Kate opens Place2Be HQ in Seraphine maternity dress

On the 7th March 2018, the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton) spent a few hours at Place2Be’s new headquarters in Clerkenwell, London.

Place2Be is a national charity that provides emotional support to children in schools.  Kate has been their Patron since 2013.

The Duchess toured the charity’s new headquarters and learnt more about the building’s state-of-the-art training facilities.

She also heard about the research conducted by Place2Be in the field of children’s mental health.   As many of our regular readers will know, Kate is a committed advocate of children’s mental health and emotional being.  She uses her position to bring wider public attention to the fact that issues facing children such as addiction, poverty and abuse can have a lasting and traumatic impact if left unaddressed. Earlier this year, Kate visited a primary school in London where she celebrated the launch of Mentally Healthy Schools, a new website that provides resources for teachers in the area of children’s mental health.

During her visit to Place2Be’s new headquarters, Kate took part in a discussion with mental health professionals and School Leaders who’ve taken part in one of the charity’s training courses or programmes. 

She also met staff from a primary school where Place2Be have provided mental health support for the last 16 years.

Kate also joined a roundtable with members of Place2Be’s Research and Evaluation team and the independent Research Advisory Group, to discuss how Place2Be uses evidence and research to inform and continuously improve practice.

At the end of Kate’s visit, she unveiled a plaque at a ceremony to officially mark the building’s opening.   She gave a short speech:

We know that schools have a vital role to play in creating an emotionally healthy culture for children.

Schools, however, cannot and should not have to manage all this alone. School leaders and teachers need expert guidance and training to develop their own approaches to supporting children’s mental wellbeing.

They also need access to a pool of experienced, well-trained mental health professionals, who can step in when things are more complex or serious.

As its Patron, I am incredibly proud of the contribution that Place2Be is making towards exactly this.

They are training and guiding thousands of counsellors, and many hundreds of school leaders, teachers and staff, based on the evidence and experience gathered from their frontline work.  – The Duchess of Cambridge.

Kate’s outfit:

Kate chose a blue lace dress from Séraphine, a maternity fashion label run by French-born designer Cecile Reinaud.

She’s wearing the designer’s Marlene Maternity Cocktail Dress.  The bodice of the dress is made from a blue floral lace. It features a ruffled collar, bell cuffs and velvet ribbon accents.  The dress is currently out of stock, but it did retail for £165 ($229 at today’s exchange rate).

This isn’t the first time Kate’s worn the blue lace dress.  She first debuted it during a visit to Oslo, Norway earlier this year.

Kate chose black suede accessories, which coordinated nicely with the black velvet detailing on her blue lace dress.  She carried her Mulberry clutch.   It’s the Bayswater style (pictured below in black leather).

Kate owns the clutch bag in burgundy and cream too. The clutch features an embossed gold-tone turn-key closure on the front.  Sadly, Kate’s clutch is from an older season, so it’s no longer available for purchase at Mulberry.com. However, you can still find the bag on eBay in multiple colours.

Kate brought back her Stuart Weitzman Power pumps for the visit.  Kate frequently wears these black suede heels to public engagements. They feature a pointed toe and a stiletto heel.

The shoes previously retailed for $355 at StuartWeitzman.com. They’re from an older season, so no longer available to purchase in the black suede colour as worn by Kate. However, the shoes can still be purchased from Jildor Shoes in black satin, forest green suede, pale gold, silver and white satin.  A few of the styles are on sale.  You can also find the power pumps in a nude colour at Amazon.com.  Also, check eBay – the shoes are always available on the site in a myriad of colours.

Finally, Kate added a little sparkle to her outfit with a pair of diamond and sapphire earrings.

It’s speculated that the earrings came from Princess Diana’s jewellery collection and were gifted to Kate.  From the Mirror:

The heavy studs – that match Princess Diana’s cluster engagement ring – were among her most treasured jewels and were seen on her at numerous events during the 1980s and 90s. They were remodelled for Kate into drop earrings.

A courtier said: “Now they’re married, William wanted her to have some of his mother’s favourite pieces.”