Yesterday, the Princess of Wales made a surprise appearance at an event for the British Fashion Council. She wore this somewhat terrible Victoria Beckham suit, and I honestly thought that there were only two reasons why Kate agreed to wear that suit: one, she wanted to “copy” Meghan’s Ralph Lauren suit from April and two, Kate had to wear a Victoria Beckham design because Beckham was receiving an award. I was wrong about the second reason – Kate actually presented the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design to Patrick McDowell. Surely… they should have put Kate in one of McDowell’s designs? Like, a literal showcase for the designer who won the award presented by Kate? Bad staff work all around, and whoever told Kate the VB suit looked good should immediately be fired too. People Mag had quotes from some of the designers at the event and they were all super-excited to talk to the Girl In The Baby-Poop Suit.
Kate Middleton impressed designers with her strong knowledge of their work at her latest royal engagement. On May 13, the Princess of Wales, 43, stepped out to present The Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design at an event organized by the British Fashion Council in London, which doubled as her first solo official outing this spring. There, Princess Kate mingled with recipients and shortlisted designers from the British Fashion Council Foundation’s initiatives supporting the talent of tomorrow, where designer Clio Peppiatt was wowed by how prepared Kate was.
“She knew a bit about the brand and said she was really excited to see it in person,” Peppiatt, 34, exclusively tells PEOPLE, revealing that Princess Kate said she’d read up on her brand. Peppiatt’s Capri dress, decorated with illustrations of summer fruit in hand-sewn beading and embroidery, caught Kate’s attention during a presentation, and they dove into the details when they spoke.
“I mentioned to her that a lot of pieces are inspired by postcards of places we love. She mentioned she loved the handicraft,” says Peppiatt.
Princess Kate visited Patrick McDowell’s pop-up studio at 180 Studios to see how the sustainable designs come to life and asked many questions.
“We showed the Princess our latest collection, which is called Portraits of a Painter, and we also showed her some work we were currently developing for the September show,” McDowell, 29, tells PEOPLE. “She was so interested to see the different crafts people were working on… She was genuinely interested to meet all of them and hear about what they do and how each of them contributes to the process of a fashion collection coming together.”
The namesake label is a circular luxury fashion brand, and McDowell says it was a dream achieved for fashion icon Kate to present the prize. “It was such a dream come true that she was presenting the award. To see her in person and see her genuine interest and real love of fashion and crucially the people making the clothes which is a love I share, was so special,” they say. “She was so interested, she spent so much time meeting each of the team. She was really so kind, and that genuine interest is so crucial to how British fashion is put forward on a global stage.”
I won’t make fun of the designers who were excited to meet Kate – she’s famous and they would love to design anything for her and get some kind of bump in sales or attention. But the “Kate Effect” isn’t what it used to be, if it ever was. Not like Meghan, who can wear anything and it immediately sells out and changes a designer’s life forever. As always, I will point out that the bar is set in hell for Kate – she impressed people at this event simply because she asked questions like “what’s the process here” while playing with her hairpiece. They didn’t even let her make a speech for the big award presentation. They just called her up to the podium to literally hand the award to McDowell.
PS… it’s sort of audacious to send Kate to a British Fashion Council event considering her February announcement that her office would no longer provide fashion updates, and her office would discourage people from writing about such frivolity. Not so frivolous now, I guess?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
