on the art installation at the Tower of London honoring the Centenary of World War I, now simply referred to by many as the ‘Tower poppies‘. This is a fairly long portion of today’s post, and while somewhat related to what Kate wore, it is a more general update on the memorial and growing debate about its immediate future. Readers more interested specifically in fashion may want to depart until tomorrow’s post. Some of the background material will be repetitive for some, it seemed a good idea to share the basics one more time.

The installation’s formal name is “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red.” Here is how it looked when we visited on October 16th.

The KVK Group

There will ultimately be 888,246 poppies filling the Tower’s renowned dry moat, each representing a British or Colonial fatality from the First World War. Almost all have been planted now.

Read More →