Kate, Princess of Wales at the women’s final at Wimbledon on June 12, 2025 (Photo: AELTC / Andrew Parsons)
A week of high-profile engagements and there was not a trouser suit in sight.
Don’t get me wrong — I like the streamlined, beautifully tailored trouser suits favoured by the Princess of Wales. But boy, we’ve seen a lot of them this year.
So it was a nice break to see Kate keep her pant suits in her closet and don dresses and gowns last week as she attended her two most prominent events of the year to date: the state visit of President Macron to Windsor Castle and the championship weekend at Wimbledon.
For Wimbledon, she wore two customized outfits by retail brands she’s worn before — a white Self-Portrait dress on Saturday and a blue two-tone Roksanda dress on Sunday. Both dresses emphasize her habit of often having brands tweak their design so that she has outfits that no one else can buy. By switching a collar detail here or a colour there, she gets custom outfits at a fraction of what made-to-measure costs (and she pays retail prices, per People).
Wimbledon was a bit of a homecoming for the royal, who famously loves tennis and is patron of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. She looked a bit overwhelmed as the crowd gave her a standing ovation as she entered the Royal Box at Wimbledon and was seated next to tennis royalty, Billie Jean King (in blue), for the very short, 6-0, 6-0 match. Her attendance was important as she hadn’t attended a women’s final for two years (last year, she only attended the men’s final while undergoing chemo treatment).
“We love you, Kate!” was shouted out more than once at Centre Court during the championship weekend.
On Sunday, William — wearing a double-breasted blazer, which was stylish change from his usual single-breasted jackets — joined her for the men’s final along with their two older children, George and Charlotte.
The princess introduces men’s winner Jannik Sinner to her children, Charlotte and George (Photo: AELTC / Andrew Parsons)
Like previous years, she was the focus of attention as the club’s patron. William may be heir, but in this case, he’s just the spouse. It was a hot afternoon, so Kate put on a hat and she and her daughter used Wimbledon paper fans to keep cool. (Also in the royal box was King Felipe of Spain, there to see if countryman Carlos Alcaraz could win three in a row. He couldn’t.)
William and Kate at the airport to meet the Macron (Photo: Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace)
Earlier that week, Kate took diplomatic fashion to a whole new level when she wore two couture outfits to the French state visit including the first, a fabulous blush pink Dior outfit that echoed the fashion house’s famous New Look design from 1947, worn when she and William greeted French President Emmanuel Macon and his wife and escorted them to the official arrival area where King Charles III and Queen Camilla welcomed them. They also went to carriage to Windsor Castle, where they all had lunch.
Then, just before the royals and their guests were to gather for the pre-dinner reception, Kensington Palace announced that she would attend the evening’s events. It was the first such formal event she’s attended since November 2023.
To mark the occasion, she and William released an image of them taken outside on a law showing them in their formal attire. For the evening, Kate wore a deep red chiffon gown by the Paris couture house of Givenchy while wearing her Lover’s Knot tiara and the Greville chandelier earrings from the late Queen that contain every cut of diamond.
And yes, it was Givenchy that made Meghan’s wedding dress, but that designer is now at Uniqlo and Sarah Burton, the designer who made Kate’s wedding dress, is now at Givenchy.
Because this was Kate’s first formal event for a long time, we got to see her wear the King’s Family Order of a miniature portrait, encircled in diamonds, on a blue ribbon. And for those who noted that William didn’t wear the red-lapelled “Windsor uniform” that other royal men wore, I point out that the Duke of Gloucester also didn’t wear that jacket.
What also sets this state dinner apart from previous ones is the access accorded to the media. As I mentioned in my Friday post, “What an unprecedented bounty of photos means for the monarchy,” it’s not that the actual elements of a state visit had changed that much — they haven’t — but rather that we can now see parts of the event that were once off limits. There were so many images that it took me a while to realize that we had visuals of two processions that evening.
Her high-profile week felt like a turning point in the Princess of Wales’s road to recovery as she had returned to the royal centre stage in a way we haven’t seen since 2023.
After 15 years, Kate’s trusted personal assistant and in-house stylist is leaving to set up her own consultancy. Natasha Archer has been by Kate’s side through thick and thin. She’s married to Getty royal photographer Chris Jackson and they have two young kids so having more regular hours has to be appealing.
Archer helped Kate create a streamlined, classic style that is immediately identifiable.
Lord Strathcona’s Horse process down the Mall from Buckingham Palace on July 11, 2025 (Photo: UK MOD © Crown copyright 2025 / Sgt Donald Todd)
For 10 days, troops of Lord Strathcona’s Horse are protecting the King. The armoured regiment from Edmonton is marking its 125th anniversary by replacing the Household Cavalry and mounting the ceremonial guard in London.
The guard duty comes at the express wish of their colonel-in-chief, King Charles III, and marks only the third time a non-British unit has done so:
In 2000, Lord Strathcona’s Horse did it for their 100th anniversary
in 2012, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police mounted the guard for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
FYI: They are using Household Cavalry horses and their last day in July 20.
One last thing: there’s a royal brooch connection to the regiment. In 1901, the future Queen Mary was presented with the Enamel Maple Leaf Spray Brooch in the home of Lord Strathcona in Montreal.
Queen Camilla with her new dog, Moley (Photo: Chris Jackson / Getty Images for Buckingham Palace)
We got to see a new snap of Queen Camilla’s pup, Moley, whom she’d adopted earlier this year from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, of which the Queen is patron. This isn’t the first Battersea dog adopted by Camilla. She’s previously rehomed two Jack Russell Terriers: Beth, who died last year, and Bluebell.
As for the name — the Queen thinks this Jack Russell looks like “a mole.”
Prince Harry’s new communications staff met with the lead comms person for his father weeks after everyone heard that Harry had a falling out with his grandmother, Elizabeth II, in the run-up to his 2018 wedding, and two months after he lashed out at his family after losing his case to have blanket 24/7 police security when in Britain.
Apparently, the meeting in London was focused on “opening the channels of communication.”