164 thoughts on “2015 in Review – Duchess Kate’s Dresses and Separates (POLL)”

1. This has been an incredibly underwhelming year for Kate and fashion. At least for this round of clothing. I wish I could have selected multiple options in the dress I liked least category. There were quite a few. Waiting for the next round!

   1. At least with the dresses and separates, I agree that 2015 was pretty boring in the fashion department for Kate. Both my favorite dress and favorite separates were repeats from previous years.

   2. Agreed, Lisa. It was hard for me to choose favorites, but there were many I did not like. I feel like she should definitely hire a serious stylist. With the amount of money she has available to spend, she could look so good. This was a disappointing fashion year, and I’m not giving her the pregnancy pass. My favorite dress was the Erdem Darla, and she was well in when she wore that!

      She does have awesome outerwear though, and that’s my big weakness. Bring on the coats!!

   3. I agree, it was so hard to pick a favourite and not because I loved so many of them. There were so many that I felt were ‘blah’ or downright tragic.

2. There are some nice outfits in the list but then, to my eyes Kate does something weird to a lot if them and they look off. Take, for example, the Hobbs brown dress. If she’d worn the rightsize and worn a slip underneath so it didn’t stick to her pantyhose it would have looked great.
   I smiled at the thought of you trying to do a poll of Kate’s footwear KMR. It would have been black suede vs black suede? Handbags at dawn? Oops, only one bag?

   1. Kate wore 5 different pairs of black suede pumps (1 pair she wore 17 times); 2 pairs of blue suede pumps; 1 pair each of brown suede, grey suede, burgundy suede, and carbon suede; 2 pairs of boots; 2 nude patent pumps; and a few others. There is no point polling that, they all look the same.

3. I voted only for “The Least Favorites” because I didn’t like any of Kate”s dresses for “The Favorites”. I love red and many of the colors she wears but the dresses are really very boring.

   1. I did vote Jamel but it was really the ‘least awful’ rather than the best!! Loving your comments and your English is absolutely fantastic. You might see Kate at the Olymics this year do you think? Must be so exciting in Rio (I know it’s a huge country and you probably don’t live in Rio!), I was at London 2012 for one day and was such a brilliant experience.

      1. Lol Best of the Worst.

      2. Well Birdy, imagine if I see Kate’s grinning closely. I’ll need therapy for the rest of my life.

4. Maybe it’s my classic/traditional taste but I find Kate’s style to be proper and rather nice. Why boring?

   1. She doesn’t accessorize well. A lot of times it’s just a dress with her hair down and black suede shoes. So it has to be a killer dress or a killer color to stand out. Whereas if she accessorized better – with brooches, with her hair up, with scarves, with more interesting shoes – the outfit would pop more.

      1. That is probably her taste. I don’t like over-accesorized outfits and many of the ones she chooses don’t require a scarf or particular accessories because the dress is already “important ” enough and ulterior additions to it would suffocate it and make it too “busy”. From the mises I’ve seen her in I understand that her style is minimal and I like that (although I’d love to see her wearing a Hermés foulard or a brooch like the one she wore during the Christmas walk more often). I also love it when she has her hair up so she should consider wearing it that way more often as well. I personally appreciate the fact that she doesn’t go crazy with shoes but sticks to a few neutral pieces that go with everything.

         1. When I think minimalist, I think Charlene of Monaco. Clean lines, killer tailoring but accessorized and worn well.

            Kate comes off more as basic to me. Take a regular dress, put it on, throw on the pumps, grab the clutch and give the hair a toss or two. Earrings and sometimes a necklace are the most she does with accessories.

            It all boils down to her not having that much experience with fashion and the desperate need for an experienced stylist who can introduce her to new clothing lines/styles and how to accessorize. Not to mention having the clothing fitted properly. I would bet my car that Charlene has several designers on speed dial and listens to their suggestions rather than just picking up something from her favorite shop and throwing it on. Kate needs someone like Tim Gunn to just flat out tell her no and point her in the right direction.

            1. Totally agree Lisa. And WE I agree with you that it is her taste but HM always wears muted colours in her private time but vibrant colours with amazing hats when she is ‘being Queen’ and I think that is where Kate needs to change.

            2. I disagree Lisa. I may not be an unbiased judge of Charlene (given my dislike for Monaco) but I find her style to be nothing special and to be lacking refinement as well. Yes there is the odd mise which suits her and that I like on her (I liked the outfit she chose to hand out Christmas presents with Albert this year and even if I found the Red Cross Ball’s red jumpsuit daring it was more or less okay) but ,starting from her very hair-style which is occasionally nice and refreshing although most of the time just looks like a Miley Cyrus inspired haircut, she’s not such a stylish lady in my book.

            3. Birdy: I love HM but I generally am not too fond of her choice of clothing. I couldn’t imagine her dressing and being any other way though, after so many years the style becomes one with the persona and I’m conscious of the fact that when she will be gone an Era will go alongside her too.

            4. +1. I like basic pieces, but I will break up color or add a little whimsy. I have two Hermes scarves that I will style to add to an outfit. Her matchy-matchy shoes, purse combo has to go.

            5. Tim Gunn! Oh, Lisa, that is great advice. Maybe the contestants on Project Runway should have as one of their assignments (if not more) the task of designing fab looks for the Duchess of Cambridge! Now, that’s a reality show!

            6. Mary Elizabeth: That would be hilarious to see Tim Gunn dress the DoC. I’d be on the edge of my seat the whole time. And I have very little interest in women’s fashion.

            7. I think Charlene is very hit and miss in the fashion department. She has worn some really nice outfits, but she’s also worn some really ugly outfits.

               Sometimes her minimalist style work – her wedding gown, several other gowns – but sometimes it just looks plain and boring. And whenever she tries to go too frou frou she just looks bad.

            8. While personally I love accessories and would enjoy seeing Kate wear more, I can understand if that’s not her taste. However, if she is going for a minimalist look the tailoring should be spot on, since that becomes the focus.

         2. If you look at her in pre-wedding pictures she wore scarves and fun jewelry all the time but since the wedding that has changed. Maybe she thinks she is dressing the way a Duchess should dress but really all she has to do is look to Sophie and see that regal doesn’t have to be bland. Also, she needs to find a good tailor, too many times her bodice buttons pull or her hem isn’t straight (although that’s probably caused by her poor posture) or her dress fly’s up. It’s really just the little things that after 4+ years as a royal Kate needs to start paying attention too.

            1. A personal tailor would be a good idea. However I have to disagree about Sophie, usually I don’t like the cut and style of her clothes and a few mises of hers I’ve seen are downright dreadful in my book.

            2. Thank you Lauri. I always scratch my head when people say Kate must just prefer minimalist accessorizing. When it is obvious from her pre-engagement days that she tended to wear very large jewelry and other bits and bobs. I think you are right that perhaps the change is due to thinking what a Duchess should wear or maybe even being told what to wear. I don’t think it is because her taste changed with age because it was an overnight shift. She stopped once she became engaged.

   2. Kate’s best looks of the year, in my opinion, are a few of her coat looks where her hair is up and she’s accessorized well.

5. I had really a difficult task to find a favorite. Most of these were really awful and ill- fitting.

   1. Same for me. I ended up not voting; I couldn’t find a favorite, so I didn’t vote for a least favorite. In my opinion, these are all pretty bad. If the styling doesn’t suck, the fit and tailoring do.

6. To my mind the dresses are all perfectly ok – I would wear many of them to my fairly normal office job and I am 20 years older than her. Difference is as KMR says I would accessorise – scarves, boots, different colour shoes etc. No outfit stands out to me as a WOW, and most are just dull and too old for her.

   1. Agreed.

   2. I think Kate’s fashion sense would be perfectly fine for a normal office job, even without accessorizing. But for a royal, who doesn’t give speeches or show personality and the only thing we have to go on is her clothing, it’s just too bland.

7. Thanks for this poll, KMR. I loved the Space and Florrie dresses. Kate has beautiful pieces but it all boils down to tailoring (due to bad fit) and the lack of accessories. If she nailed that down, then there would be more of a “wow” factor. These pieces are way to simple to stand on their own.

   1. I really like the Florrie dress! Séraphine has such pretty maternity clothes (especially the dresses) – I could only afford one pair of jeans, but man, do they fit well! Better than my normal ones…

      I thought Kate did better with maternity wear this time around than with George.

      1. I agree. I thought Kate’s wardrobe when pregnant with George was terrible, but this time I thought she had several really nice maternity looks.

         1. I’m the opposite. I liked her wardrobe with George better. Mainly because of all the bright colors in the last few months. The peach look and the mint green Mulberry coat are some of my all-time favorites of hers. I wish she wore colors like those more often. Though I agree that in the beginning of the pregnancy it was pretty bad, like the tartan coat for example.

            1. Do you mean the McQueen black watch tartan coat? I’m surprised you say that one was bad since I love that coat.

            2. No, I meant the Moloh blue and grey tartan one she wore in Scotland. But I agree, the McQueen tartan is great.

            3. Oh okay, yeah I totally agree with you on that one. That was bad and way too short.

            4. The peach ensemble was a top maternity look for her, but my all time favorite was the yellow coat dress she wore (when pregnant with George) for the BP garden party.

            5. I agree, I thought her choices with George were better. My faves include:
               – The Topshop polka dot/blazer ensemble
               – TJ peach dress and coat
               – EW yellow garden party outfit
               – Mulberry mint tweed coat
               – EW shiny baby blue dress
               – Goat cream coat
               – JP Lindo Wing blue dress (counting it because she still had a belly!)
               – Hobbs brown coat/Great Plains Cezanne dress
               – Maxmara grey wrap dress

               She did have some amazing outfits 2nd time around too, but the 1st round sticks in my mind more.

            6. The only one on your list I liked was the Topshop polka dot dress. The rest I didn’t like.

            7. Oh no I loved that tartan coat she wore in Scotland. I heard a designer even named the style after her!

      2. I agree Liz! I thought she dressed terribly when pregnant with George. She dressed like a teenager with her peter pan collars and really really short dresses. Just very juvenille. The majority of her outfits did not become a pregnant 30 year old, let alone a Duchess. I think with Charlotte she dressed nicely, with 1 or 2 misses.

         1. Honestly, I can’t stand those peter pan collars, or the dress coats that don’t add any lines or definition to the belly/outline of a pregnant woman. So many of her outfits just looked baggy or unflatteringly pushed out. But, I know from personal experience it’s hard to dress well (and comfortably!) when pregnant…
            I follow CP Victoria, and her maternity fashion for Estelle was tragic. This time around, however, she’s been smashing!

         2. It drives my crazy when designers insist on dressing pregnant women like 3 year olds.

8. Hi KMR; as always, it’s fun to take a look back to compare with hopefully a better 2016 for Kate. That Michael Kors outfit stood out for me. I personally liked the length and skirt flare but hated the color and pattern design.Whether it’s Kate choosing or someone else, they need to have a better idea of color, etc since she can’t try everything on first. They were probably going for country tweeds and got rotten eggplant.

   1. I’m hoping for more accessories (brooches) and different hair styles in 2016. Her dresses and coats aren’t necessarily bad (though a few really are) but they are just blank slates that need better styling.

9. those dresses with pleats at the bottom make her look childish, it all comes down to her messy hair, which is a no no, and her crotch clutching, plus her boring shoe collection, she needs to step it up, otherwise, she looks like secretary in a goverment office going to work!!

   1. Which Adam was exactly my point above. The wardrobe is a good working wardrobe for someone doing a good honest ordinary job but not for a Duchess on duty. Us ordinary folk need a fairly plain wardrobe because our clothes come out regularly and over several or more years. Also the tailoring for some of her outfits is just so badly done. A good interesting pair of shoes can work magic on an overall look IMO.

   2. Her looking childlike with high waisted dresses was done purposefully to make her look innocent after quite heavy partying period in her life when she wore thing like net stocking, short, short skirts, plunged décolleté etc. In my opinion she is still being dressed according to some guide lines.

10. This is a tough one because nothing jumps out as extraordinary or exciting. If you twist my arm, I would vote for the polka dot maternity dress only because I really like DVF-like wrap dresses. But overall, what a dull wardrobe collection she’s got. Nothing that makes me want to take a second look. And she really needs to work on her stooped posture!

    1. The Darla non-maternity dress that she had made maternity style (WTF?) is colourful and the only one I thought I’d buy. All the rest: instantly forgettable!

       1. There are people who can wear schmatta (rag) and make it look like a million bucks. Kate can’t pull off a McQueen or a Lauren or some other hoity toity designer and make you say Wow. Let’s be honest, she just doesn’t have the natural sophistication, charm and pizzazz to elevate her wardrobe.

          1. Yes. Letizia can make a Zara dress look like a bespoke dress. Kate makes something bespoke look like it came from Primark.

             Kate wore clothes, hats and shoes during her two Christmas outings worth close to 10 000 pounds. Still she looked like she had borrowed something from her mother closet.

             1. Exactly Larissa! And if and when she decides to go bold and daring, she ends up with a living nightmare like the Erdem floral gown.

          2. Remember the green McQueen she wore to the awards ceremony (can’t remember what for, but Becks was there!) when she was barely pregnant with George. She looked very glamorous and sophisticated. Just haven’t seen much of that since 🙁

             1. Hi Ray – I just dug it up. The cut of the gown is pretty nice and it fits her well (no loosey-goosey seams or fabric pulling) though she still could have done a better job with accessorizing. Maybe a drop-dead necklace to break up the dark forest green?

             2. I loved the baby blue gown she wore when first pregnant with Charlotte, it was short in the front and long in the back. It was great seeing her take a risk, I don’t know what’s happened since then.

             3. I agree Lauri from Ca that it was a bold choice. But if I were to nitpick, the shoes were wrong and her accessories covered by too many sausage curls. Fast forward to a recent KMR posting on Princess Mary who recycled a similar gown as Kate’s in dark blue but with a long skirt than a short dress in front. The contrasting fabric of a rich velvet cutaway with a beaded skirt is so much more elegant, exciting and sophisticated. The difference was very nice (Kate) vs smashing (Mary).

             4. That blue gown that you are talking about Lauri I think it totally washed her out actually. Pale blue doesn’t work very well when you have brown hair I think.

          3. agree!!!
             you can give her to wear ANY kind of expensive dress but still she looks cheap dressed. she doesn’ t have the IT factor

11. I’ve just looked through them all again…look what she is doing with her hands in just about every single photo. Someone really needs to point this out to her and the Lauri from Ca needs to give her some tips on posture.

12. I selected The Fold Eaton Winter White dress as my favorite, I like the color and the style works well with Kate’s figure. My least favorite was the plum Dolce & Gabbana, for a dress this pricey I would expect a better fit plus imo it was totally inappropriate for the occasion.

    My favorite separates was the teal LK Bennett, I know, I know I’ve bagged on the color teal before but I really like this suit. For me the first wear was still the best but this time is wasn’t bad either. My least favorite is the polka dot jacket and skirt. For a senior royal Kate can expect to make many condolence calls and really should buy a new outfit, imo wearing something so old is a bit disrespectful.

    Now I realize that what I’m about to say might cause a bunch of eye rolling but I’m at the point where I can’t really see what Kate’s wearing because I can’t see past the horrible posture and crotch clutching. I don’t think she looks at pictures of herself after her engagements, how can she and still present herself like this?? Now, I’m not asking that she adapt the perfect posture of Queen Letiza but for the love of all things holy just stand and sit straight, quit with the constant hunched and rounded shoulders!!!!! And if she’s going to insist on keeping her hands clasped in front of her then they should be up at the diaphragm height not drawing attention to her nether region.

    1. Perfect posture means everything, Lauri. First, it makes your clothes look horrible. And, in my opinion, it makes you look unsure of yourself. Good posture tells a story, whether we like it or not.

       1. In year 7, I noticed how the older girls one in particular carried herself. The girl in question was in the school play and when I saw the same girl again walking tall with her blouse tucked in her skirt it looked like the girl exuded confidence.

          1. What’s her secret?

    2. Her posture is awful, she has a rounded back and thrusts her hips forward. Bottom line, she needs a stylist who can show her what to wear, how to walk and how to stand. ASAP!!!!!!!!

       1. I wonder if the poor posture is due to her severe weight loss, or osteoporosis, or lack of confidence or the crotch-holding pose that makes her throw her shoulders forward. Just awful.

    3. Re the polka dot suit: I agree with you that Kate needs a better condolence outfit. That one is years and years old – dating back to at least 2008.

       1. I agree and disagree. I like the suit and I think polka dots are timeless (although not everyone’s taste). But I do agree that she should get more than one black suit. They are very chic and versatile.

          1. Oh I love polka dots. That’s not the issue for me. I just think the one she has looks old and she should update – I’d be totally cool with a new polka dot one.

13. I think Art Historian mentioned that Mary has a taylor for important key pieces and HM has Angela Kelley. I think Kate should get some similar input – cheaper than paying for the designer name tags , can’t be worn by anyone else, and could be made to fit her body perfectly. I realise that she is young and wants to have some designer pieces but this may be a way of helping her move towards more exciting colours , learning to use accessories to change a look etc. I do think, even for those who admire her simple look, that she needs to realise that part of her job is to stand out from the crowd so people can see her from a distance.
    I know I keep banging on about it but she needs to learn from her European counterparts.

    1. But we’ve seen pieces that Kate has worn that are bespoke or have been altered from the original. So someone is supposedly tailoring things to her. Does she actually go for fittings, or are only her measurements sent? There are so many pieces that look altered but not well tailored.

       1. From what I understand, Kate used to go in for fittings but hasn’t for a few years now. Currently, she sends her measurements to the designers and they use those to tailor her clothes – using mannequins and stand ins.

          1. Why the change then? Is she even too lazy now to turn up to have designers fit her for expensive clothes that most girls would give their eye teeth to wear?!

14. Wow these pictures show just how Kate’s face has changed over this year; mostly since having the baby, it suddenly aged her a lot it seems.

    1. So many of us have made comments about how Kate seems to have aged rapidly in the last few years. The thing I noticed this year looking at photos of Princess Sofia, is she is only a few years younger than Kate, but appears more youthful.

    2. I am not sure if this is true but there is a saying in my country regarding beauty at certain age: you have to choose which one you want to keep: face or figure. If you choose to keep figure, exercise and diet the beauty of the face will significantly diminish and vice versa.

    3. Isn’t it a thing where women look much more youthful/brighter/something when pregnant because of the hormones and then after giving birth they look duller and loose hair and whatnot because they don’t have the pregnancy hormones anymore? Maybe that’s part of it.

       1. It’s the maternity glow

       2. Each woman and each pregnancy is different, but yeah, generally after the 1st trimester, you get a “glow” as Seth said. When I was really ill with morning sickness during the first 3 months, I looked like death warmed over lol For me, my hair grows thicker and faster and my skin gets kinda luminous. But it really depends on diet, too. And genetics.

          Also, it takes a big toll on a woman’s health to have pregnancies so close to each other.

          My doc told me that, on average, it takes about 2 years for a woman’s body to recover the vitamins, minerals, hormones, balance, just overall vitality after a pregnancy. When you have babies closer than 2 years apart in age, it really zaps you physically.

          I thought of that first when I started to notice Kate looking so much older/more haggard lately. Maybe in a few years she’ll start looking healthier again…

          1. Liz B, you are so right. Pregnancies — especially ones so close together — do take a toll on a woman’s body. I was actually told by my OB that spacing babies 3 years apart was best for the woman.

             i think Kate’s looking so tired and listless since Charlotte’s birth is a combination of her being pregnant with her second child so quickly after George’s birth, her extreme dieting and what appears to be her unhappiness. She looks tired, nervous and like someone who has not been true to herself for so long that she has forgotten who she really is. Hopefully, she will break out and lead a life that is more in tune to her true self.

             1. “She will break out and lead a life that is more in tune to her true self.” She’s a royal duchess, the wife of the second-in-line to the British throne and 15 other realms. Unless you mean fashion-wise, which God, we can only hope so. But whether Willy likes it or not, sooner or later he and his wife will come under the BP apparatus if they are to be King and Queen, b/c the “grey men” really run things, not them and hundreds of other people’s entire lives are based around them. She can not “break out” and “be her true self” unless William divorces her. If that happens, the Crown takes custody of the children and it’s unlikely the Midds will see much of them.

             2. Yep, my OB counseled me to wait until my first was at least 2 years old before trying for a second.

                I was thinking more, and you know, Princess Madeleine of Sweden had two very close together, even more so than Kate, I think, but she still looks great, if not better than before! I would chalk it up to her not dieting to get skinny, and perhaps her less stressful life, plus the obvious happiness she has with her husband, Chris.

                Plus, every woman is different and reacts differently to pregnancy and motherhood, obviously.

             3. Madeleine was pregnant again before Leonore turned 1. Maddie’s babies are only 16 months apart.

       3. Good point, but I threw out a comment without being very clear about the time frame. I guess this is why KMR is the writer and I am not.

          If you look at photos of Kate in early 2012 prior to getting pregnant with PG, compared to wedding photos of Sofia, so they should be about the same age. Sofia looks more youthful than Kate. In the dating years Kate had a cute fuller ‘baby face’.

          Of course, genetics and lifestyle play a part, but it makes me wonder if Kate ignores her skin. Does she get facials or use beauty products to help her skin? Does she smoke? Kate does not seem interested in make-up since she has never really changed her look for years, so maybe skin care is not her thing.

          I received a magazine with Kate and Sofia on the cover and this is why I brought up the comment. The two of them are side by side on the cover. There is a close up of Sofia and a long shot of Kate (in the pale blue slit back dress for the movie premiere) and Kate looks much older from afar.

15. Anyone else think the Indian designer blue dress is just hideous? And with the Santa Claus belt as well…just weird. I looked the dress up online and it says it is polyester and lined with polyamide, so about £1,000 on a dress made out of plastic! You could not make it up!

    1. I can’t see how it can cost £1,000 it looks very like an LK Bennett

       1. That dress was $789 at matchesfashion.

          1. Oh well that’s not so bad £500 ish. Again well accessorised it could have looked much better. I have some LK Bennett shoes that bright blue ( love the colour) which would have looked so much better than her usual black.

    2. I actually liked the dress, but the belt must be burnt 🙂

    3. I don’t care for it at all. I like the idea of the dress, and the length (thankfully) is appropriate. But I found myself hating the color, even when I wish I liked it, and the fabric looks incredibly cheap in the photos taken from a distance. I can’t imagine what it looks like up close. It also doesn’t help that Kate’s accessorized it in such an abysmal way.

       1. I wouldn’t buy that dress even if cost 100 pounds. It looks like a dress a clueless teenager would wear at a highschool prom.

    4. No, I don’t think that dress is horrible. I think the belt she wore with it is horrible, but the dress is fine.

       1. Dress is now reduced to about £300: http://www.styloko.co.uk/product/saloni-martine-crinkle-effect-dress-15612791….must have been the DM speculating that it cost £1,000 as the original price is around £500. Or maybe it was the whole outfit that cost a grand not just the dress. Either way I would still not pay hundreds for a plastic dress!

16. I just could not vote because the list brought home to me how boring her clothes really are. So many of the dresses are interchangeable-blue or red with a pleated bottom, a-line dresses with 3/4 length sleeves, jacket and skirt with a belt, ill fitting shirt dresses etc. I understand that we all have styles and cuts of clothing we know look best on us, but her lack of accessorization is what makes her just disappear into the background. For the amount of money someone has paid for these outfits, it is just a total YAWN. There is no detail that stands out to make these outfits look special, maybe it is the designers she is choosing and the clothing quality does not match the price. I agree that many of her outfits look like something you could wear to an office and could be found at cut-price retailers like TJ Maxx, Ann Taylor Loft, J Crew outlet…
    One last thing to add, after looking at these pictures, I am not impressed with the shorter hair. Her hair looks very flat and lank and I am not wondering if this has something to with having been pregnant. She just does not look the same.

    1. I know I sound very negative about Kate and I do not want to be that way for 2016, but clothing, hair and makeup aside, it is very frustrating that she is a well educated woman who has this built in platform that she could use for whatever cause she chose, yet she has appeared to do nothing or even be passionate about anything. This is a gift and she should use it. Maybe she is at a crossroads in her life, where things did not turn out as she would have imagined and while I am sure she loves her husband and family, she just could be a deer caught in the headlights until she makes some type of decision what the direction of her life is going to be. I hope she works it all out.

17. I agree. To be honest a couple of years after university Kate hasn’t aged well. Kate looked a healthy weight whilst at university. Thank you for the poll KMR. I did like the polka dot Maternity dresses and I think the dress worn outside the Maternity hospital although underwhelming could have been worn on another occasion. Though at least it wasn’t a red dress. I think one or two dresses stand out but to me most of them look the same sorry.

    1. I liked the polka dot maternity dress as well, she looked comfortable in it and during pregnancy comfort counts.

       1. I agree. However I have never been expecting. I did try some maternity jeans that my cousin had in her drawer once. They were really comfortable. It was more a dare than anything.

          1. LOL

18. If I had to vote on her best ensemble of the year,it would be the red Alexander McQueen with flaps,simply because its an example of remarkable tailoring.
    As for her worst,for me its got to be the dress debuted at the ‘Spectre’ premiere.The sleeves swamped her.

    1. It looked like a nightie.

19. Oh, I am sorry, KMR. I am trying to be more positive this year. But, frankly, I think I can only vote for my least faves. Not one of the choices featured moved me favorably. I guess it is that she dresses so “safely,” which would be fine, if as you said, she threw in a few fab accessories. And, I agree that Charlene is just so elegant and wears her choices so darn well. I am glad I am not the only one who didn’t like any of the choices enough on Kate to vote in the fave category. I’m sorry, I have to be true to myself and I really wanted to be more positive. By the way, I went back to the post and read it again and don’t see where you click to pull up the choices to vote. Help, please!

    1. The voting section should show below KMR’s post and then you can click to see results so far.

    2. I agree. I normally try to be very positive but her look is just so boring. It isn’t even the basic look. I love basic clothing!! However her clothes don’t really fit her figure and she doesn’t accessorize at all. I think if she had a few dresses in basic colors but really changed up the accessories then she would be more stylish than she was this year. I don’t think she should necessarily do that, but I think even that would be better than her current choices.

    3. The voting section should be right under each category (the dresses polls under the dresses category; the separates polls under the separates category).

20. Shockingly, her maternity looks were some of the better outfits for her, I think. More colors and prints and not so drab looking.

    1. I know right? The ghastly floral print has to be the worst. The next is the yellow dress she wore for Charlotte’s unveiling (bad word but the best I can think of). That’s more like what the Queen would wear. When a 33-year-old dresses like an elderly lady, there’s a problem. On the after-Christmas church walk, that gray coat looks like an overcoat for a guardsman. Why is she wearing something that’s issued to the “help?”

       1. Seth – Can’t stop crying/laughing from your comments. She really needs a stylist as her choices are just deplorable.

          1. Either would be appropriate to the occasion, wouldn’t it?

             1. Yes! 🙂

21. It is also very hard for me to decide which outfits were best. The worst ones? For me, it’s a tie.
    The Michael Kors suit she wore recently and the black and white one which she wore when signing the condolence book for the French rank high on my list of horror shows.

    I am also feeling the need to apologize as I wanted to be a bit nicer in the New Year.

    1. I forgot about the French embassy condolence outfit. How horrible. Yeah, that probably comes close to taking the biscuit.

22. I’ve been pondering Kate’s wardrobe. She obviously doesn’t like to accessorize but to let the dress or outfit stand alone. And she has a favorite style shoe and bag. I can respect all that. However, it seems her style became markedly less hip and interesting after the flashing during the Aus/NZ tour. I wonder if she was severely scolded and has withdrawn to clothes appropriate to a middle-aged office worker. Her posture and mannerisms loudly say she is scared and trying to protect herself. Basically, the most memorable thing about that huge PR tour down under with Prince George was her lack of underwear. It seems to me that her whole persona has gone downhill since then. She flashed before (Canada and France) but was Aus/NZ the straw that broke the camel’s back for HM?

    1. I could respect letting the dress stand alone if she wore dresses that weren’t so basic and didn’t look like all of her other dresses. But the dresses she wears are basic pieces that aren’t wow enough to stand on their own.

       1. I agree with you, and if Kate is striving for the pieces to stand alone, she badly needs some sparkle, better posture, and hair up, like Ray suggests below. That would go a long way to making her basic pieces better received.

    2. She actually had some really beautiful pieces from the Aus/NZ tour. I don’t think she’ll ever go heavy on accessorizing, but I agree not needing to if your outfit does all the talking for you. That yellow Roksanda she wore, with her hair half up – so pretty. The pink McQueen separates? Demure, with a daring neckline and all she needed was her small necklace (hair back again). The dove grey coat and hat for Easter – cut glass, so sharp! Actually, all she really needs to do is pull her back in some way or other and it totally elevates her look. When it’s down, it’s just so casual, that it brings down a whole outfit.

       1. You know Ray, I loved that pink McQueen outfit but gosh when she bent over to talk to the kids they sure got an eye full.

          1. You made me laugh so hard, Lauri. They got a show, indeed.

          2. See, a stylist would have been there with the double sided tape making sure the show was PG rather than R. A bra doesn’t factor in as part of your outfit no matter how pretty (or pricey) it is 😉

             1. LOL.

       2. I agree that her pieces from the Aus/NZ tour were wonderful. It was afterwards that her persona and fashion choices went downhill.

    3. I’ve often wondered the same thing. The first year of marriage her posture was fine, no extensive crotch clutching and she looked pretty comfortable interacting with the public, but gosh now her body language fairly screams “I’m nervous”, “I’m insecure”, “I wanna go home”. What happened?

       1. I wonder if she has been forced to be under the guidance of some royal fashion minder who is just a bit old hat? Simply because the ‘look’ is matronly and not becoming a 34 year old? The habit of crotch clutching seems to be a royal thing so she’s probably been schooled to comport herself so. Perhaps that’s why she’s uncomfortable and insecure: what she’s been told to do is unnatural to her, and comes across as fake, awkward. Just a hunch.

          1. That’s a possibility.

          2. I don’t know about crotch clutching being a royal thing. The Queen hasn’t done it, she holds her hands at diaphragm level not crotch level. Sophie does it sometimes and that makes me want to scream and I can’t really see Anne doing it, so yeah I don’t know if it’s a royal thing or not.

          3. Maybe William told her off, not the Queen, and she has yet to recover. She is so very sensitive to anything William says or does, and she and her family have accommodated his every wish for so long, that a serious scolding by him may have flattened her. Words can slay.

             A royal dress minder may have been instituted, too. If so, he/she is decades behind! Kate looks so matronly.

             1. I think a royal dress minder is probably the reason. Maybe Lady Susan Hussey, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting and closest confidants? That could explain the matronly look. Hussey was deputized on the Foreign Office balcony during Remembrance celebrations in 2012 and Kate barely deigned to grin.

             2. I agree, BamaLynn. I think William’s treatment of her has a lot to do with her insecure nervousness and reticence to take anything remotely close to a fashion risk.

             3. She got the royal make over duchess 2.0 just before the OZ/NZ tour, which style wise had a number of wins. Perhaps after the outfits during this tour and period she thought she had it figured out and, like she did after 2011 and 2012 when had a few designers helping her out, she stopped taking advice.

                http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2550166/Out-short-skirts-tiaras-Its-Kates-regal-makeover-order-Queen.html

                http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2603412/Now-seen-regal-look-Kate-Duchess-adopts-Queens-style-New-Zealand-tour.html

             4. There is a series of photos showing William yelling at Kate near a plane or helicopter after a skirt blow up. She’s standing there with her hands in the crotch clutch position, head down while William’s mouth is wide open as he yells at her. It could have all started then. This was after she’d had blow up issue a couple of times so he was probably really exasperated by the whole thing.

    4. Everything went downhill around the time her pregnancy with Charlotte was announced I think; everything she has worn since then has been drab.

23. I think when you place Kate next to other royal ladies in the 5-10 year younger and older range, she fell short in 2015 compared to others in style. She spent a good deal of PC’s money to look so boring this past year.

    When charming, handsome Prince Harry starts dating someone this year (my hope!), Kate may get off the sofa and care about a few things (i.e. her duty to country and the BRF, her clothes and doing more work).

    1. That will be interesting if/when that day comes!!

24. Sheesh, she’s such a boring dresser.

25. I don’t understand how someone (Kate) with a fantastic body and access to the world’s best designers ends up looking either ‘off’ or ‘snooze-fest’. I thought she looked and dressed best during the Canada/US tour after their marriage. I agree on not putting shoes on the list. Sorry to plug another blog, but this article is bang-on:
    http://www.thedressdown.com/kate-middleton-bad-shoe-problem/

    I confess that I do own some boring shoes (*cough* LK Bennett nude sledge pumps *cough*) but I try to not wear them with EVERYTHING and when I do wear them I try to pair it with something interesting.

    1. That was a great article! I’m amending my suggestion for Kate to – hair at least partially up at all times, AND get the dressdown author to pick the shoes. You’ll never have to worry about looking expensive but bland again, if you kick it up with killer footwear.

       1. Exactly! I have a few that I break out to show that I mean business.

          1. Oh Rhiannon, we are going to have so much fun shoe shopping when you marry Harry!!

    2. OMG, the steamed chicken breast of shoes!!!! I snorted lemon water through my nose I laughed so hard!!!!

       I so agree, the Canada/US tour was the best she’s ever looked. I have to ask, do you think that is because it was new to us? The fashion, the hair, the delicate jewelry? But now we’ve seen it all, her style hasn’t changed one bit and now we’re bored?

       1. I searched through the Canada/US tour and quite frankly, you can superimpose those pictures to her more recent wardrobe and you won’t notice much of a difference except for maybe 1 or 2 outfits. Same nude LK Bennett shoes with almost every outfit (except now her uniform has changed to black pumps), the perennial favorite lace dress, little/no accessorizing, and Princess Disney curls. She was bland then as she is now with the same ho-hum outfits. The only difference is she was still a “novelty item” way back then. Sartorially, she has stagnated.

          1. Hm… I think a comparison article is in order. To compare Kate’s 2011/2012 wardrobe to her 2014/2015 wardrobe and see if her style really was better back then or if we just think it was because it was new. What say you guys?

             1. Great idea KMR!

             2. Love it!

             3. Yes Please!

                Maybe is WAS because she was ‘fresh’ back then, as were her clothes. She also looked happy then, and less so now. I liked some of the stuff she wore in California – the bare legs (gasp!) at the polo match; and the pink sequin Jenny Packham dress she wore to the ARK awards in London shortly after her wedding are the best she’s ever looked, IMO.

             4. Definitely a great idea, although I think we’re going to realize that with the exception of the skirt length she didn’t really change much.

             5. A fabulous idea!

             6. Yeah, sounds good to me.

             7. I love how you spoil us!!! Keep it up! 🙂

             8. Great idea!

             9. You may want to omit every time she has worn skinny jeans + striped top + blazer. That tired and oft-repeated outfit could have an entire blog unto itself.

             10. Hahaha.

             11. Sounds good!

             12. That pink Jenny Packham and that green one she wore to the Olympics are my all-time #1 looks for Kate, especially the latter with her hair up.

                 I think a big part of it, too, is she was happy! Glowing! I got the ring, guys, I got it! Look at meee! Reality of being forced to work hadn’t yet set in. I do like her clothes from that period better: the dresses and the like from the Canada tour and visit to LA (which seems totally pointless and was thrown on to appease them wanting to meet celebs? I was just pissed I couldn’t go anywhere because they were in Santa Barbara and we’d planned on going to the zoo then up there. Nope. Haha.)

             13. Great idea KMR 🙂

             14. When I look back at pictures, I see the change starting for Kate after she had George. I think the weight gain, body hormones, fierce dieting to get back in skinny jeans asap! and interaction duties with the kids has killed her mojo.

    3. Fabulous article. Thanks for the link. Now I want to go shoe shopping!

       1. +1!

26. I must say it was hard to choose one dress I didn’t like because I absolutely hate 60% of them. I think that during her pregnancy with Charlotte she wore the most ghastly outfits like those floral prints Erdem or Seraphine Maternity dress or that absolutely terrible Madderson tweed dress not to mention the yellow Jenny Packham dress which she chose for the first debut with Charlotte. There are also the dresses which I liked before like Alexander McQueen bespoke red dress. She looked great in it during the Queen diamond jubilee in 2012 but last time she wore it she looked like a ghost of herself with that skeleton-like frame of her and her manly broad, bony shoulders. It makes me think how utterly miserable and unattractive she looks these days no matter what she wear.

    1. I agree. 2012 and 2015 shots of her in that beautiful McQueen dress really highlight the fact that she must be becoming unhappy at home 🙁

       1. +1

27. This is going to be fun. Can’t wait for the final results. At the point I voted, the same dress was number one on the best and worst list!!
    Forget I said that about the same dress. I just realized the list is not shifting based on totals. It’s been one of those days!

28. It’s funny because my votes for favorite dress and separates are also number one for most of you Ladies – I was surprised especially about my and yours choice of dress. With “hate it” outfits I am also in majority – and I thought I am so original 😀

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