Ask any ordinary woman how often she buys a new coat and she’ll say once every couple of years. But for the Duchess of Cambridge, it’s a different matter.
Chic, colourful and crucial to her seasonal style, coats are the centrepiece of Kate’s wardrobe. She’s such a coat-a-holic, that she’s worn more than 100 different designs over the past ten years with the 37 in our rainbow costing an estimated £92,788.
From short to ankle-length, patterned to plain and High Street to designer — not to mention one that cost a very indulgent £8,400 — we celebrate a decade of Kate’s colourful coats…
Kate Middleton at a Christmas Day service held at Sandringham Church in Norfolk
Kate Middleton at a Christmas Day service in Norfolk (left) and visiting Coventry (right)
COATS AROUND THE WORLD
80% Flying the flag for her country, 80 per cent of Kate’s coats are British, including lesser-known brands such as Goat and Libelula.
10% Is the proportion of Italian brands in her ‘coat-drobe’, which includes Max Mara, Dolce & Gabbana and Miu Miu. She also loves coats by Venezuelan designer Carolina Herrera.
Chic accessorising tricks
1/3 Kate’s worn a hat with her coat on a third of occasions. Her headwear of choice is often a small, circular, fascinator-style piece tilted down towards her right eyebrow, in a contrasting colour.
1/4 Just under a quarter of her coat appearances have been accompanied by gloves.
1/5 The number of times she has finished off her look with a brooch (12 per cent) or a scarf (8 per cent), normally in an eye-catching colour or pattern — such as the tartan one she wore with her green Alexander McQueen coat on the recent royal train tour.
Kate Middleton at Newbridge near Edinburgh (left) and on a visit to Bradford (right)
RAINBOW RATIO
26% More than a quarter of Kate’s coats are blue. From sophisticated navy to pastel hues, it’s been Kate’s go-to coat colour since her engagement in 2010.
18% Red is also a favourite, worn with either nude or black tights. A tartan scarf is her usual accessory.
16% From olive to a deep forest shade, green is a frequent choice and often cut on the knee.
14% A more sombre grey or beige looks best with black tights and heels.
13% Her oldest coat is said to be a cream Reiss number but only 13 per cent of her coats are cream or white.
4% Pink is her least favourite colour — and she rarely wears black except for on Remembrance Sunday. Most of her coats are plain rather than patterned; just 11 per cent have a design on the outside — most commonly checks or figure-flattering horizontal stripes.
Kate Middleton arriving at an event at the Trocadero in Paris, France in 2017
DUCHESS OF RECYCLING
4 The number of coats Kate had worn on previous outings that she took on this month’s royal train tour.
The £3,000 Catherine Walker design was first seen in Ireland in March this year; a navy Hobbs coat (£349) had previously been seen in February, and the long red Alexander McQueen cover-up (£2,990) that she donned in Cardiff had first appeared in October.
56% The times Kate has dressed up her coats with larger-than-usual dangly earrings in the past decade.
223 After Kate wore an Alexander McQueen coat in Galway in March this year, the number of searches for the label online rose by 223 per cent
2 As a busy mother-of-three Kate favours coats with pockets — 82 per cent of them have had them. She prefers them to be below the belt (only 4 per cent of her coats have breast pockets), which keep her silhouette slim and shapely.
8 The percentage of coats that have a faux fur or velvet trim on the collar and cuffs.
Kate Middleton visiting students at Derby University (left) and on a visit to Manchester (right)
FLAIR FOR HAIR
68% The number of occasions Kate has worn her hair down with a coat.
18% A half-up, half-down hairdo is a less popular choice for the Duchess.
14% Occasionally, she prefers to style her hair in a low ponytail.
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Kate added a faux fur collar to her emerald Catherine Walker coat this week when she met the Queen at Windsor Castle (right), but left it unadorned on a visit to Ireland with Prince William in March (left).
Kate added a faux fur collar to her emerald Catherine Walker coat this week when she met the Queen at Windsor Castle (right), but left it unadorned on a visit to Ireland with Prince William in March (left)
Favourite fabric
Wool or wool crepe is a firm favourite, with 77 per cent of Kate’s coats designed to keep her warm and cosy on chilly winter walkabouts.
Just 9 per cent of her coats have been made of tweed, with 7 per cent silk (mostly summer coats by Emilia Wickstead), 3 per cent are velvet, 2 per cent cashmere and 2 per cent raffia.