Kate Middleton chose a mix of new and meaningful pieces for Friday’s Buckingham Palace Garden Party.
The Princess of Wales wore a polka-dot dress by Self-Portrait that featured a 3D flower embellishment.
She completed the look with a vintage straw hat and two pieces of heirloom pearl jewellery. (⬇️ As usual, all fashion details are further down the page!)
The Prince and Princess of Wales hosted the party on behalf of King Charles, who opened the 2026 season earlier this week alongside Queen Camilla, the Princess Royal, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh also attended Friday’s garden party with William and Kate.
They were joined by Zara Tindall, too. Here she is looking fantastic in blue:
This is the second year in a row that William and Kate have led the festivities, having hosted their first as a couple in May 2025. (You might remember Kate rewore the butter yellow Emilia Wickstead coatdress? Pictured below.)
That was also Kate’s first garden party since her return to public duties, following her cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2024.
This year, guests were nominated through the couple’s patronages, military affiliations, and personal projects—including Rhian Mannings, founder of bereavement charity 2wish, and Sam Stables, founder of We Are Farming Minds, a charity tackling the stigma around mental health in farming communities.
William had spent the night before in Birmingham, watching his beloved Aston Villa thrash Nottingham Forest 4-0 in the semi-final of the Europa League. During the garden party, he admitted to guests that he had “bags under the eyes” following the late-night celebration.
Kate, meanwhile, joked that she’d let all three children stay up late to watch the match from home—laughing that “they all make so much noise, even Louis. They wanted to go to the match, but we let them stay up and watch it“.
She also spoke to guests about her new puppy, Otto. Apparently, he’s been chewing “quite a lot”. The Princess said, “You have to keep them busy. The first thing we do in the morning is check, ‘Has anyone taken Otto out?‘”
Rebecca English, the royal editor at the Daily Mail, overheard Kate revealing her latest sports obsession, padel—the racquet sport that’s been quietly taking over the UK over the past couple of years. She told one guest that she plays with her parents, Michael and Carole Middleton.
During the afternoon, William and Kate reunited with Leanne Lucas (pictured below), the Southport dance teacher who shielded children during the July 2024 knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Three children—Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe—lost their lives in the attack. Ms Lucas was critically injured but survived.
The Waleses had previously met her during a private visit to Southport, around the time of the public inquiry into the incident. Looking back on that meeting, Ms Lucas said she’d been ‘quite down’ at the time. Of Friday’s reunion, she said it was ‘like meeting old friends again,’ and that Kate had told her she was happy to see her ‘full of energy, passion and enthusiasm’ again.
Friday’s garden party was the second of the season, with three more to follow at Buckingham Palace in the coming weeks—the next on Tuesday 12th May, followed by a special party on Thursday 14th May marking the 50th anniversary of The King’s Trust, and another party on Tuesday 19th May in support of armed forces charity The Not Forgotten. The Palace of Holyroodhouse will then host its annual garden party on 30th June.
Garden parties have been a fixture of the royal summer for well over a century, evolving from aristocratic gatherings and debutante presentations in the 1860s into what we know today—what the Royal Family describe as a way to “reward public service,” recognising people from all walks of life who have made a positive impact in their communities.
More than 8,000 guests attend each garden party, with over 30,000 people attending across the full season.
Invitations can’t be applied for directly; guests are nominated through a network of Lord-Lieutenants, charities, government departments, the armed forces, and faith groups.
The format is the same one the late Queen presided over for decades. The palace gates open at 3pm, and the royal party emerges onto the terrace at 4pm to the National Anthem, played by one of two military bands.
Members of the family then walk through the gardens in separate ‘lanes’, so guests have a chance of meeting a different royal, with Gentlemen Ushers picking out individuals for presentation along the way.
Everyone eventually converges at the Royal Tea Tent. At a typical garden party, guests get through around 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches, and 20,000 slices of cake.
Let’s look at Kate’s outfit in detail now.
Kate’s garden party outfit:
The Princess opted for an ensemble that said “society garden party”. It was polished and aristocratic, but softened enough to stop it feeling too rigid or formal.
The structured, blazer-style bodice and finely pleated skirt set the formal tone, while the oversized 3D rose, the vintage straw hat, and the heirloom pearls added the softness, the romance, and the sense of occasion.
The look also had an edge of vintage royal glamour. The white tones felt very ‘old-money’ — quite regal, too, almost a nod to her future role as Queen.
The whole look was a reminder that Kate has become very, very good at dressing for this kind of day.
Kensington Palace confirmed the dress is a Self-Portrait piece. The Princess wore a bespoke version of the Cream 3D Flower Polka Dot Midi Dress.
The dress shown on Self-Portrait’s website has a skirt gathered at the waist in a full, A-line shape. The fabric is voluminous, quite stiff and heavy. It isn’t pleated.
Meanwhile, Kate’s skirt is finely pleated and is cut from a lighter, more fluid fabric. I think the hemline is a touch lower, too:
Susan from WhatKateWore suggests the skirt from Self-Portrait’s Ramie dress is a closer match, and I’m inclined to agree:
The blazer section of the dress features a square neckline, a peplum hem, and six contrasting black buttons running down the front in two parallel rows, finished with a slim black belt at the waist. Kate has swapped the black belt for a white self-fabric belt in her iteration.
The oversized 3D fabric rose is the dress’s most distinctive feature. The decoration gives the otherwise sharply tailored bodice a romantic flourish. HELLO! magazine named the detail “Carrie Bradshaw-esque”. It was also a fitting nod to the garden setting of the day.
The ready-to-wear version of the 3D flower blazer dress (the one with the voluminous skirt) is still available at the time of writing and retails for £460. See it here.
I knew this dress was Self-Portrait the minute I saw it. It’s built to the brand’s signature formula: a structured, blazer-style bodice paired with a long, flowing skirt.
It’s a silhouette Kate clearly loves; Friday’s dress is the seventh she’s worn in this style. (And she’s repeated the other six on multiple occasions, too.) It’s easy to see why the style works so well for the kind of royal wardrobe she needs—tailored and polished, yet soft and feminine.
We need to talk about Kate’s hat next. It’s vintage—and quite striking to look at. It’s from the British milliner Mitzi Lorenz.
Eagle-eyed royal watcher @GabiK_blogoKate traced it to a listing by the Albion Vintage Hat Shop on The Hat Circle, a vintage hat website (though there’s no confirmation that Kate sourced it through that exact listing). It was priced at £135.
The cream straw hat is wrapped with a black band and black sinamay fabric, and features a downturned brim. It’s finished with a black silk rose and delicate black leaf appliqués.
Born in Vienna in 1911, Mitzi Lorenz moved to England in the 1930s and went on to train famous milliners, including Frederick Fox, who later received the royal warrant as Milliner to HM Queen Elizabeth II. She is often regarded as one of the UK’s great hat-making legends.
The hat is the latest in a growing collection of vintage finds the Princess has been building over recent years. (I’ve rounded up every vintage piece she’s worn in this article, if you’d like a deep dive.)
The rest of Kate’s accessories are familiar pieces that we’ve seen before—including her heirloom jewellery. Let’s start with her earrings. They’re the Bahrain Pearl Drops, which, of course, once belonged to Queen Elizabeth II.
The sparkling earrings feature a cluster of diamonds and baguettes underneath a round diamond stud, finished with a large white pearl suspended below.
As most regular readers will know, the pearls later used to create the earrings were gifted to the then Princess Elizabeth on her wedding day in 1947. They were a gift from Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Ruler of Bahrain.
Kate’s worn the earrings on numerous occasions since 2016.
The bracelet is by Nigel Milne, commonly referred to as the ‘Triple-Strand Pearl Bracelet’. The triple-row pearl bracelet features diamond and pearl spacers:
The piece dates back to 1988 and belonged to Princess Diana. Kate’s worn it to several formal events over the years.
The Princess brought back a familiar pair of shoes for the garden party engagement—her Ralph Lauren Celia pumps in the colour ‘gold’, a current favourite she’s worn repeatedly over the last 12 months.
She’s been pairing the tan leather pumps with much of her spring and summer daywear; they appear to have replaced her beige suede Gianvito Rossi heels as her go-to neutral.
The brown slip-on pumps feature a sharply pointed toe, a 4-inch stiletto heel and a padded, branded leather insole.
Kate debuted the shoes in 2020, during a day of engagements in London.
Unfortunately, the exact style is no longer available to buy. Ralph Lauren’s tan-coloured ‘Lindell II’ is a good alternative.
Kate owns the Italian-made shoes in black, too. (Available at Farfetch)
Finally, Kate carried her Forever New ‘Lily’ Woven Clutch.
The sleek, minimal straw-style clutch features a slim gold top closure.
The Princess first carried the clutch at the Platinum Jubilee Service of Thanksgiving in June 2022. She brought it back for last year’s Buckingham Palace Garden Party (May 2025)—making this its third outing, and its second consecutive garden party appearance.
The Australian high-street brand originally retailed the clutch at AU$59.99, but it’s no longer available to buy.
Leave a Reply