Kate made an appearance at Northolt High School in London to open a new ICAP Art Room today. Kate was greeted by the students in the gym before talking to the staff and observing a short art session. She then cut the ribbon to officially open the Art Room.
The Art Room is a national charity that offers art as a therapy for people aged five to 16 who are facing challenges in their lives. The program helps young people grow in self-confidence and self-esteem and engage in their education.
Kensington Palace said Kate chose this charity as it “reflects her interest in the arts and her particular interest in using the creativity of art to enrich the lives of young people.” Of course, Kate doesn’t really have an interest in art. She only did art history because Will originally did that, and she hasn’t shown any interest in or even knowledge about art since she’s been a Duchess. But sure, interest in art.
Jonathan Lloyd-Jones (the chairman of the trustees) said: “The Duchess has taken a genuine interest in what we have done. It has been a real commitment on her part and we feel very privileged.” I have to side-eye this statement. Of course he isn’t going to publicly bad mouth her, but what “genuine interest” and “real commitment” has she shown? She opens a few Art Rooms and visits a few times, but really, that’s it. It’s not like she’s really involved.
Interesting to note, this Art Room was funded by donations made by City of London brokers on ICAP Charity Day in December 2012, which Kate did not attend because of her fake HG.
UPDATE: I just saw some quotes from people who meet Kate: Gloria Lowe (who chaperoned Kate around) said, “[Kate] really cares… She praised the work in the Art Room, and she was moved and impressed by what she has seen. She’s a wonderful human being… She’s enjoying motherhood… [Kate was] incredibly personable, human and anecdotal about her own interests.” Emma Lowe said, “[The students] were nervous to begin with, but as soon as [Kate] started talking to them about their work and focusing on their art, they were put at ease.” Carly McCormack (a student) said, “[Kate] was amazing… She asked us our names and what we were interested in. She was so easy to talk to.” LOL that she has to say Kate is human. Ugh, I hate that I don’t believe all of this. Of course they are going to say nice things about her to the press, they can’t very well say she was rude or wooden or didn’t take an interest. She’s their patron and they want to keep her. But maybe she was interested and nice and whatever. I hope so, for the Art Room’s sake. /UPDATE.
Kate wore a blue LK Bennett dress that cost about £225/$395. I kind of like the dress. I think it is appropriate for a school visit. It’s to the knee (or just above—might be a bit short actually) and isn’t a flowy skirt that could expose her bum if there was wind. And it was windy as she walked in, so good choice in type of dress. It’s got a faux jacket-like lapel thing, which… I don’t know, the jury is still out on that one for me. I don’t think it’s my favorite dress or anything, but I could see myself wearing it to work—it’s to the knee, the arms are covered and there isn’t any cleavage. The color looks good on her. She really needs to wear more vibrant colors—royal blue, red, and dark purple look the best on her. Kate also wore black pumps and carried a black clutch.
As for jewelry, Kate wore a Cartier watch. WhatKateWore says it’s new. Maybe a Valentine’s Day gift from William? The watch is priced at $6,000. Kate also wore a £3950 (roughly $6,600) Mappin & Webb necklace she’s worn a few times now. She wore Kiki McDonough Green Amethyst and Diamond Cushion Drop earrings worth £1,200 (roughly $2,000) which are also new. Kate was also spotted wearing a small platinum and diamond band on her ring finger with her wedding band and engagement ring. She was seen wearing this ring at the Portrait Gala, too. So maybe that was a Christmas gift?
Overall, Kate wore $14,600 worth of jewelry—and that doesn’t include her platinum/diamond band—and a $14,995 outfit (not including clutch and shoes). Damn. Granted, the necklace is a repeat, but still.
On a related note, Kate took George and Lupo for a walk yesterday (Thursday). She even picked up Lupo’s dog sh-t when he took a dump on the grass. She again didn’t put Lupo on a leash—wtf, aren’t there leash laws in London? And again, no protection officers in the photos–even though they had to have been there. Seriously, she must be calling the paps for these “hands on mom taking her son to the park” excursions, because we get photos every single time. Dear Kate, no matter how many happy-family/taking-your-son-for-a-walk photo ops you give us, we still aren’t going to believe you’re fully hands on and don’t have, like, three nannies.
PS. Some things I noticed: Kate has horrible posture (see video for evidence)—I already knew this, but she hasn’t worked on it at all. Kate needs to stop touching her hair—again, I already knew this, but it needs to be repeated because she keeps doing it. Kate needs to shut her mouth—we really don’t need to see her tonsils. Kate really needs to stop jutting out her jaw—if only so it doesn’t cause her jaw problems.
Here is a video of Kate at the Art Room:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1psVNNefiIY&w=560&h=315]
Photo from Clarence House’s Twitter page.
how many times did she play with her hair, she looks immature, only she in the whole room kept playing with her hair, and that expensive bling really looks cheap on her, what a waste william should have done better than this!
If we played a drinking game where we took a shot every time she touched her hair, we’d all be drunk in five minutes.
The watch is expensive because it’s Cartier, but there’s nothing really fancy about it. And I have no idea how that necklace cost that much. It looks cheap to me.
To be fair to the jewelry, though, the Queen’s necklace also looked cheap on Kate, and that thing is expensive and beautiful when the Queen wears it. It may be how she’s wearing the jewelry at least the Queen’s piece.
You apparently have forgotten about photography. She has/had an interest in it, put out some photos she took in SE Asia, and they were all slammed. If she puts anything else out in the public domain I’ll be very surprised. That had to have hurt, and I felt some sympathy for her over it. That’s a roundabout way of saying I don’t agree with you that she doesn’t have any interest in art.
I did forget her photography. Clearly her SE Asia photos made such a huge impression on me, lol. I’ll be fair to her, it takes a lot of courage to put something you’ve worked on out there for other people to judge. And getting the reaction she got over those photos would hurt most people. I doubt she will publish anything else. If I were her, though, I would. It would take me a long time to build up the courage to, but I would at some point. I would make sure I took some great photos and I’d publish them and say, “In your face, a-holes, these pictures rock!” But she probably won’t do that. I think she should. I think she should work on her photography, take some classes or work privately, and take some great photos and publish them. What that would prove is that she actually does have a real passion for photography and is willing to take criticism, learn from it, and make herself better. I think it would quiet some critics if she was willing to work hard at something like that. There would always be those people who will hate on her no matter what, but I think it would be a good move for her to show she actually has an interest in something.
The thing is, though, I don’t think she really had/has that much of interest in photography. I think it was a way to say she was actually doing something and not just flitting around, by saying she worked for her parents as a photographer. Also, it was purely PR in my opinion when they claimed she was taking an apprenticeship or whatever it was they claimed she was doing with some great photographer–again, to prove she was more than just William’s doormat. She was supposed to have been a huge photography person, but then she put those photos out there and didn’t realize not to back-light a subject (something she and her father have in common) and take a photo of an orangutan in black and white where you can’t even tell what the black blob is (it was the orangutan). Also, she put those photos out there as some PR move to prove she has an interest in something (the same for William’s RAF photos, it was PR to show that he actually worked), but it backfired because all it proved was that she really wasn’t as good as they had claimed she was. The use of black and white, to me, seemed like she was trying to be “arty” but didn’t understand that it made it so the viewer could barely tell what the subject was. It seemed like she equated B&W with “art” so used it without actually thinking about it. Also, she was taking photos of a rain forest, she should have used color to capture the beauty and life of the rain forest. Someone who had been a keen photographer for years and worked as a photographer and whatnot should take better photos than that. Those photos, for me, were more a PR move than her actually having an interest in photography.
I do/did feel somewhat badly for her, since I know how hard it is to take overly harsh criticism, but then again if those photos were purely for PR, then I doubt she would have cared that much.
I may be completely wrong, she may have had and still has a huge interest in photography and art in general, but the limited times she’s shown us her interest in it have failed. I hope, for her sake, she does still have an interest in photography. And I hope she does improve her skills and releases more, better photos at some point in the future.
Sorry about the long reply.
Don’t apologize for a long response that actually says something! I like what you say; and I hope she puts something out there again as well. But she doesn’t appear to be a leader, she appears to be a follower so I’m not sure she will. I hope so too.
Maybe she gets her artistic side out in her clothing. It’s the only creative area where I’m good, so maybe she’s the same way. Perhaps I say that as I generally like her clothes, even the ones that should have been modified for a public engagement.
One of my favorite outfits she’s ever worn was one that I criticized for being too short. It was the Paule Ka burgundy outfit she wore in 2012. I thought it was cute and was a great color.
She does spend a lot of time shopping and picking out clothes, so she may get her creativity out that way. If that’s the case, I’d love to see her have a personal designer (like how the Queen has Angela Kelly) and design her own clothes. That would be fun.
and what was she doing for the many long years courting willy, she could have pursued her photography career , instead of waiting around for a call from william to go jetsetting around, the thing is if william loved her as they tabloids tell us, she would not have been worried about a havng career and keeping her man, she was insecure she threw everything away, and that is why she is so ill equiped for her role as a duchess
She’s insecure about her relationship because William is an ass who treated her poorly. Unfortunately she thought keeping him was her only way to succeed, so dropped everything to be with him.
It seems to me that if she had a genuine interest in anything other than nabbing William she wouldn’t give up just because of some poor reviews. And her clothing choices…! How bad are they when she has to now take fashion advice from the Queen! Kate could be dressing appropriately with a bit of an edge but instead she frequently looks frumpy. And now that I’m ranting I’ll finish up by saying that Princess Diana’s genuine interest in and compassion for people was obvious. Kate has neither and can’t even act as if she does. Yes, William could have done so much better.
“It seems to me that if she had a genuine interest in anything… she wouldn’t give up just because of some poor reviews.” Very true.
Re her clothes: I think she needs a good stylist. Someone to put an outfit together with great accessories to make an outfit pop. Kate seems to like clothes, but doesn’t seem to care too much about shoes or other parts of an outfit, or doing anything with her hair other than her usual style. I like some of her dresses, but she needs some great accessories and styling to make the outfit really great. There is a difference between dressing appropriately and dressing frumpy and I think a great stylist would be able to balance that. Also, I think that if she stopped wearing so many soft colors and wore more vibrant colors it would help. I think a lot of the outfits that have been called frumpy have been softer colors.
I agree about the advantage of a good stylist…maybe we could nominate ourselves for the position! Also agree about the pastels…usually look so much better on babies and older ladies.