The Princess of Wales has some very peculiar style quirks, which is notable because most people find her style kind of boring. She’s a big fan of theme-dressing, she’s a big fan of dressing in flag-colors, and she’s also an ardent copykeener, especially when it comes to mimicking Princess Diana or the Duchess of Sussex. What else is Kate known for? Repeating the same looks with minor tweaks, to the point where people are always questioning whether she buys duplicates with small variations. I still want to know if her coatdress at the Sussexes’ wedding was actually Kate rewearing the white McQueen coat she wore to Charlotte’s christening. But I digress. Kate’s most recent public outing was on the balcony on Remembrance Sunday. At the time, no one ID’d her coat, and I just figured it was some overpriced bespoke piece and that’s why people were being squirrelly. But according to People Mag, Kate wore an old Catherine Walker coat, she just had the buttons redone and they added some velvet pieces.
Kate Middleton is becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to reimagining her signature style. While the royal is well-known for re-wearing pieces (her beloved brown tassel boots from Penelope Chilvers have been in her rotation for over 20 years!), her style team is getting creative when it comes to upcycling her more formal — and often costly — outfits.
“We’ve seen Kate upcycle more lately and I think it’s a great message to be sending, especially so soon after William’s Earthshot tour,” Bethan Holt, Fashion Director at the Daily Telegraph, tells PEOPLE after Kate perfected the chic tweak when she stepped out on Nov. 10 for Remembrance Sunday.
At first glance, the sharp, military-inspired black coatdress—complete with a velvet bow at the collar and velvet-covered buttons — looked like a fresh addition to her wardrobe. But it was actually a Catherine Walker & Co. piece she had worn for the same occasion four years earlier, proving that timeless elegance is always in style.
“I think she recognizes she has lots of beautiful pieces already in her wardrobe, which, with a few small tweaks, can look entirely new,” explains Holt, who has written extensively about Kate’s love of recycling in her book, The Duchess of Cambridge: A Decade of Modern Royal Style.
In fact, this marks the third time Kate has reimagined this outfit. Initially worn with tasseled epaulets on the shoulders in 2020 for her balcony appearance at the Cenotaph, she had the tassels removed for a second outing in September 2022, when she wore the same piece to greet Commonwealth troops at the Army Training Centre Pirbright in the days leading up to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
I’m looking at the 2020 Remembrance photos – I’m adding them at the end of the post – and I really can’t tell if this is the same coat or if Kate went to Catherine Walker and asked them to make a very similar coat without tassels and with different buttons. The waist detail seems to be the same, as does the collar. I mean… it’s possible that Kate “upcycled” the same coat in this case. But I also think she buys duplicates with small variations a lot of the time. Or she used to – I’ve wondered a lot if Kate’s clothing budget has been slashed since William got his hands on the Duchy of Cornwall slumlord money.
The 2020 Remembrance photos with the Walker coat:
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.