Prince William and Kate Middleton, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have officially landed in New Zealand—along with their son, Prince George—to start their three week tour of NZ and Australia. They landed in Sydney first; then took a plane to Wellington. They then went to the Government House for a ceremonial welcome including a Maori Powhiri and a 21 gun salute. Kate meeting the Governor-General and his wife; Kate greeting the Maori with a traditional greeting, called a Hongi; Kate meeting the Maori performers. UPDATE: Here is an article about the Maori greeting and dance, with a lot of nice pictures. It mentions Kate giggling when she met the Maori men who were wearing their traditional garb. I don’t know if she actually giggled or not as I have not seen a video. I have now seen a video and I don’t think she was “giggling” as the article would have us believe. It seemed more to me that she was smiling and laughing at what the man was saying, rather than giggling because she was embarrassed or something. /UPDATE
Kate arrived in Sydney wearing a grey Max Mara dress (£310/$513) she’s worn previously to an appearance at Hope House in February 2013. Kate also wore Manolo Blahnik heels in beige ($595). They are a smaller heel than she usually wears. I like it. Hopefully we’ll see those again.
Kate made a costume change between Sydney and Wellington. When she touched down in Wellington Kate wore a red Catherine Walker coat, with a red dress underneath, and a red Gina Foster pillbox hat. She also was back to her super high black heels she’s worn a lot. Kate also wore a diamond and platinum silver fern brooch, which is from the Queen’s collection and was a gift from NZ from her tour in 1954. I’ll start with something nice: I love the color on her. I do like her in red. Now, before I get into all the air stewardess jokes, I have to say… BUTTONS!!! It’s attack of the buttons with that coat. I didn’t notice them at first, but when I saw a full shot all I could see was buttons, and now I can’t see anything else. They are so large, and there are so many of them. Of course, Kate is getting a lot of comparisons to air stewardesses… because there is a striking similarity. Or she could have just been trying to copy Diana (again). Or she was channeling Jackie. Take your pick, I guess. Kate’s skirt flew up in the wind, again. It was a good thing she was wearing the coat or else the skirt underneath really would have gone flying—it was trying to. You can see it in the video (posted below). She never learns (or maybe she thought she was safe while wearing the coat). I have to say, if it weren’t for the matching hat, and those awful buttons, it would have been a nice coat. But the shoulder pads, those terrible buttons, and the matching hat make her look like she’s wearing a bad costume from the set of Pan Am (disregarding that they wore blue). So close Kate, so close. OH! Something else nice: Kate wore her hair in a half-updo. Her bangs still got in the way because of the wind, but it was better than wearing it down. I like the half-updo on her.
George looked adorable, but I can’t help but think he was probably over the whole thing. It was a 25-27 hour flight, right? He was probably grumpy. He looked grumpy, and he was moving around and trying to escape Kate’s grasp. Poor thing. That flight really must have disrupted his schedule. BTW, we got an image of his nanny, Maria.
Links: Daily Mail article. Other Daily Mail article. Express article. Getty Images pictures. ITV articles. Daily Telegraph Australia article. WhatKateWore. Photo is a screen grab from the livefeed.
Nice coat Kate and for once a lower hem on her dress. This is a good thing as it was windy (Wellington is know as “Windy Wellington” for a reason here!). So that means the story about Kate putting weights in her skirt so it doesn’t blow up is just wishful thinking! 🙁
I know. I want to think she knew she would be wearing the dress under a coat so didn’t think she needed weights in that dress, but has weights in all her other dresses. I guess we’ll see.
If she doesn’t want wind issues, she should wear pencil skirts.
Pencil skirts really would solve everything (well, at least her wind issues).
Or pinning the bottom of her coat closed like her LIW did would have solved the immediate problem of her wardrobe flying north.
Other than the buttons (which I totally agree with you on), I think she looks great. The other thing they do is totally obscure that brooch. I think she should have worn it on her hat.
When I first saw her I thought she looked lovely. But then I saw the stewardess comparisons and now I can’t unsee them. I wish she didn’t resemble a stewardess so much because I honestly wanted her to look nice, and didn’t want her to get made fun of. But I love the cut, length, and color on her.
If she had worn that brooch on her hat, that would have been amazing and would have shown it off nicely. I agree the brooch is obscured. It’s hard to distinguish from all those buttons, and George kind of gets in the way, too.
The Silver Fern is an icon here and Kate would have won a huge number of fans if it had been easy to see when she came off the plane.
It’s a beautiful brooch, but I didn’t even notice it at first. I think George kind of got in the way on that one. I had to look to find a picture showing off the brooch, because George was in the way in most pictures.
Button, button, who has the button? Obviously Waity does! Great color, great length (finally!) but too many buttons. I like the idea of wearing the fern on the hat. Someone should have suggested that to her.
Too many buttons is right! They totally distracted from the lovely brooch and as someone mentioned previously, she should have worn it on her hat. Or maybe if there were less buttons and if they were covered in fabric, the brooch would have been displayed much better.
I’ve seen the comments in the Daily Mail article about the bare bottomed Maori male – he’s wearing underpants AND a piupiu! Go to any beach in summer and you will probably find people wearing less! Is the Daily Mail trying to stir up some controversy to get more views and sales of printed papers? Kate did look like she was trying to engage with people so maybe we can let a little nervous giggling go?
Yeah, I think they’re just trying to get people riled up with that one. No controversy there that I could see.
I don’t understand why she giggles, though. One of my majors was Art History, I think studying art enables you to have a deeper appreciation for the beauty of the human form. The lines of the warrior’s taurape and puhoro are absolutely exquisite, there are elements of nature, like the fern leaves that have the curved fluidity seen in Art Nouveau but aren’t simply ornamental, they tell a story. When I saw the warrior, I was mesmerized by the beauty of artwork and form that the amount of clothing he had on didn’t even occur to me until Kate started giggling.
George has brown eyes & waity’s dress went north!
I think she gets a thrill out of her skirt flying high. Maybe it gives her attention “she’s so hot even after having a kid!” Probably because William doesn’t give her any attention at home. Sad.
I agree completely! As she’s leaving the plane her look of “surprise” does not look genuine. In fact, it looks more as if she’s thinking, “Yay! There’s that wind I hoped for.” The first time it happened was cute, the second time boring…by now it;s just childish and disgusting. I’ll bet the Queen is not amused.
Lazykins and Dag Tagart: I think you are both right. I’ve seen a photo of Kate when very pregnant at a wedding wearing that short white dress with black spots. The wind was blowing her skirt up – too far up her legs for a pregnant woman and definately NOT a good look for a royal! She had a huge grin on her face which made me wonder then if Kate likes flashing her legs. Makes my think that she must have been teased about having heavy/ chunky legs when she was at school and that is the reason why she likes to wear short skirts which fly up in the wind? That could also be the reason behind her dieting down to a tiny size?
Can anyone tell me who the woman in the spotted dress is? She is seen walking with Amanda Cooke Tucker in the photos coming off the plane in Wellington yesterday.
You mean this woman? http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/general-view-of-the-baggage-coming-off-the-plane-during-news-photo/483142401
I don’t know who see is. Clearly she’s a part of their entourage, so maybe an assistant? Kate’s personal assistant or something.
Yes, she was also photographed with Amanda when Amanda took clothes etc to do Kate’s hair after George’s birth. She’s wear a short red dress in those photos. Does this mean that Kate’s hairdresser has an assistant? I had thought that Rebecca Deacon was Kate’s PA? I’m not sure which stuns me more – Kate’s hairdresser needing an assistant to brush Kate’s hair or the way the entourage is being counted. We see that William and Kate are traveling with few staff but then we find that the few entourage members have their own entourage?
Rebecca Deacon is Kate’s private secretary, that’s different from a personal assistant.
I didn’t know this blonde woman had been photographed with Cook Tucker at the hospital. If so, then yes that points to the woman being Cook Tucker’s assistant.
Actually, I just looked up the photos, and I’m not so sure she’s Cook Tucker’s assistant. She might be, but in the photograph with Cook Tucker this blonde woman is carrying the car seat, not anything Cook Tucker used. And there is another photograph from the same set where this blonde woman is carrying Kate’s clothes and bag. So she could still be Kate’s assistant. I’m not sure, though.
Photo of blonde with Cook Tucker: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/23/article-2375133-1AF44A8B000005DC-276_634x621.jpg
Photo of blonde carrying Kate’s clothes: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/23/article-2375133-1AF41578000005DC-512_634x778.jpg
George at the Plunket baby group – Cute baby! Surprised that Kate had her hair in the way for him to play with and pull. Most Mums would put their hand back or have a shorter cut with a kid of George’s age. Maybe she doesn’t pick him up much so her hair is a new thing to investigate?