Kate Middleton resurrects old fashion trick during new appearance

Kate Middleton gave the royal fashion observers a little something to chew on as she stepped out to visit the Anna Freud Centre in London — her patronage for the charity going back a decade.

According to PEOPLE, Princess Kate’s appearance on November 27 marked her support for “Anna Freud’s new tie-in with her Centre for Early Childhood, which will boost the skills of health visitors, the teams who support women in the days and weeks after childbirth in the UK.”

While the Princess of Wales undertook an essential mission while touring the charity’s centre, it doesn’t hurt to go over her look during it — which hides an old reference connected to a previous stop at the same institute.

Familiar designer

Kate opted for a grey houndstooth pencil dress from Emilia Wickstead — a designer she is more than familiar with.

This year alone, the future queen has worn multiple looks from the New Zealand native designer’s eponymous fashion house.

She wore Emilia Wickstead’s designs four times before her latest appearance — while welcoming Donald Trump at the airport in September, during the Buckingham Palace Garden Party and 80th VE Day anniversary in May, with the first 2025 look in Emilia Wickstead being a caramel hued cable knit sweater which Kate donned in a video exploring Lake Windermere back in April.

Familiar design

Besides turning to a fashion designer she commonly wears, the Princess of Wales seemingly returned to a safe look she had worn during an old visit to the Anna Freud Centre.

Kate had stepped out in an elegant houndstooth design — the same pattern she sported today — by Ralph Lauren when she had paid a visit to the charity back in September 2015.

Royal rule breaker

Per Elle UK, Princess Kate’s latest look defied a royal fashion rule which may never have been formally stated, but is commonly followed more often than not.

The publication’s commissioning editor, Naomi Pike noted that the latest ensemble did away with the mandate of “matching your bag and shoe colour.”

“Instead, Catherine opted to clash by carrying a brown bag and wearing a grey pointed heel,” Pike added. “The styling choice moves her look into more contemporary territory as the outdated adage for shoes and bags has by and large fallen out of daily favour and finds itself primarily reserved for mothers of the bride.”