William and Kate visited The Foundling Museum in London for their first joint engagement of 2022. Kate looked terrific in a teal coat worn over an all-navy outfit (as usual, full outfit information is included in the second half of the post.)
The couple wanted to learn more about the care sector and meet representatives from across the system, including those with direct experience of living in care.
The couple joined a roundtable discussion with experts and stakeholders across the care sector. A number of charities were represented.
After a discussion about the landscape of care in the UK, the couple spoke with author and poet Lemn Sissay, former track and field athlete Kriss Akabusi and writer Allan Jenkins—all individuals who have lived experience of the care system.
The couple also met young care leavers to hear about the challenges they’ve encountered and the impact of the support and training they are receiving through the Foundling Museum’s Tracing Our Tales programme.
Tracing Our Tales is a unique programme that has been developed to equip care-experienced young adults from London boroughs with the skills to devise and deliver workshops at the Museum for family groups.
During their visit to the museum, William and Kate took part in a fun bonding exercise where they drew on pencils with pens taped to sticks.
According to Royal Editor Rebecca English, the couple really enjoyed the visit and it ran more than half an hour over.
A video from the visit:
The Foundling Museum explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and the first public art gallery. The Foundling Hospital, which opened in 1739, cared for and educated around 25,000 children who were abandoned, usually as babies.
Kate first visited The Foundling Museum in 2017. There’s a good bit of background information about the hospital, the word ‘foundling’ and how the museum helps people today in my article from five years ago, read it here.
Kate became Royal Patron of the museum in 2019.
Time to discuss Kate’s outfit from the visit now.
Kate’s outfit:
For the visit, Duchess opted for a blue-on-blue outfit. She wore a mid-length coat over navy separates.
The single-breasted piece features flap pockets, notched lapels and tonal buttons.
Kate first wore the blue coat almost two years ago to the day, for a visit to the Stockwell Gardens Nursery and Preschool on the 29th of January 2020. Sadly, the piece has never been identified.
As you can see by the photos above, it’s hard to label the coat’s colour. It looks teal/peacock/petrol in the bright sunshine and ‘yale’ blue in the shade.
It looks like Kate’s navy sweater is by Hobbs London, the Lara roll neck. The piece is made from 100% merino wool in a fine gauge knit with slight ribbing. It features three gold buttons on the sleeve. (Thank you to Shannon for the ID.)
The piece is made wool certified by the Responsible Wool Standard. Hobbs call the roll neck sweater a ‘foundation piece’, ‘perfect for layering under dresses or with jeans.’ RRP: £75 / $160.
Kate owns the same sweater in dark pink too.
Hobbs is a London-based brand that sells womenswear, shoes and accessories. The brand is also stocked across the United States in Bloomingdales.
The coat-over-tonal-sweater look has become something of a uniform for the Duchess, who has favoured the style in recent months: (From left to right: Kate in dark pink for school visit; green for Kew Gardens visit; tan for a visit to an ambulance station and bubblegum pink for another school visit)
Kate paired the blue coat and sweater with her Jigsaw Sport Luxe Wide Leg trousers.
The blue trousers are made from a soft and breathable fabric with a hint of stretch. They feature a wide waistband, belt loops and welt pockets. John Lewis formally stocked them for £130.
Kate’s worn them on a handful of occasions since 2018.
Jaeger is another British brand that Kate has worn a handful of times since joining the Royal Family. They were acquired by Marks and Spencer in 2021 after falling into financial trouble.
Kate wore her Emmy London Josie Block Heel pumps with the ensemble. She wears them in the colour ‘midnight blue’. The company describe the shoes as an “elegant pointed court with a modern block heel.”
They’re hand made and feature a luxuriously padded insole. They retail for £395 (at the time of writing, there’s a four-week wait for delivery).
Emmy is a small London-based company headed up by a husband and wife team. The company is known for making beautiful shoes in timeless silhouettes, designed for both style and comfort. The bridal shoes in particular feature intricate embellishments and stunning, feminine detailing.
Emmy London are committed to sustainable sourcing and production—another reason I think Kate wears their shoes so often—I suspect this is quite important to her. I notice she’s wearing more ‘sustainable’ and ‘slow’ fashion brands of late. Emmy make small runs and many of their pieces are handmade to order. This reduces waste from overproduction.
Kate added a touch of gold to her outfit with these ‘doorknocker’ hoop earrings. (Thank you for the ID Emily.)
They’re from the high street brand, Accessorize. The gold coloured earrings feature an open hoop in a hammered doorknocker style suspended from a matching disc. They are made from zinc. Accessorize say the earrings will “give your daytime look some chic appeal”.
Accessorize is another British company—it’s good to see Kate wearing so many homegrown brands!
Kate’s croc print belt is still unidentified. According to The Data Duchess, Kate’s worn it to 16 public engagements to date. The piece is navy blue with a gold-coloured buckle.
Finally, Kate wore a mask for part of the visit. It is by Amaia Kids. Kate owns a few of their masks in all different Liberty print fabrics. This one is called Blue Phoebe.
