15th of September, 2020 — William and Kate carried out three engagements in London. The couple met with communities affected by COVID-19 and thanked both individuals and businesses who’d gone above and beyond to help others at the height of the pandemic.
First, the royal duo visited the London Bridge Job Centre. Here, they heard from people whose jobs were affected by Coronavirus and who continue to receive support from the centre.
Sadly, one person told William and Kate that some employers are using the pandemic as an “excuse” to cut staff. A video from the visit:
As you may expect, the Job Centre has seen a significant increase in its claimant base since March this year.
Next, William and Kate visited The London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. The twosome met with volunteers who’ve cooked and delivered warm meals and medication to vulnerable people during lockdown.
They also learned how the centre used the financial assistance from the National Emergencies Trust (of which William is Patron) to further support the community.
The couple heard from a team at the Centre who have been volunteering to call isolated, vulnerable and elderly people, plus offer critical counselling, including supporting women affected by domestic violence.
Mohammed Mahmoud OBE, who works at the Centre, told Prince William they were getting an alarming number of phone calls relating to mental health.
A video from inside the mosque:
For their final visit of the day, Their Royal Highnesses travelled to East London’s famous Beigel Bake Brick Lane Bakery.
Here, the couple attempted to make their own bagels. After donning masks, using hand sanitiser and putting on aprons, William and Kate set to work kneading and shaping the dough.
As the Duke put the finishing touches to his dough ball, Elias Cohen, whose father Amnon founded the bakery in 1974, said: “Not bad. I think Kate wins!”
“We’ll go with that,” replied the future king, laughing as he placed his dough on a tray for shaping. “The usual story.”
As they continued to work on the dough, the Duchess laughed: “Just wait until you see the aftermath! I had beginner’s luck. They are getting worse!”
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The couple heard how the shop helped their local community during the pandemic through food donation and delivery.
William and Kate also learned that the 24-hour bakery was forced to reduce their opening hours during lockdown and put most of their staff on furlough.
Kate’s outfit:
The Duchess wore her Beulah London Calla Rose-Red dress.
The ankle-skimming dress features a contrasting white collar and three-quarter length sleeves with elongated cuffs that are decorated with a print and trimmed with Broderie Anglaise. It also has a button-down front, puffed balloon sleeves and ties that nip in the waist.
The dress is made from rose-red crepe de Chine fabric that is block-printed with soft pink florals. Here’s a closer look at the cuff detail and the floral print:
We saw Kate wear the dress earlier this year in a video message recorded for the Heads Together Mental Health Minute campaign.
At the time of writing (16th of September 2020), the dress is available for in size 6(UK) at beulahlondon.com for £550. It’s also available in cornflower blue. Update: The dress is now sold out in blue.
Kate wore a mix of new and old accessories with her vibrant red dress.
First up, her new shoes. The Duchess wore a new pair of brown slip-on pumps by Ralph Lauren. They’re the Celia style. The shoes feature a sharply pointed toe and a 4″ high heel.
From its sculpted topline to its leather lining, every detail of this Italian-made pump is carefully selected and meticulously executed.
RALPH LAUREN
NOTE: Ralph Lauren sell the Celia shoe in two near-identical colours: pastel brown and gold brown (both shown below). At first, I thought Kate wore the second, richer ‘gold’ brown pair but Susan from WhatKateWore.com disagrees. She thinks Kate wears the lighter version. Both pictured below. I am unsure now. We’ll find out for certain as Kate continues to wear and be photographed in the shoes.
Kate wore a pair of pink gemstone earrings by Missoma. This is the first time we’ve seen them on the Duchess. The style name is Rhodochrosite Gold Mini Pyramid Charm Hoops.
The earrings feature a hand-cut Rhodochrosite gemstone suspended from an 18ct Gold Vermeil on Sterling Silver hoop. According to the designer, the natural pink gemstone is a healing crystal that radiates love, compassion and all-around good vibes (and I think we could all do with a bit more of that about now).
At the time of writing, the earrings can be purchased from Missoma.com for £85 GBP / $110 USD. The company offer free worldwide delivery.
Here’s a tip for anybody planning to buy the earrings: scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your email address in the box. You’ll be sent a 10% discount code. It only works on if it’s your first order with the company though.
Kate’s red clutch bag is an older piece by Anya Hindmarch. The Duchess first carried it in Hamburg, Germany during her short visit to the country in 2017 (also pictured below).
Back in 2017, a Kate fan on Twitter found the black version of the bag at TheRealReal online consignment store. The listing is no longer active but at the time, the bag was described as made from snakeskin fabric, featuring gold-tone hardware, tonal stitching and black suede lining. It had a single pocket at the interior wall and push-lock closure at top.
Finally, Kate’s mask. Of course, the Duchess followed guidelines by wearing a mask inside of the mosque and the bakery. Kate resurrected the pink floral print mask she wore to visit Baby Basics in Sheffield last month. The reusable mask is from online boutique Amaia.
The mask is made from Liberty London’s Pink Pepper fabric. It features two layers of 100% cotton fabric and an extra filter layer. It cost £15 to buy the mask with 30% of proceeds going to NHS Charities Together.
Sadly, Amaia no longer sells the Pink Pepper version of the mask, but you can pre-order one of their other colours instead.
Very surprised to see Kate minus her trademark tights … Dress looks amazing though.
sorry, but this outfit doesn’t look stunning as usual. HRH the Duchess should pay more attention to her feet. Shoes are too open, fingers are visible and, maybe shoes are not the correct size because I see feet coming over (see picture in which she is sitting). The chestnut/brown is a terrible colour; maybe a dark blue or black were more adequate, too.
Also the clutch bag doesn’t look adequate: and poor manufactured. In Italy we’ll say that this bag was bought on the street market.
The dress is nice and adequate for this engagement.