Kate Middleton’s Dress Is a Playful Nod to Wimbledon History

Today’s Wimbledon women’s singles final, held at the All England Club in London, had an impressively starry guestlist. Everyone from Priyanka Chopra to Tom Cruise to rising British tennis star Emma Raducanu made an appearance to watch the nail-biting match on Centre Court.

Yet few made as strong an impact as Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, for whom Wimbledon serves as a well-known highlight within her annual calendar of events. Arriving to the Royal Box with Prince William in a clover-green Emilia Wickstead dress (a designer whose outfits are a staple in Middleton’s wardrobe), it featured cap sleeves and a panelled skirt cut from Wickstead’s signature cloqué fabric, and came paired with her favorite white Gianvito Rossi pumps.

As well as providing all the easy-breezy comfort required for a warm summer’s afternoon watching the tennis, however, the dress also served as a subtle nod to the tennis tournament’s signature color scheme of purple and green, with the latter hue chosen for Middleton’s dress also reflecting Wimbledon’s status as the only Grand Slam tournament played on grass courts. (We all know that Middleton has an impressive eye for an event-appropriate detail, after all.)

And in a moment of synchronicity, it wasn’t the only sartorial nod to the tournament’s history today, either. Ashleigh Barty, who stormed to victory as the winner of the women’s singles trophy, wore a scalloped skirt that paid homage to the outfits worn on the court by one of heroes, the Aboriginal Australian player Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who took home the same trophy exactly 50 years ago.

Kate Middleton’s time at the tournament this year hit a small hitch last Friday, when she received the news part-way through watching a match that she had to undergo a period of isolation, having come into contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. Today’s Wimbledon final represented her first public appearance since—and after presenting the trophy to Barty after her extraordinary victory, it was clear Middleton was back on winning form.

Originally Appeared on Vogue