You Can Actually Buy One of Kate Middleton’s Iconic Costume Pieces From The Crown

Netflix; Getty Images

In season six of The Crown, Kate Middleton (played by newcomer Meg Bellamy) doesn’t appear until the seventh episode, but even when we see her for the last time in the ninth episode, she’s still years away from marrying Prince William and becoming the Duchess of Cambridge. While it might strike some as a missed opportunity to get to revisit those early tour years of L.K. Bennett pumps and sparkly Jenny Packham gowns, The Crown costume designers (and real-life mother-daughter duo) Amy and Sidonie Roberts didn’t mind. In fact, Sidonie says she was downright thrilled over the pre-royal wardrobe.

“Kate is my age, so I was quite excited because of the ownership I could have over [those years],” Sidonie tells Glamour. “I went to school with girls that dressed like that. Plus, it’s an interesting period because we call it no man’s land in terms of costume. It’s not Princess Anne in the ’60s. It’s a very specific look.”

As Amy points out, Kate’s journey in the final episodes of The Crown (which are out now) are quite short compared to other main characters’. “We have her from a middle-class schoolgirl to a student at St. Andrew’s. It’s rather exciting then for people to see where she’s come from.”

Even though 2005 is nearly 20 years ago (I know), the styles are, according to Amy, “too recent for costume houses to really pay attention to it, but not far enough away for us to warrant making things.” As a result, the Robertses took to eBay, and one shop in Majorca of all places. “There was a charity shop,” Amy says, “and it was like the Kate Middleton, Carole Middleton shop. I just felt like it was serendipity. Like pure luck.”

Lucky for us, you don’t have to go to Majorca to find several of Kate Middleton’s early staples. (Although, hey, a field trip to the island off of Spain sure does sound nice.) Below, Amy and Sidonie reveal where you can get three of Kate’s signature pieces, and the secrets behind some of her most memorable looks.

Kate Middleton’s brown tassel boots

The riding boots that Meg Bellamy’s Kate Middleton wears in The Crown are actually the same ones that the Princess of Wales still wears in her private life. “Those were Penelope Chilvers, and she’s a great fan [of The Crown] and friend of Kate,” Amy Roberts tells Glamour. “She’s always been very loyal to Kate, and still is.” Amy reveals that Chilvers donated the long-tassel boots, in the conker color, which retail for $695, for use on the show. “She didn’t want any credit. She just said, ‘I’d love to give you these boots for Meg.’”

Kate Middleton’s lace-edged ribbon-belt cardigan

The Whistles knit velvet ribbon-belt cardigan that Kate wore in the mid-’00s is seen in a key scene in The Crown’s ninth episode. “In the show, Kate takes William back to her family’s house, and he’s in his blazer and chinos and she’s in a little Whistles top with a lace-edged vest with a bow on it,” Sidonie Roberts says. “That was Whistles’ key piece. We had a pink one also, but that was cut.”

Whistles doesn’t make that same cardigan anymore, but you can still buy it on eBay.

Kate Middleton’s boot-cut jeans

All of Kate’s pre-royal outfits were relatively easy to source, but the hardest part, at least according to Sidonie, is that she and Amy never knew if the clothes they chose would be seen from the waist up. “So much of the silhouette in 2005 is the bottom half,” Sidonie explains, “so there’d be moments where I was screaming at the telly when I watched it going, ‘Please just film her boot-leg jeans, her boot-cut jeans.’ Otherwise it just looks like a kind of V-neck top.” With Diana’s styles in seasons four, five, and six, her clothes in the torse were always identifiable because according to Sidonie, “she’d have that pie crust [collar] on, so it was always easy to establish.”

Speaking of Kate’s boot-cut jeans, most of them were purchased on eBay. “It was the absolute oracle for that period because I couldn’t really source it from costume houses, and it didn’t warrant making [it from scratch],” Sidonie explains. “So eBay was my best friend.”

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour senior West Coast editor and author of the NYT best-selling book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.

Originally Appeared on Glamour