Sigh. Someone needs to tell Duchess Kate that she shouldn’t wear black to a children’s center. Someone also needs to tell Duchess Kate to stop wearing Goat coats, because even when she has them lengthened, they are still too short. For her second day in New York, Kate Middleton visited the Northside Center for Child Development where she, accompanied by Chirlane McCray, the First Lady of New York City, toured the center, met with children (and actually bent all the way down to talk to them), and wrapped Christmas presents. Kate then went to a lunch reception at the British Consul General’s residence. Note on coverage: Williams’ stuff, the NBA game, and the conservation reception (to which Kate is now going) will be in separate posts.
The Northside Center provides education and mental health services to 3,300 New York City children and families each year, addressing emotional, developmental, and educational needs of children and their families. The Northside Center seeks to empower children to respond constructively to negative societal factors including racism and its related consequences.
Kate was at Northside Center for about an hour. She attended a briefing with the directors of the center, wrapped presents with some volunteers, and attended an art class with the children. The children were aged around three and four, and supposedly had no idea who was coming to visit. They thought Elsa from Frozen was coming to visit them. Do you think they were disappointed? I don’t want to be mean, but if I had to choose between meeting Elsa from Frozen or Duchess Kate, I’d pick Elsa, hands down.
As Kate was leaving the center, she stopped and talked to the children who were waiting outside to see her. She even got down on their level to talk to them, instead of hovering over them.
After the Northside Center visit, Duchess Kate attended a lunch reception at the British Consul General’s residence in New York where she was introduced to members of the British community from the fields of culture, arts, hospitality and business. The menu sounds delicious. They had pressed vegetable terrine infused with herbs, poached salmon with dill hollandaise sauce and lemon pearl barley risotto and sautéed vegetables, and for dessert they had apple and rhubarb crumble with ice cream. I want! Do you think Kate ate anything?
As I mentioned earlier, Kate wore a new coat from Goat. This time it is the Washington Coat (£680.00), which is black with nude tabs on the cuffs and back, and a nude collar. Kate’s coat seems to have been altered to add a good number of inches to the bottom. Even with the added fabric, the coat is still well above the knee.
The rest of the outfit is paint-by-numbers Kate: Episode Angel black suede pumps, Mulberry clutch, Annoushka pearl drop earrings, Cornelia James gloves.
I don’t love the outfit; it’s black and drab and Kate really should have worn a color to visit children. Granted, McCray also wore a black dress under her coat, and a number of the women in the video (below) are wearing black. So maybe it’s not that bad that Kate wore black, but I still think she should wear color. She’s been wearing so much black lately, you’d think she was in mourning. But at least her hair was up.
McCray did wear a black dress, but she made up for it by wearing an awesome purple coat. I wish Kate had worn this coat.
Here is a video of Kate at Northside Center.
Oddly enough, Princess Madeleine of Sweden has also visited the Northside Center. In 2011, Maddie visited the Susan Patricof Head Start Center because Childhood (the organization where Maddie works) supports the Creative Arts Therapy Program.
PS. The Northside visit was sponsored by Toys R Us, apparently.
PPS. There was an ambulance following Kate’s motorcade. Apparently it’s normal, though. The President’s motorcade usually has an ambulance. And before anyone says anything, no of course Kate is not as important as the President, but apparently it’s just a thing in the US for an ambulance to be a part of a high profile motorcade.
Link: Daily Mail
Photos: UK in New York Twitter/Clarence House Instagram/UK in New York Instagram/UK in New York Twitter/Clarence House Instagram/Clarence House Instagram/UK in New York Twitter/Clarence House Twitter/Getty/Getty/Goat/Rebecca English Twitter/kungahuset.se/kungahuset.se/UK in New York Twitter/Rebecca English Twitter
I can’t seem to stop yawning over her clothes. She ruined that coat and it was way too short. Chirlane had on a blue/black mix, it wasn’t all black. And am I hallucinating or is her head bigger than everyone else in that group shot?
Don’t forget that most people on this picture have less than six years old. She is wearing even more short dress.
No, I don’t think you are hallucinating, Lisa. She does have a bigger head. I feel for ya, Kate. It’s usually not noticeable, but I will swear that my head is about the size of most women’s waists. LOL!
That coat was hideous and short.
The coat was intended to be a tunic, longer than a blouse, and worn with pants or a skirt. But then, this is Kate, so no surprises there, that she’d choose to wear it alone as a dress, with only tights underneath. This, to see some underprivileged children.
What I don’t understand about this woman is that she’ll pay major money for designer clothing only to spend extra money to have it altered. Why can’t she just buy clothing in the length she wants? The modification to lengthen this jacket is obvious and it’s still too short. SMO; she needs a professional stylist.
Or if she’s going to buy designer and alter, she might as well get something completely custom.
I try not to make too many comments like this, but… in that picture where Kate is sitting around the table with the adults, her eyes are so empty. It gives her an incredibly vacuous look. I don’t know whether to cite the photography or the subject as the cause there.
She has dead eyes. I’ve never seen any emotion behind it. You never see her arms around anyone on her pics and she has closed body language.
I agree with you Rhiannon about her body language, very closed and self conscious.
Her body language really does scream “stay the f away from me”.
Would it have killed her to just lay a gentle hand or put her arm over one or two of the kids in the group photo? I understand the no-touching royal protocol, but these are kids, and their communication is still very much tactile at that age. This tells me that this is more about the Duchess’s PR than anything relating to these kids.
Some people have a natural affinity for children. I really don’t think she is one of those people. And kids have a sixth sense about these things. Unless they are overly demonstrative themselves and just launch themselves at her, she’s going to do the bare minimum to make it seem like she’s invested in the scenario she’s in at the moment. In the three years she’s been doing these appearances with kids I have yet to see her look completely at ease with them. And to me, even if you were really nervous or unsure during your outings, being with children would be the one time you could probably relax a bit and relate to them. But I think she’s too aware of the cameras and where she should stand to let her guard down. JMHO
I don’t think she’s able to really relate to the kids either. Which would be fine, not everyone has to be a kid person, but then she shouldn’t have chosen charities that deal with kids, you know. So dumb. It’s one of the reasons I think all of her charities were chosen for her, because she doesn’t seem connected to anyone she meets while visiting them – unless it’s Sir Ben Ainslie.
I stand by my comment on the other thread: her dress looked like it was imagined after the F.A.O. Schwarz soldiers. If you are going to hang with kids, pants are a safe bet. That way you can kneel and bend without a peep of your goodies..
Kate did okay. No stupid grinning or hair twirling. She needs to lay off of the heavy handed blush and panda eyes. It would have been a home run if she mimicked Chirlane’s outfit from bun to booties.
My girl Maddie wore pants. She knows what’s up. Kate just can’t help showing off her legs.
Gosh, when will she quit with the puritan style of dress? These high necklines look so prudish and stern to me. And why dress like you are attending a funeral when you are meeting with children who are so looking forward to meeting a real life princess. So far this visit has been a satirical bust for me.
Now I know what this outfit reminds me of, I bet it was her naughty pilgrim costume from Halloween, stern and prude in the neckline but the bottom half screams “Look at me I’ve got legs !!!”. I bet Tash will bet a stern talking too for packing the wrong outfit.
Ew. I don’t want to think about Kate’s naughty pilgrim costumes designed to get Will’s attention.
I lol at her high necklines, because of her short hemlines. It’s like the Madonna-whore complex all in one outfit: virgin up top, slut down below.
Kate should have definitely worn a bright color since she was meeting children – perhaps a light blue ala Elsa.
She is wearing too much black. What happened to her love of navy, she was navy-crazy from 2011-2013, now its black dresses, gowns and coats. One more day of this Royal Circus…
She really has been wearing black a lot lately. I used to complain about how much blue she wore, but now I miss all the blue.
Her outfit for the NBA game isn’t much netter. It doesn’t know if it wants to be casual or dressy. I am starting to get bored already.
Not a fan of the coat. I think it was insensitive she wore a $5000 watch to this event (http://www.katescloset.com.au/cartier-ballon-bleu-stainless-steel-watch.html). Her outfit cost more than these families make in a year!
I didn’t even notice the watch, good catch. Ugh, 5K watch and 1K coat. Ridiculous.
This is where the problem lies. Dress appropriately and don’t flaunt wealth. Wear jeans from the Gap and a T shirt from target or something like that.
I don’t get it. I thought people have criticized her in her first year already how inappropriate her outfits were for some charitable functions. One outfit like this, a family earns in a year to feed and clothe themselves.
Did anyone else notice Kate doing her tilt head thing when meeting JayZ?
That’s her go-to, “I’m really interested in what you’re saying” look. She tilts her head and crinkles her forehead. It’s like she doesn’t know how to act like a normal human, so she studied what people do when looking “concerned” and copies that look over and over again without knowing that it is not always appropriate.
When ever I see that head tilt thing it makes me think Kate is just NOT up to the job. Here’s hoping William will see the light before he is King as I can’t see her being up to the job of Queen. She looked overwhelmed at the photoop at the Basketball. Perhaps it was a good thing she had “HG” and couldn’t go to Malta and (oh dear) can’t go to China.
I saw pics of her with LeBron James where he put his arm around her, and she looked super freaked out.
I love McCray’s coat, just something I would wear. The Duchess’ coat looks better at the front but looks awful at the back. I love and wear a lot of coats with tabs defining a raised waistline but this contrasting tab somehow looks terrible. Maybe it’s maternity.
Our Canadian news is covering a lot on this. Wow, some of you Americans are absolutely crazy about the royals. One girl’s mom encouraged her daughter to look to the royals especially the Duchess as role models. Better the Duchess than Myley Cyrus and I can’t remember who she named….Yup..I’d picked the Duchess’ arse over Myley’s tongue any day.
Yesterday the news discussed about the Royal branding. Apparently W&K are up there along with Coca-Cola and Apple.
So who in here has bought a mug, plate with their faces on? I can’t figure out when the Duchess wears something, everything gets sold out. Who has that kind of money and do you actually look good in it? Even the Duchess doesn’t look good!!
You know, I thought the same thing, because a lot of the outfits she wears, especially now, are really boring. Maybe they only have two in stock so they can say it’s sold out. In the case of the long black lace dress (which I liked) there was another woman at the event that KMR pointed out looked to have the same dress on. So who’s the trend setter really?
I think there are so many women who are better role models than Kate, but I think Kate is better than Miley Cyrus, IMO.
I think the Kate Effect of clothes selling out is that the clothes are usually older pieces and there just aren’t that many left when Kate wears them, so they sell out quickly. But I’ve wondered who is buying what stock there is for the things she wears. I mean, some things have been cute, I’ll give her that, but they are so expensive that no one I know could afford to spend that kind of money on 1 piece of clothing.
When my sister was pregnant, she insisted on wearing super short dresses and inappropriate clothes that didn’t flatter her figure at all. It came from her insecurity and no matter how many times we told her she was beautiful and should take pride in her pregnant belly, she just wouldn’t listen. That experience makes me think Duchess Catherine is like my sister in this.
Also, the older she gets, the more it becomes apparent that DC is in over her head. She’s in her 30s, pretty, extremely wealthy, blessed with good health and having (adorable) babies, university educated, every advantage in the world – what went wrong? She doesn’t reflect any of this AT ALL. Or is this just me? Am I being too harsh on her? I just expected way more from the woman who will one day be Queen of the UK. Maybe if she and William weren’t hyped up by the media so much I wouldn’t be so disappointed in the real thing.
Kate did that the last time, too. As soon as she got pregnant, her skirts got shorter. I would say that you’re right that Kate is insecure about her changing body and wants more attention than before to prove she’s still sexy and desirable.
I agree with you that Kate doesn’t reflect any of the attributes that she is supposed to have. If I had to pick one thing that went wrong… insecurity. People have said she was confident before, in snagging the prince and being mean to the Yorks, but that could also be caused by her insecurity. She projected an image of confidence, which included being super rude, to cover for her insecurity. Just a thought.
Yeah, I’m thinking she’s got some serious body image issues and they probably hark back to her pre-teen/teen years. I remember seeing a quote about her looking down her shirt and screaming “They’re growing, they’re growing!” Then the starving herself down to toothpick size. I guess she thinks her legs are the best thing she has going while she’s expecting so she’s going to flaunt them at all costs.
I have to say that her hemlines did influence me. I never really followed Kate since my interest in the royals are more historical. I actually started to look at her clothes when she was pregnant with George, can you believe it?
I wear a lot of skirts and dresses and they have always been below the knee. So when I saw pictures of the Duchess wearing above the knee, I thought I’d try. So I started to sew my dresses just a 1/4 inch above the knee and found they actually lengthened my legs. Being under 5 feet, that’s really important.
There we go, the Duchess or her hemlines can be influential to some people. :)))
I’m glad to hear Duchess Kate influenced someone for the positive!
I love the ‘side eye’ memes going around of Kate when she was told to keep wrapping, haha. It was so obvious and hello, there are cameras everywhere…
Also, I don’t understand or care about the LeBron (?) hand on Kate’s shoulder at the basketball game. That whole no touching thing is so archaic and so self absorbed.
You’re a freaking person like everyone else, not something precious that shouldn’t be touched like the Mona Lisa or something! :/
The pictures of him looming over her and being touchy feely were strange looking to me. I thought it was a bit odd/much. I can’t imagine if it had been the queen lmao