To Talk About Kate’s Clothes or Not Talk About Kate’s Clothes?

As the Princess of Wales enters a new chapter, it’s a complicated question.

One of the most fascinating aspects of royal fashion, particularly to me as someone who has studied the Windsor women and their wardrobes, is how it evolves. There are frequently marked style shifts. You can spot the moment Elizabeth II’s hats became more festooned (an attempt to make photographs of the monarch more interesting) or when Diana embraced sleeker skirt suits (a response to Charles using her interest in fashion to paint her as frivolous).

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, has had her own royal style journey. It has been most noticeable in her hemlines, lengthening from the above-the-knee styles she favored in her earliest days to the midis and maxis she wears now. When she returned from maternity leave in 2018, she made a splash by embracing more trends; in 2023, Kate was all about colorful trouser suits.

This year, as the princess resumed duties following her cancer diagnosis and treatment, I expected another change. The message sent by a trio of neutral, repeat looks was taking shape when an unnamed palace source made it clear — by speaking to the Sunday Times. “Princess of Wales: Focus on my work not my wardrobe,” read the headline.

I will admit, I wrestled with this idea, debating both the power of royal fashion and the immense burden of it. I waited to weigh in, wanting to see how it played out in the press and, more importantly, what Catherine wore. It’s been an interesting stretch, with a very clear assertion of this sentiment by the princess — and then, this week, a subtle softening as she pulled a piece from deep in her personal archives. More of my thoughts below.

But first, as a preface to this conversation, I wanted to share insights from five cancer patients who have experienced remission. These women generously offered up their takes on Kate’s desire to de-emphasize her clothing; I found their answers illuminating.

How much should we be discussing Kate’s wardrobe? Click below to share in the comments.

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💭 Cancer Patients Weigh In on Kate and Her Clothes

Following the announcement in January that Kate was in remission, I asked on Instagram if anyone who had been through something like this would be willing to share their experiences. Many people emailed (thank you, all!). After the wardrobe report in the Times, I asked them a follow-up question: What do you think of Kate’s desire to shift the emphasis from her wardrobe to her work? Here are a few of the responses:

• Jenna, age 40, San Francisco: “Being cancer-free does not free the survivor from the gravity of what they have experienced. Kate deserves grace as a very public figure who fought a very private battle. Even as someone who battled cancer recently, I cannot begin to describe or understand her unique experience with the disease. Most of the pressure I feel I am placing on myself while she’s carrying the weight of the world’s thoughts about her on her shoulders…It’s very fair that Catherine wants to shift away from increased pressure on her physical appearance. Experiencing cancer brings undue attention to how the patient looks and it’s a lot to manage.”

• Amanda, age 38, Dallas: “I think it’s wise for Catherine to prioritize her work over her wardrobe. Hopefully, this shift will encourage more focus on important local and global issues rather than fashion. It may also relieve some of the pressure she faces, allowing her to focus on what truly matters without feeling the constant need to impress others, especially during a time when she may not feel entirely like herself.”

• Juliet, age 55, London: “Lots of people write about how the period after treatment is often the hardest mentally. Cancer forces you unwillingly into a world of tests and treatments, blood tests and medical procedures and then, suddenly, you are set free and that is unnerving. The angel nurses who have kept you alive and saved your life and held you up like scaffolding aren’t there any more and you have to navigate a new normal on your own. So despite being told that there was no evidence of cancer, I felt a little lost rather than jubilant. …I think that [Kate] might not be permanently rejecting [fashion]. She may feel a lack of confidence and a need to re-find what is important to her right now. Cancer makes you reevaluate but can also cause you to feel less confident in your choices. Wearing a dark, easy uniform is just one less thing to have to worry about and figure out. The fashion might come back when she feels stronger.”

• Jana, 47, Huntington, West Virginia: “I really, really empathize with this statement from Catherine. I do not know her, obviously, but I am someone who feels motivated and fulfilled by the work I do, and more so when I am able to do this work without the sense that my physical, female self is somehow being factored into that work. …The scrutiny [Catherine] has received as a female member of the royal family only intensified when she announced her diagnosis publicly. I would imagine that she wants to get ‘back to business’ without any kind of public scrutiny of her physical appearance — so ‘Does she look sick?’ gets conflated with ‘What dress is she choosing to wear?’ in her mind. …I want to be considered first for my ideas, my abilities, and my professionalism, and not for my body and how I choose to dress. Now, that has changed a bit for me as time has gone on. I ended active treatment in February 2018 and, by last year, I had started sharing some OOTD posts and thinking about fashion in more creative ways as I got more comfortable with my post-cancer body and more assured of my place at my university. I hope Catherine is able to make a similar shift in the future — to find fashion fun and use it as a way to support designers and showcase their work. But for now, I would imagine she wants to stop having to be so centered on her (recently sick) body in any way.”

• Jenny, age 45, Seattle: “Everyone thinks that in recovery you should just be grateful and happy you’re alive with a new lease on life. BUT: It’s exhausting, isolating and anxiety-inducing so I can see why she doesn’t want to spend hours and hours working on her clothes. Just give me what’s comfortable and let me get on with it.”

The Princess of Wales Enters a New Style Chapter

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“Princess of Wales: Focus on my work not my wardrobe,” read the Feb. 1 headline in The Sunday Times atop a piece written by the paper’s royal editor, Royal Nikkhah. The frank declaration came just as Catherine was returning to royal work in earnest following her cancer treatment. She had carried out three engagements in the first part of January and the clothes Kate chose — neutral pieces pulled from what she had in her closet — underscored the sentiment.

Kensington Palace, it seems, wanted to make it abundantly clear. “There is an absolute feeling that it [the public work] is not about what the princess is wearing. She wants the focus to be on the really important issues, the people and the causes she is spotlighting,” an anonymous palace source told the Times. “There will always be an appreciation of what the princess is wearing from some of the public and she gets that. But do we need to be officially always saying what she is wearing? No. The style is there but it’s about the substance.”