William and Kate attended a reception at Government House—named Yarralumla—in Canberra, hosted by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove, to end Day 18—their last night in OZ. There were about 100 guests from the arts, business, charity, conservation, and sporting industries, as well as surviving recipients of the Victoria Cross. The Governor General gave a speech in which he paralleled the Cambridges to the former York’s trip of 1927—the then Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth—because they had a young child at the time and “accounts of their visit note the deafening cheers of the crowds, the fervent and spontaneous greetings of those they met and the Duchess won hearts from the start – all words that could describe the last couple of weeks.”
Kate wore a white Lela Rose knee-length dress with detailed lattice sleeves and peplum. The detailing on the sleeves and peplum looks like someone attached doilies to an otherwise nice white dress. Kate wore her Jimmy Choo black pumps and carried her black Mulberry clutch. She wore her Cartier watch and her diamond bracelet and earrings combo that were supposedly a wedding gift. Kate wore her hair up in a lovely chignon.
I’m so disappointed. I was expecting at least some nice jewelry for the Government House reception. I wasn’t expecting a tiara, because it wasn’t that type of event, but at least the Wattle Brooch or something. But I got nothing. Kate didn’t wear a speck of royal jewelry. I am surprised, I thought since she wore the Silver Fern Brooch to the NZ reception [Kate did not wear the brooch to the reception, she wore the brooch to church the Sunday before Easter] that she would wear something like the Wattle Brooch in OZ.
As far as her outfit goes, if it weren’t for those doilies, she would look nice. I hate peplums in general, so that’s automatically a point off, and I don’t like the doily sleeves. If the dress were plain, it would be a nice dress. I do love that she put her hair up in a chignon, so points for that. We must praise her when she does something nice, so good job on the hair, Kate.
During the walkabout outside the National Portrait Gallery earlier in the day, Kate was given a gift for Lupo and she mentioned how everyone has given presents for George, but no one has given presents for Lupo; and that she misses Lupo terribly. I bet Will misses Lupo the most; he really seems to love that dog.
By the way, why does William always look annoyed?
[This video has a snippet of them walking in to the Governor’s reception, but it’s mainly about the NPG visit.]
Links: Express. Daily Mail. Mirror.
Overall, I was fairly please with this look. Granted, it does look like she is wearing doilies, but the color, length, hair shoes were all quite nice. Finally wearing her her up – she always looks lovely in a chignon. I hope she wears it like this more often.
I was taken back by her comment about gifts for Lupo. Why would she think people would be giving gifts for their dog? It sounded like instead of being grateful for any gifts, she has certain expectations. It seems in addition to being an exhibitionist, she also has narcissistic personality disorder. Most everyone would be grateful for such outpouring of love, affection, and gifts. But she isn’t satisfied. It seems by her comment, she is putting her dog at the same level of her son! Of course, she loves her dog, too – but this is too much.
Once they board the plane back home I’m sure we won’t see them in any official function until the Trooping of the Color. I wouldn’t be surprised if they head out on another vacation of some sort in the next few weeks. After all, the palace has not released any plans for the near future. We may hear that she is still technically on maternity leave, and he wants to lay low for the remainder of his ‘transitional year.” Just more excuses to be lazy. Maybe I’m wrong & they will surprise us – but I doubt it.
I would have loved the outfit if it weren’t for the doilies. I just can’t get past them. She does look lovely in a chignon, I wish she’d wear her hair like that more often.
I don’t think we’ll get an outing from them until Trooping of the Color either. While I’m not sure they should wait 2 months for another appearance, I do think they should go away for a couple weeks after they get home. 3 weeks with constant appearances, and over the top media coverage, has fatigued a lot of people. They need to go away for at least 2 weeks so the public starts to miss them. Then they should do appearances again.
The Lupo comment was odd. Maybe she used to get a lot of gifts for Lupo and now she’s only getting gifts for George so it’s just odd to her? I don’t know.
I agree that after this, which overall went down well, even though much of it was blah, they deserve a good several days off. Whereas most people would be back to work after a couple of days, I realize that 3 weeks for them must be overwhelming. (Yes, a touch of sarcasm there, but also, yes they do truly deserve a few days off.)
However, by the precedent they have set in the past, I just expect them to go away for months before another reappearance. I guess I am more used to the work ethic of HM, PC, and yes, Diana, who all tend(ed) to work their as*es off with almost daily appearances. But as I said in another post – growth, not perfection. Maybe after 2 weeks or so rest, getting used to GB time again, they can make a charity appearance or 2 and ease into things. Time will tell. I do wish them a happy and safe trip home. That is truly a very long trip.
Three weeks is a long time, and while they weren’t working nearly as hard as normal people, spending that much time being “on” has got to be exhausting. I know I got exhausted just from the media coverage around day 6. I think this is the one and only time I would give them a pass if they took a vacation. I just hope they don’t hide out until Trooping of the Color, that’s too long to rest. They should take a break , but come back for an appearance by mid-May.
William looked so irritable in the photos from this event, and Kate looked on the verge of tears. At the dawn war memorial service they looked totally disconnected as well. I know it was a somber event but still, they looked miserable. There is something missing between these two.
The reason I find it so odd when anyone says how dedicated William is, is because he always looks so irritable whenever he’s doing an event–always clutching his jaw and fists. How can he be “dedicated” if he’s not actually enjoying what he’s doing?
Does he not enjoy being there with Kate?
I just looked up photos of Will from the BAFTAs. There wasn’t much clenching. I don’t know if that’s because it was a fun event or because Kate wasn’t there. Maybe he doesn’t like having to worry about her doing or saying something wrong?
I think he resents his obligations, and perhaps he has the jealousy bug like his daddy and he can’t stand it when Kate gets all the crazy-eyed fans roaring her name when they do events together. But honestly even if it were some chick he adored and married quickly, I think his facial expressions in-between his forced smiles and enthusiasm would tell the same tale- that he just can’t stand all the shmoozing he has to do.
That dress is fug, with a capital F.
So now I’m seriously considering the rumors that she hates George. Well, nit hate, but definitely feels forced into motherhood and resents him because of that. I’ve heard her say George is loud, grumpy on flights, is fatter, and now has received presents, but Lupo didn’t. Um. That’s great that she loves Lupo so much but dang, woman, the gifts are for the future King of England! She needs some perspective.
I kind of think Kate has a bit of foot-in-mouth disease. She says stuff to sound interesting–because she probably has to say the same thing to 100 people during those walkabouts–but it doesn’t come out right. But given all the times she and Will have complained about George, there has to be some sort of animosity/resentment going on there.
Based on some of your previous post, this trip was a lot of work for the two of them. They need some R&R. I thought Kate looked lovely. The brooch would have been beautiful!! PW blah blah
LOL, no one looks at the dudes, they just turn up in a suit to make a nice frame for the lady.
I think everyone needs a little R&R after this tour: Will and Kate, all the reporters, the public. It’s been a long tour.
I thought the white dress was nice, and I even like the lacey look of the sleeves and vellum, but I am older and more old fashioned, I think. Her hair looked awesome up and any jewelry would have been lost on the dress with the busy sleeves. She looks good in white. About the Lupo comment, I think she just sucks at making chitchat. She needs to just stick to “thank you so much it is a pleasure to be here” like comments when in public. I sort of feel for her on that because I also have a tendency to say things that can be misinterpreted. Jeeze, do I hate defending her. LOL! William is a total POS in my opinion and I suspect he takes his tempers out on her and those around him. The link with his disgruntled look pretty much sums him up.
Carp, it was supposed to say “peplum” not “vellum.” Curse auto correct!
She does suck at chitchat. I think the reason she kept bringing up wanting to bring George but him being asleep was because she couldn’t think of anything else to say. When receiving the gift for Lupo, if she had said, “Thank you I’m sure he’ll love it”, there wouldn’t have been a problem. I have to say though, that making chitchat with so many people would get really exhausting. At some point she probably doesn’t even know what she’s saying anymore.
I’d bet money that Will is mean in private.
I think you’d win your bet; I have the same feeling about Will, too. I don’t think he treats Kate well at all; there’s a reason she’s always at her parents’ home in Buckleberry.
Crud. Now it was supposed to say “Crap” not “Carp.” I am signing off now. LOL!
The dress looked to mature for the Duchess, she is only young, why not something more suitable for her age. Her hair looked lovely, but her eye makeup was too heavy and way too much, very harsh looking and aging.
I agree her eye makeup was too heavy. She usually does her makeup too heavy, which ages her. She needs to get rid of the raccoon eyes. I’m pretty sure she does her makeup herself, and if that’s the case, then she needs to stop and let a professional do her makeup for her.
I read a comment from the Editor of UK Vogue who was at the wedding. The comments re Kate were NOT about the dress but that everyone was talking about Kate’s heavy handed makeup.
That’s funny. I’m surprised she didn’t hire someone to do her makeup on her wedding day. I’d be way too nervous to attempt my own makeup on that day.
Yes, it is the heavy makeup which makes her look like an amateur and look like she is not up to the job. You can tell when a professional has done Kate’s makeup and she looks good so I can not understand why she keeps going back to the “I’ve used a Sharpie pen to do my eyes” look. The rest of the Middleton wedding party used a team from Bobbi Brown but Kate did her own makeup.
Her makeup looks great from afar, she has the basics down. But her blending skills are nonexistent. She doesn’t know how to smoke out her eyeliner. It’s always a thick heavy outline on the bottom lids. She also wears loads of blusher and it just looks awful. She should do the swirl technique with her foundation with a brush so it blends in. She also needs to learn how to keep from getting the caked on look by patting her foundation a bit before applying setting powder, and with her skin type she needs to go really easy on the powder. Basically she just lacks the tricks of the makeup trade and could learn them easily and quickly if she wanted to. But I have a feeling she’s a control freak and that’s why she refuses to let anyone help her.
It’s my understanding that there was a makeup specialist there who did Kate’s makeup as well as the wedding party, but then she removed it and applied her own. I guess she thought no one could do it as good as she!
I have read that waity was offered a proessional make-up artist for her
wedding. lazy rejected the offer!
with kate its all about CLOTHES AND MORE CLOTHES, is there any substance on this woman, can u imagine her touring alone without her husband or george, shes still too childish to lead anything or anyone, kate stop playing dress up, and be someone useful like all the other european ladies