The Duchess of Cambridge proved she is queen of the high-street during a visit to University College London’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies on Tuesday morning.
Thrifty Kate Middleton, 39, recycled a £89.99 long-sleeved houndstooth Zara dress, which was reduced to £16 in the sale, that she first wore during a royal engagement in Bradford in January.
Within hours of Kate’s previous appearance in the high-street outfit, which features a high neck tie and an elasticated waist, it quickly sold out online and was listed on eBay for prices as high as £125.
However, rather than pairing it with the same black block heels by Gianvito Rossi as last time, the royal gave the chic ensemble a fresh look by adding grey pointed Hugo Boss pumps, which she first debuted to an event at the Natural History Museum in London in 2016.
The Duchess of Cambridge, 39, put on a stylish display as she visited University College London’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies on Tuesday morning
Thrifty Kate Middleton, 39, recycled a £16 long-sleeved houndstooth Zara dress that she last wore during a royal engagement in Bradford in January, but gave it a fresh look by accessorising it with a pair of chic Hugo Boss pumps
Kate, who wore her brown locks down in a loose blow dry, added a touch of glam to her outfit with a dazzling pair of £3,750 Mappin & Webb ‘Empress’ Diamond Carriage Earrings.
The natural beauty kept her makeup to a minimum, with just a touch of blusher, nude-coloured lip and light layering of mascara.
Putting safety first amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Kate was also seen donning a plain black facemask as she stepped inside the building.
During the visit, the royal will meet with leading early years researchers and learn more about their new study, ‘The Children of the 2020s’ – a new nationally representative birth cohort study launching in England, which will track the holistic development of children from the age of nine months to five years.
It will mark the first of a number of engagements that the mother-of-three conducts in relation to the study, and comes after she launched The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to drive awareness of and action on the extraordinary impact of the early years.
Speaking ahead of the visit, The Duchess of Cambridge said: ‘Our early childhoods shape our adult lives and knowing more about what impacts this critical time is fundamental to understanding what we as a society can do to improve our future health and happiness.
The royal gave the chic outfit a fresh look by pairing it with grey pointed Hugo Boss pumps, which she first debuted to an event at the Natural History Museum in London in 2016
The £89.99 long-sleeved houndstooth Zara dress was reduced to £16 in the sale and sold out just hours after Kate first wore the ensemble
During the visit, Kate (pictured, arriving) will meet with leading early years researchers and learn more about their new study, ‘The Children of the 2020s’
The natural beauty (pictured) kept her makeup to a minimum, with just a touch of blusher, nude-coloured lip and light layering of mascara
‘The landmark “Children of the 2020s” study will illustrate the importance of the first five years and provide insights into the most critical aspects of early childhood, as well as the factors which support or hinder positive lifelong outcomes.
‘I am committed to supporting greater in-depth research in this vital area and I’m delighted to be meeting all those behind the study at this early stage.’
The approach of this study has particular resonance with Kate and her work on early childhood as it will look at a wide range of factors that affect children’s development and education in the early years, including the home environment, the community, early years services and the broader social and economic circumstances of the family.
The research is the latest in a long line of birth cohort studies in the UK and will begin recruiting up to 8,000 families in January 2022 for babies born in April, May and June 2021.
Over the last ten years, the Duchess of Cambridge has spent time looking into how challenges in later life such as addiction, family breakdown, poor mental health, suicide and homelessness can have their roots in the earliest years of someone’s life.
Through her work with The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, she is aiming to highlight how what we experience in early childhood shapes the developing brain, which is why positive relationships, environments and experiences during this period are so crucial.
During the visit, the royal will view archive material of historic research dating back to the 1940s into early childhood.
She will be shown a ‘Birth Questionnaire’ given to new mothers in 1958, which included questions about pregnant women’s smoking habits.
While not a standard question at the time, the responses allowed researchers to track the impact that smoking during pregnancy had on a baby’s birth weight, and also how it continued to affect different aspects of a child’s life into adulthood.
This led to a public health campaign to stop women smoking whilst pregnant, something which is now commonplace.