I was standing in front of my closet in my underwear on Tuesday morning at 7: 23 wearing the parenting equivalent of a unicorn smiley face jumper when it hit me. As my four-year-old pounded aggressively on the bathroom door demanding chocolate chips for breakfast… again, I stared into my closet muttering curses under my breath about how I “had nothing to wear.” NOTHING TO WEAR, PEOPLE. My closet is bursting at the seams, and I still run into this problem all the time.
But that’s when I started thinking about how Kate Middleton always manages to avoid this very issue. Preschool pickup, Trader Joe’s, coffee with the mum I’m pretending to like but actually kind of hate from the girls’ playgroup, then home for dinner and bedtime. Simple.
Doesn’t require crazy clothing, but also not wearing yoga trousers would be preferred. Ever since I first started noticing what Duchess Kate wore (around age 12, for the record; I promise I’m not a stalker, just exceptionally nosy), I’ve loved how she always seems to strike the perfect balance between appropriate and tired parenting-boycott tee shirt.
She attends a polo match wearing trousers that aren’t jeans but are also not super uncomfortable or expensive-looking.
The woman can throw on a pair of jeans and somehow look primped for business meetings but totally chill for kicking her feet up after quipping with world leaders.
How does she do it? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been obsessed with royal fashion news since way before becoming a Duchess was even on her radar.
Journalism degree + years of working in PR = cannot look away from a sensational headline. But it wasn’t until I had kids; and my pre-kid wardrobe basically went up in flames; with me traipsing around Target in yoga trousers did I start paying closer attention to what WAS working for Kate on a day-to-day basis. Ever since that morning epiphany while gulping down lukewarm coffee and clutching a destroyed bagel, I’ve been thinking a lot about how Kate approaches getting dressed.
She’s got to be strategic about her wardrobe, sure, but it’s more than that. Sure, she has to adhere to the unofficial rules of royal dressing, but when you really start to dissect her style, most of them aren’t actually rules at all. They’re guidelines.
Tricks of the trade. Insider hacks that anyone can use to elevate their wardrobe from “Sunday brunch with my jeans” to “girl’s night when we all pretend to dress up.” Royal women must always wear pantyhose. Royal women must never be seen in trousers.
NEWSFLASH: Kate Middleton wears jeans all the time. Kate Middleton regularly rocks trainers and no tights at adorable tourist events. There is a method to the madness.
It’s just that most articles about dressing like a royal focus so much on all the stuff you can’t do that they completely forget about everything you CAN. Case in point: Everything I learned about getting dressed from Her Royal Badness herself. Kate approaches her outfits like a dialogue.
Each choice is intentional. Whether she’s sporting blue to honour the Scottish flag or re-wearing an outfit to make a statement about sustainability or deliberately choosing a British designer to support the local industry or wearing something her husband already owns to honour her host country, she’s speaking to us with her clothes. All.
The. Time. I wore grey jeans and aStatement Jacket so Alex would stop glaring at me every time he passed our son’s teacher’s desk during drop-off.
They were mad at me. I get it. We were meeting to discuss Thing Two’s bad behaviour (he’s a terror who somehow bypasses my son’s sweet nature and commits every offence straight-up), and I knew my typical jeans and T-shirt combo wasn’t going to cut it.
Normally I would have thrown on dark wash jeans and anything-but-dark boyfriend jeans I had hanging around, but after some serious mental deliberation with my wardrobe, I ended up grabbing a navy blazer to go with my jeans. Reasonable enough for an early morning meeting with a teacher and not so stuffy that I looked like I was going to court my son for wrongdoing. There’s something about a well-defined silhouette that just screams PUT TOGETHER.
Kate chooses tops and bottoms that aren’t clingy but still flatter her figure. Nothing too fitted, nothing too billowy. She’s wearing clothes that actually FIT her!
Everything has a shape, from her A-line skirts to her straight-leg trousers to her blazers. Lesson learned: Make sure everything you own has a defined silhouette. In all my fretting over what to wear for Thing Two’s teacher meeting, I had forgotten about maybe one of the most important wardrobe “rules” Kate has taught us: It’s okay to repeat outfits.
Like, don’t get me wrong, every time the presses make a big stink about Kate wearing the same dress as last week there are a million folks ready to scream BLUE PANTSUIT! Kate’s got outfits she rotates for events just like we all do, but where most of us scream at our closets that we have NOTHING to wear after repeating an outfit once, Kate owns the fashion game by styling her most famous dress at least three different ways. She buys quality pieces that will get her through multiple occasions, then accessorizes differently to change it up.
Guess how many black dresses I own? Nine. Nine black dresses.
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I probably wear each of them once because OF COURSE I DON’T OWN NOTHING AND I’M THE ONLY PERSON WHO EVER DOES THAT EXACT OUTFIT TWICE. But my favourite go-to dress that I actually wear all the time? A wrap dress I snagged from Madewell years ago.
It’s been worn to weddings (with different jewellery, shoes, and jackets but the same dang dress), church, date night, you name it. Royal inspiration strikes again: Invest in fewer pieces but wear them on repeat, mixing up your accessories to keep your old favourites feeling new. One tip that took me years to wrap my brain around: Kate spends money on the important stuff and saves on everything else.
Sound familiar? Like when you bought that awesome pair of black boots and suddenly realised everything goes with black boots? She mixes expensive coats with Jeans She Would Never Be Seen Dead In From Zara.
She wears whites from & Other Stories at an afternoon tea. She pairs cute-but-not-Gucci trainers with everything. When I learned this trick, I stopped myself every time I tried to scoop up something expensive I didn’t REALLY need and would probably only wear once or twice.
Sure, some of that is obviously budget-based; I’ll never be spending thousands on a blazer; but it’s made me a lot more conscious about where I choose to splurge and where I should save my pennies. Ever notice how Kate rarely mixes prints but will frequently colour block? She basically wears all-navy or all-green or all-camel a lot.
Not only does this make getting dressed WAY easier than trying to find patterns that match your trousers, but it also helps you create a put-together look with ZERO effort. Try wearing head-to-toe denim or pick an unexpected colour to mono-colour your outfit around. I did a whole week of it, believe it or not!
Monday: Rust coloured jumper, trousers, boots. Tuesday: Navy blue dress and jacket, ballet flats. Wednesday: Camel coloured shirt, trousers, boots.
Not one person noticed my experiment, but THREE different people told me how put-together I looked that week. Best part? It wasn’t harder than my normal routine.
I just made an effort to choose each piece more intentionally. One thing you CAN’T discount when it comes to royal fashion is that Everything Kate Middleton wears is a statement. Pick one thing you want to wear a statement with and keep the rest of your outfit streamlined.
It doesn’t matter if that’s a cute hat or a silly jumper dress or a scarf as long as you let one piece speak for the whole ensemble. When I wore this cute jumper dress and a vintage Chanel clutch to Thing 1’s spring concert last week, everyone asked where I got the dress. Sure, it would have been more of a “statement” if I paired it with my over-the-top Tory Burch heels and chunky Stuart Weitzman bracelet, but wearing just ONE fun piece really made my outfit.
Kate always chooses pieces that work for what SHE is doing, not for what THE PUBLIC THINKS SHE SHOULD BE DOING. Notice I didn’t say what the media thinks she should be doing. She wears practical shoes to run after kids in; she doesn’t wear heels she can’t walk in just because they’re pretty.
She wears a jumper that covers her butt when sitting down; she doesn’t stress aboutShowing Skin when necessary. When getting dressed, ask yourself if you’ll be running around ALL DAY or sitting at a desk typing (sandals, shopping bags not allowed.) Will you be bending over? Sitting on the floor?
Driving vs. parking a mile away and getting exercise we all know you’re not gonna? After years of standing in a coworking space bathroom stuffing Spanx into my jeans while holding my hair in a bun so I didn’t mess up my makeup (true story), I started doing what I like to call the “sit test” before wearing anything too fitted or tight.
Does this shirt creep up when I sit down?
Will these heels destroy my feet and back if I have to chase my kid around all afternoon?
Not buying that pair of short shorts until I answer yes to both of those questions. Hint: Fashion tape is your BFF.
Prince Louis wore a Superman suit and toddler Kirk Cameron rocked a mullet; but we do NOT live near Buckingham Palace. One royal dressing rule that DOES apply to us mere mortals? Those dang car shoes.
Obviously, I don’t have to worry aboutappropriateness of flat bonnets when I run out to pick up my kids, but I have noticed myself worrying WAY less about what I wear knowing that I can throw on a pair of cute flats and be totally appropriate for anywhere I need to go. Trust me; you don’t have to break the bank for royal-worthy footwear. Skip the boots with holes in them and go for something cute but comfortable.
Truth: I can’t afford much of what’s in Kate’s closet. But that doesn’t mean I can’t steal her style hacks and outfit formulas without committing crimes of fashion jealousy. Just remember how Mary Poppins rode off into the sunset wearing that freaking umbrella and think of cost-per-wear whenever you’re wondering if something is worth the price tag.
Nine black dresses, anyone?
