Tags
Australia, Day 10, Duchess of Cambridge, Duke of Cambridge, Fashion, Fashion Repeat, Grumpy Face, Jewelry, Kate Middleton, New Zealand, Prince George, Prince William, Royal New Zealand Police College, Sydney, Sydney Opera House, Wellington
Bow down to Prince George’s Grumpy Face, peasants! The Grumpy Face was on full display today while leaving New Zealand and arriving in Australia. George is completely over this whole trip, and peasants, and flowers. But not koalas.
Now that I’ve led with the most important person on this trip, let’s talk Cambridges. I am leading with their arrival in Sydney and will talk about their departure from New Zealand below. I’m doing it this way because I want to talk about Kate’s Sydney outfit first. Before I get to that, let’s do business. Prince William and Kate landed in Sydney and met some dignitaries–there was a kerfuffle with the premier of New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell, who retired a few hours before Will and Kate landed after he had been accused of accepting a £1,600 bottle of wine from the former chief executive of Australian Water Holdings. Scandal! Where’s Olivia Pope when you need her? Anyway, he was replaced in the reception line. Then the Cambridges went to the Sydney Opera House for a reception, where William gave a speech that included a reference to Diana’s love of Australia. They did a walkabout before taking a boat around the harbor and retiring for the evening.
For her arrival in Sydney, Kate wore a bright yellow dress—with a few patches of white color-blocking—from Roksanda Ilincic, a Serbian designer based in London. Yellow is one of Australia’s colors, so the dress was in honor of the host country. The dress is a bespoke design, but is modeled after the “Ryedale” dress from the Spring/Summer 2014 collection (the dress is priced at $1,441, but that doesn’t include all of Kate’s alterations). For Kate, the colors have been reversed and the sleeves altered to be more fitted. Kate accessorized the dress with her Annoushka pearl drop earrings, her Mappin & Webb Fortune white gold drop pendant, Cartier watch, and those awful nude LK Bennet heels. Kate wore her hair up in a half-ponytail style. I love this dress! This is quite possibly one of my favorite things she’s ever worn. I like her dress better than the original design in the collection. The color is lovely and makes her really pop out of the crowd—but granted my favorite color is yellow. This whole outfit is great—except those damn LK Bennet shoes!
Some odd and ends: Unfortunately, there has been another comparison to a flight attendant uniform courtesy of Matilda So Blue. William held his son in public for only the third time in his life (the second is discussed below). We got more pictures of Nanny Maria, carrying George’s backpack and putting him in the car. We also got a shot of Rebecca Deacon. A Prince Harry impersonator showed up with a gaggle of bikini-clad women. They were asked to leave by the police.
[Might want to watch this video on mute, chatter is annoying. Also W&K footage ends at 2:07 mark]
Before departing for Australia, William and Kate visited the Royal New Zealand Police College where they laid a wreath in honor of fallen officers, and met the officers and some cute German shepherd puppies that will be trained to be police dogs. They also met foster families for the dogs. The puppies were tiny, only 12 days old. George got yet another gift, this time it was a blue onsie with the words “junior recruit” on the front. There was another traditional Maori performance—after they broke out a performance of “Singing in the Rain” because it was raining, which is kind of awesome. They ended by doing a walkabout.
When Kate and Will boarded the plane in NZ, William actually held George. It’s only the second time Will has held George in public—the first being when they brought him out of the hospital. I get the feeling that George really likes being held facing front. We’ve seen him held on Kate’s hip and then he squirms until she faces him forward; and now Will is holding him the same way. I have to say though, Will kind of seemed more interested in the German shepherd puppy than he did George; and he kind of held him out and away from his body.
For her last appearance in NZ, Kate wore a NZ designer—kind of. As with the Emilia Wickstead situation, this designer was born in NZ, but has lived and worked abroad for years—this time in New York, where her company is based. Also, this outfit is a repeat. So again, Kate is not wearing a local NZ designer she has never worn before—and this outfit isn’t even new the way the Wickstead one was. Also, the earrings Kate was supposed to have bought from a local NZ designer, yeah she never wore them. So if Kate was trying to “champion local designers” she failed. Anyway, today’s outfit was a Rebecca Taylor dark blue tweed jacket and skirt. Kate previously wore this outfit in April 2012. She paired today’s outfit with her Stuart Weitzman clutch, Cartier watch, and sapphire and diamond earrings. Kate wore her hair back in a half-ponytail style this time.
Links: Articles about arrival in Sydney: Express, Daily Mail, Hello! Articles about last day in NZ: Express, Daily Mail, Hello! Getty Images pictures, more pictures. More videos of Cambs arriving and visiting Opera House.
Photo credits: First photo from twitter. Second photo from Rebecca English twitter. Third and fourth photo from G-G of NZ twitter. Fifth photo from NZ police twitter.