Kate Middleton Channels Barbiecore (Again!) to Open Children's Museum — and Gets Hug Swarmed by Kids

The Princess of Wales visited the newly-transformed Young V&A museum in London's East End wearing a familiar outfit

Kate Middleton is enjoying the company of some little museum-goers!

The Princess of Wales, 41, opened the recently-transformed Young V&A museum in London Wednesday and was shown some of the exhibits by a group of children who were part of the renewal project. The museum, which is dedicated to children and youngsters aged 0 to 14, was carefully renovated over the past three years and includes three new galleries called Play, Imagine and Design.

Kate chatted with students from the Globe Primary School, who enthusiastically welcomed her to the space.

"Our children are super keen to talk to the Princess of Wales during her visit @young_vam," the school shared on Twitter. "This is not a typical Wednesday morning for them!"

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Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, tells PEOPLE that Kate's interactions with the youngsters were "brilliant." The play session “is about collaboration and cooperation and communication — all of the things that have been under such pressure in COVID. This space is where children can get together and have to work together through play.”

He chuckles at the thought of the children’s innocent but sometimes drawn-out tales, "chapter after chapter. She was very very generous listening to their stories,” Hunt says. "As you can imagine, she was encouraging. She wanted to know what objects they were drawing upon in the gallery." There was a boy who brought along a police Tardis box, and one had a Samurai uniform. “They talked about the connection between those and the storytelling.”

In addition to being shown things at the museum and posing for a group photo with the children, Princess Kate was seen getting bombarded with hugs.

"Big hugs from Globe children to the Princess of Wales at the preview of our wonderful local museum, the Young V&A," the school captioned photos of the Princess of Wales surrounded by students, putting her arms around them.

“They wanted to hug her a lot," Hunt adds, saying the Princess of Wales was “suitably responsive."

Kate began her tour in the Play Gallery, which is designed to provide a sensory landscape for toddlers and draws on how infants experience the world.

She was then led to an area called The Arcade, where teenagers can explore the history and process of video game and board game design.

Next, in the Design Gallery, Kate was shown how innovative objects are designed and how design has the power to make a positive impact on the world. The gallery will also put on workshops for young people to escape and create, inspiring the new thinkers of tomorrow.

In the Imagine Gallery, she was shown some spaces designed to encourage creative expression through performance, storytelling, imagination and community — and where kids can put on costumes to dress up and act in their own shows.

She ended her visit to the museum in London's East End by talking with supporters and benefactors who played a major role in the redevelopment project of the museum, which was previously called the Museum of Childhood and opens to the public this weekend.

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Hunt said that Kate was interested in the museum because of how it fits in with her work via her Royal Foundation Centre of Early Childhood, which is focused “on the resilience and early years development.”

"She’s interested in this space not only as a parent and as an art historian but also because of the centre’s work on early years’ development this has a number of touch points and interests for her," he explains. “What this place is about is how you create cultural confidence and creative enjoyment in the early years through objects and design and play and imagination.”

“She’d been here in the past when it was the Museum of Childhood so understood the difference from a museum which was about the social history of childhood to [what is] a museum for children and a museum for encouraging play and imagination in young people," Hunt continues. "Because she’s across the research on this, she understood what we’re trying to do with the museum and texture and the importance of learning through play. All of these elements are part of her agenda.”

Having her there was not only important “because she’s the royal patron,” Hunt adds. “But because of her work on the early years and the leadership and conversation, she’s providing through the Centre for Early Childhood. Her message is, 'Yes, cognitive development is really important in the early years but so also is socio-emotional resilience — so how do you build up self-control and those social skills in the early years.' "

Princess Kate wore a pink dress by Beulah for the children's museum outing, and there's a reason the look seems familiar — she first wore the piece during a day at Wimbledon in 2021.

The look combined two of Kate's go-to fashion trends of late: recycling previously worn summer ensembles (just yesterday, she gave new life to another recent Wimbledon look) and Barbiecore. The pink aesthetic has become a fashion staple among celebrities — aligning with the highly-anticipated Barbie film starring Margot Robbie slated to premiere on July 21.

The royal mom of three also favors pink at children-centric events. She memorably promised young cancer patient Mila Sneddon that she would wear the little girl's favorite color when they met, and Kate came through on the promise at the Palace of Holyroodhouse for their first meeting. (Mila also dressed for the occasion, sporting her own pink ensemble and tiara!)

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On Tuesday, the royal also stepped out to shine a spotlight on a pioneering program dedicated to keeping women in the justice system with their children.

Kate visited Hope Street in Southampton, England which was designed and developed by One Small Thing, a charity working to improve the justice system for women and children.

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