In an article in the Sunday Times published on February 1, a quote from a ‘palace source’ revealed the Princess of Wales would no longer be releasing details of her outfits.
The practice, where details of what the Princess, 43, wears to official events is released after the occasion, has been in place for many years. However, there was no confirmation of this move from official sources following the piece.
The quoted source claimed the reason for the change would be because Princess Kate wanted to focus substance over style.
“She wants the focus to be on the really important issues, the people and the causes she is spotlighting,” the quote read.
“There is an absolute feeling that it [the public work] is not about what the princess is wearing,” the source told the Sunday Times.
“There will always be an appreciation of what the princess is wearing from some of the public and she gets that. But do we need to be officially always saying what she is wearing? No. The style is there but it’s about the substance,” the insider added.
The comments caused huge debate online with coverage going global, and now the Palace has been forced to clarify the the situation.
In a rare move, a message released from a spokesperson for Princess Kate and her husband Prince William, revealed themselves to be the source for the Sunday Times article.
“Over the last week, I have received numerous questions about a story regarding The Princess of Wales’s clothing and how Kensington Palace shares information about her outfits,” the message from the spokesperson read.
“To clarify, the comments that appeared in the article were from me, not The Princess of Wales. The comments that were reported should not be directly attributed to The Princess of Wales. To be clear, there has been no change in our approach to sharing information about Her Royal Highness’s clothing.”
After the original story, backlash revealed many enjoyed learning the details of Kate’s clothing as she often put the spotlight on smaller fashion brands and wore heirloom jewellery from the Royal Family.
She has often been photographed wearing items that once belonged to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William’s mother Princess Diana. Other fashion pieces were carefully chosen with colour, symbols or heritage to honour causes, hosts or guests at the events and occasions she attends.
So it appears it is now back to business as usual, when it comes to what Kate steps out in.
