The Princess of Wales has made the first stop on her solo visit to Italy, arriving to awaiting crowds in Reggio Emilia. This two-day visit, which will centre around the area’s approach to childcare and early years development, is the Princess’ first overseas engagement since her cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Catherine arrived in the town with wide smiles and plenty of waves for the crowds, many of whom yielded Union flags and wore jaunty fascinators. Her choice of outfit for the engagement was familiar, and plays into the consistency she has developed for her working wardrobe. Let’s call it Princess of Wales BAU.
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The Princess chose a cornflower blue tailored suit by Edeline Lee worn with a cream blouse and her favourite pointed brown shoes from Ralph Lauren. The shade of the suit ensured that she was easily visible to all of the crowds (a known sartorial exercise popularised by the late Queen Elizabeth), while the style felt smart, efficient and still modern. As she is known to do on such occasions, Catherine was quick to bend down to greet the littlest members of the crowds so choosing trousers over a skirt was most sensible.
Samir Hussein
What brought about a further sense of familiarity to the Princess’ ensemble was her choice of bag. Catherine chose to carry the same sort of top-handle style that is fast becoming her preference. In and amongst her growing collection of Chanel bags and tonal clutches, the ladylike style that comes complete with a handle and flap-detail offering has become her most-called upon, with styles from Aspinal, De Mellier and Strathberry leading the line up.
MARCO BERTORELLO
Here, this soft blue option brought an extra dimension to her tailoring, offering a more feminine turn to the otherwise sharp tailoring. It’s a savvy styling trick that can be applied to all matter of ensembles. Like Catherine illustrated, the familiar bag silhouette can be used to bring a femininity to more androgynous pieces, while when worn with contrasting items — say jeans, ballet pumps and a track jacket — they can introduce a sense of smartness and classicism by embracing a little sartorial tension. Of course, this isn’t to say that they also look great when worn with what they were designed to be styled with, whether that’s a floaty summer dress or a natty skirt suit. Very QEII coded.
All eyes are on Catherine (and her wardrobe) as she takes her royal mission to Italy. Might her next ensemble offer up a little more Italian flair? We hope so. Ciao, Bella.
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Naomi Pike is the commissioning editor at ELLE UK. Her expansive role moves between editing the front of book, covering runway fashion and cultural trends, writing cover stories and well features, as well as commissioning best-in-class contributors. An experienced host, Naomi regularly chairs ELLE’s panels and reader events as well as interviewing talent on camera. Naomi started her career at British Vogue and has since written through her freelance career for The Guardian, The CUT, American Vogue, The Daily Telegraph, Porter, and The Sunday Times STYLE. Follow her on Instagram at @naomialexandrapike