On March 18th 2017, William and Kate attended the France vs. Wales Six Nations Rugby Match at the Stade de France in Paris.
Prince William is the vice-patron of the Welsh Rugby Union. He took on the role in December 2016 when The Queen stepped down. This was his first engagement as Patron of the organisation.
The couple has attended a number of rugby matches together over the last few years, both as part of their royal duties and in private. Pictured below, William and Kate at the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup in London, back in 2015.
The couple’s visit to Paris was at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The rugby match was William and Kate’s final public engagement before leaving the city. (See details of earlier engagements here).
Prior to attending the rugby match, William and Kate said goodbye to staff at the Hôtel de Charost, the official residence of the ambassador of the United Kingdom to France, where they’d stayed overnight. Kate was given a posy of flowers as part of the official send-off.
Kate’s outfit:
Kate chose her red Carolina Herrera coat for the rugby match this afternoon.
You may remember the Duchess first wore the coat while visiting Yukon in Northwest Canada, back in September 2016.
The double-breasted coat features six giant red buttons, full-length sleeves, a prominent collar and a full skirt. According to the Telegraph’s Fashion supplement back in September 2016, the coat is made from double-faced wool/cashmere mix and it retailed for £1,190 (around $1,475 USD). I believe it can be described as having a ‘princess-line’ silhouette.
Sadly, the coat is not available to buy online and I’m unsure whether or not it is currently available in-store.
We have very few details on the rest of Kate’s outfit, unfortunately. You can see she’s wearing a black turtleneck sweater or dress underneath her coat.
In this blurry photo snapped by Patrick Kanner (the French Minister of City, Youth and Sports) on Instagram, you can just make out that Kate’s wearing black tights and is carrying her Chanel Bag with Enamel Handle.
Kate first debuted the bag earlier in the day. It is from Chanel’s Fall-Winter 2015-16 collection.
According to LoveThatBag.ca, the bag originally retailed for $6,225 in 2015. As that’s a Canadian site, I’ll assume the price is in Canadian Dollars. In US Dollars, that’s around $4,664 and in GBP that’s around £3,762.
In a photo that’s since been deleted from Instagram (so I’ll respect the wishes of the account holder and not post it here), you can clearly see Kate’s wearing her mystery black booties. You may recall that Kate wore the black booties during a visit to New York in December 2014.
We’ve never been able to identify the black booties. There are a number of possibilities, though. Fans have suggested the following pairs from Prada (left) and Stuart Weitzman (right).
Seeing as Kate has worn the booties since at least 2009, it’s possible we’ll never find the original designer.
Kate wore her Cartier Trinity earrings to the rugby match. She debuted the earrings earlier in the day, during the visit to Les Invalides. The earrings are made from white gold, yellow gold and pink gold. The three bands symbolise love, fidelity and friendship. The earring set costs $2,040 (around £1,645 GBP).
She also wore a pair of black gloves with a bow that ties at the wrist. (Note, I’ve digitally altered the photo below, to lighten it so we can see the bow a little more clearly).
I believe they could be the Cornelia James Imogen gloves. Kate owns the gloves in several colours and she’s worn them frequently over the last few years.
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Thank you for your wonderful investigative work! Love the coverage of this trip! We are coming back to London in June and hope to catch a glimpse of the Royals! Great job. Thank you again!