After their trip to Blenheim, Prince William and Kate Middleton went back to Wellington where they attended a reception at Government House. They unveiled a new portrait of the Queen—which is not particularly striking, in fact it looks kind of terrible to me; the face looks nothing like Her Majesty and the right hand looks like it belongs on the Silence (Doctor Who). William gave a speech—he spoke a little Maori at the beginning and end. I have to say, I and many others give Kate a lot of crap when it comes to her speech-giving skills, but William isn’t much better. He basically reads the speech from the script, and because of that his jokes are pretty stilted and aren’t that funny. To me, any sincerity goes out the window when one reads from a script the way William and Kate do. The words are kind of meaningless because anyone could have written those words, and if one isn’t even willing to take the time to learn the speech, then how am I supposed to take that person seriously when they say those words? Anyway, moving on.
I was going to tag this bit onto my previous post, but I didn’t want to sully the praise I had for Kate’s day outfit. This reception is one of the fancier/glitzier events the Cambridges have on their schedule (even though it isn’t even full-length gown worthy, let alone tiara worthy), and Kate was supposed to wow us. But instead she showed up in one of the most boring outfits she’s worn. I mean, I get that, yay she wore New Zealand’s fern on her dress, but damn is that outfit boring. She wore a boring black Jenny Packham cocktail-length dress with hand-stitched silver beading on her left shoulder representing the silver fern—New Zealand’s national emblem. Again with a non-New Zealand designer. She wore her black Jimmy Choo pumps and carried a black clutch. She wore her hair down in her normal dolly curls. She did her makeup the same way she always does it. She wore her diamond cluster earrings and bracelet that are supposedly a wedding gift. This outfit is just so boring. The reporters are all saying how “dazzling” and “glitzy” this outfit is… No, no it’s not. This is super boring. There is nothing dazzling or glitzy about this outfit. I really liked her day outfit, though, much more than this one. I’m just going to forget this reception outfit and focus on the day outfit.
Links: Express article. Daily Mail article 1 and article 2.
Photo credits: Photo from G-G of NZ twitter.
I expected Joan Collins from the old ’80s TV show “Dynasty” to call and demand her evening dress back!
Haha, that’s funny, and oh so true.
this is expected. When has she shown any hint of being fashion forward? Even before her engagement, she dressed conservatively (possibly hoping to improve her chances of getting the ring, but still) and never took risks. I agree that the portrait looks lame compared to the Renaissance-type portraits. I don’t think Aus and NZ will remain commonwealths.
I don’t know about Australia, they appear to be leaning towards becoming a republic, but Kiwis LOVE the Royals, even ones like Kate so I don’t think we will be cutting ties with the Royal family just yet.
I just can’t, so here is my list of nitpicks:
– her shoulders are too broad for such a wide bateau neckline.
– wearing her hair down when the dress has such intricate neckline detail.
– she had the fern pin and already wore it, why didn’t she wear it to the unveiling since it is depicted in the portrait?
– black on a royal for non-mourning is a faux pas.
I can’t even be happy that she has a decent length because she looks so skeletal and disproportionate, unusually wide from the shoulders and head with a spindly waist and legs.
Yes, her shoulders look extremely broad in this neckline. I agree about the hair. She does look really thin, she’s lost a lot of weight pretty recently.
Actually in this particular unveiling photo, the fern looks like a skeleton hand reaching from behind. Perhaps that of the Grim Reaper trying to get her attention to tell her, “Oh, my God. Eat a freakin’ sandwich or something if you’re going to wear black. All night long people have been asking me if I was Kate Middleton. I don’t need this crap, I’m Death for crying out loud. I can’t believe someone custom made this for you. Rethink the frocks, Sweetheart, this dress is totally bumming me out.”
LOL!! Now that you mention it, it does look like a creepy skeletal hand coming up to grab her. Too funny.
leitzia is skinny but healthy and fabulous, waity is just a mess, stressed out wreck!
I love Princess Letizia, who beat out Kate Middleton for Best Dressed Royal of 2013, btw. Princess Letizia is gorgeous, so is her hubby. Once I was coming out of a special VIP Screening Area at the airport (I’m not a VIP, I’m barely a P, someone at the airline was being kind). There was this small flight of stairs to get back to the main area of JFK and I was struggling with my carry-on. I heard this sexy voice with a Spanish accent say, “Please let me help you” and a tanned hand moved over mine and carried my bag for me up the steps. I looked up at my mystery knight in shining armor and up and up a little more, he was very tall, and it was Prince Felipe. It was then I noticed next to him was a large imposing looking gentleman in a suit and there was another one behind us who I assume was also a bodyguard. I said, “Thank you” and he nodded and walked away, no biggie, just the Crown Prince of Spain helping a damsel in distress with her bag. I was so impressed. Can you imagine Prince William doing the same thing for a total stranger at the airport? He doesn’t even help his own wife.
I have an absolutely random question of a historical nature, it might be outside of your area of expertise, but I thought maybe you might have some insight or could possibly recommend a direction for me in my clue-gathering. I have your e-mail address from my blog. Would you mind if I sent you an e-mail tomorrow?
I don’t mind. Go ahead. I hope I can answer your question.
Re the dress – it was reported as being navy blue and not black on Breakfast TV this morning. The comment came from a fashion designer (WORLD) who was at the event and she said it was navy blue. It was very noticeable how skinny Kate is now when watching the TV report about the unveiling. Not so noticeable in photos. Kate is so skinny now that wearing that dress it made her hands look huge! Another question – does Kate wear her hair flopping over her face because she thinks it makes her face look slimmer (like Jennifer Aniston does).
Hm…. I understand that some things look different in person than in photos, but that dress definitely looks black to me, and the British press, who reported the dress as black. Kate stood next to both blue and black suits and the dress look black in comparison–usually a navy blue will pop out when compared to something that really is black. But I may be wrong.
Her shoulders and hands do look huge compared to her tiny waist.
Re her hair, I answered this on another post, but I think her hair is more of a security blanket than anything. Having her hair down and around her makes her feel better, she’s less exposed.