Kate Middleton Goes from White Tie to Business Casual in Less Than 12 Hours
Photos: Getty.
In the history of getting dressed for work, there is grand tradition of going from day to night. It’s an essential working woman’s skill in a world where Tinder dates schedule meet-ups after a busy day or when the office holiday party is responsibly scheduled for Wednesday night. Less typical, though, is the intensely formal white-tie evening followed by just another day of work in the morning. How does one make that leap from feeling positively royal for a night and then waking up to reality the night after? Take heart from Kate Middleton, actual royal, who managed to go white tie—tiara and all—Tuesday evening, only to wake up Wednesday morning ready to work in a red tunic and black tights that is, dare we say, business casual. She’s always been a Duchess who could do both, but the turnaround here is something else.
The annual winter party at Buckingham Palace Tuesday night is one of the largest the palace sees all year. The Queen welcomes diplomats from 170 missions in the U.K. and kicks off the holiday season. Middleton wore the Lover’s Knot tiara, which was commissioned for Queen Mary a century ago and was often seen on Princess Diana (the Duchess last wore the tiara for the state banquet in July). She paired it with diamond and pearl drop earrings, a stunning diamond necklace, and white dress that wasn’t fully revealed (thank goodness for the traditional through-the-rolled-down-window photograph at least).
In the morning, she and Prince William, who also looked sharp in his white tie the previous evening, attended the Children’s Global Media Summit in Manchester, where delegates from 30 countries gathered to discuss digital technology and its impact on the younger generation. That would include, of course, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and, eventually, their third child in April.
First, they joined the BBC children’s department for what the company calls “Stepping Out” sessions. It’s a focus group where young people discuss their perspective with the children’s editorial staff, who create programming for the kids. The subject was mental health that day and the Duke and Duchess sat in tiny chairs to hear from primary school kids on up to a 14-year-old named Josh, who spoke of asking for help. Then the Duchess attended a “Sesame Workshop” hosted by the team behind Sesame Street, and Prince William attended a brief private task force on cyberbullying. The goal, according to Kensington Palace, is to develop a method through which any child might be able to report online abuse.
William, too, gave the keynote on mental health. He praised digital media’s help in facilitating “civic involvement” in young people and said that participation is “without parallel in human history.” But he cautioned to not “pretend that the impact of digital technology is all positive or, indeed, even understood. I am afraid to say that, as a parent, I believe we have grounds for concern.”
He said, “Parents like Catherine and me are raising the first generation of digitally immersed children—and this gives us many reasons to be optimistic about the impact of technology on childhood,” and admitted to needing a guide book on how to raise a child alongside so much technology. It’s odd to think of Prince George’s iPad limits or having to enforce Princess Charlotte’s “no smartphone before bed” rule. It’s odd even to think that a prince and a duchess would struggle with these questions alongside any parent, but royals, they’re a little bit like us. Prince William’s full speech can be found on the royal’s Web site.
This story originally appeared on Vanity Fair.
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