Friday, 18 October 2019 — On the final day of the 2019 Pakistan tour, Kate visited SOS Children’s Village in Lahore for a second time.
It was an impromptu visit. The Royal Couple were due to travel to the Khyber Pass before visiting the Army Canine Centre in Islamabad. However, an electrical storm the previous evening led to a last-minute change of plans.
Instead of flying back to the capital city, everybody on the plane – including the Duke and Duchess, royal aides, government officials and the press pack – had to overnight in Lahore.
The couple, now in the wrong city, were at a loose end after their morning plans were cancelled. It is now known that they chose to return to the SOS Children’s Village. As you will probably remember, the royals first visited the orphanage on the Thursday.
Kate confirmed the visit in her first-ever Instagram post.
SOS is a private social welfare organisation that provides over 150 orphans and abandoned children with a loving home and family. (Visit during the previous day pictured below).
Royal Reporter Richard Palmer of the Express revealed that the couple were frustrated they didn’t have enough time to visit the orphanage on the previous day, so when a window opened up in their diary, they knew what to do! Kate said she was “so glad to come back to get the full picture” while William added, “I could feel there was more to talk about”.
Read Richard Palmer’s full report from the visit. (Opens in a new tab)
In new photos shared by Kensington Palace on both Instagram and Twitter, you can see William and Kate chatting with staff and playing with the children. (I have included the pictures on this page.)
It also looks like the pair enjoyed a game of cricket too:
Kate personally wrote the following caption for both social media networks:
The community at the SOS Village is built around family – and the best possible family you could imagine – where everyone comes together to nurture, love and protect the children in their care.
These vulnerable children, many who have come through traumatic circumstances, are nurtured in this caring environment and are able to form these quality relationships that they so desperately need to thrive.
HRH the Duchess of Cambridge
On Instagram, the caption is signed “Catherine”, showing that the Duchess posted it herself.
It was Kate’s first official post to the platform. Of course, William is no stranger to social media. He’s sent several personal tweets from the Kensington Royal Twitter account.
His most recent post praised Gareth Thomas (the former Welsh rugby captain) for publicly announcing that he’s living with HIV. The Prince wrote, “courageous as ever – legend on the pitch and legend off it. You have our support Gareth” before signing off with the letter ‘W’.
Kate’s outfit:
I covered this outfit in a previous post, but I’ll add the information here again for anybody who missed it the first time. (Especially because I updated the article with new information later in the day).
Kate wore a traditional kurta (tunic) by Pakistani design house Élan.
A spokesperson told PEOPLE magazine’s Monique Jessen that the kurta is made using traditional handspun silk, has a tapered silhouette and features delicate floral and tribal embroideries using ebony silk thread.
The black and ivory tunic will be available to buy next spring for £70-100. Alizah Raza, the head of business at Élan, confirmed that the company will ship the piece worldwide.
The Élan spokesperson also revealed that Kate’s team discovered her designs from Instagram.
Khadijah Shah tweeted the following statement on behalf of the Élan team:
I’d like to thank HRH the Duchess of Cambridge for wearing our bespoke design on her trip to Pakistan. We are absolutely thrilled with how elegantly she carried it, and grateful for this privilege and honour.
Élan is a luxury brand with outlets across Pakistan. Their company is headquartered in Lahore. Below, we show three ‘ready to wear’ designs on the company’s website:
Kate paired the kurta with a pair of white trousers (I do not have an ID for these. They could be the Maheen Khan pair she wore on day two of the tour, pictured below).
She’s wearing a shawl (or dupatta) by Maheen Khan. She also wore it on the previous day in Lahore.
Pictured above: a similar item by the Pakistani designer shown on the O’Nitaa website. (O’Nitaa is the London-based Asian fashion boutique that assisted Kate’s team with clothing for part of the tour. They’re the exclusive stockists of Maheen Khan in the UK.)
On her feet, Kate wore the tan coloured J.Crew Lucie pumps.
The suede pumps feature a D’Orsay style cutout, elegant pointed toe and slim heel. They’re made in Italy. They currently retail for £246 GBP / $218 USD.
They’re also available in peony pink, pacific blue and black:
Kate added a little glitz to her outfit with her gold coloured filigree earrings from British high street store Accessorize. We’ve seen her wear them before (pictured below).
Unfortunately, the earrings are no longer available to buy. They originally retailed for £5 ($6 USD) for going on sale for £1.50 ($2).
You can read all of my blog posts covering Kate’s outfits during the Pakistan tour on this page.
