Cathy Cambridge in Alexander McQueen and Emilia Wickstead on the Caribbean Royal Tour

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On Day 6 of the Royal visit to Caribbean nations in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge closed out the Jamaican visit by attending the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean in Kingston. We fear Kate took our advice a little too far.

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Geez, Kate. When we said to stick to your go-tos and turn the royal dials up to eleven when needed, we didn’t mean showing up like you’re attending a royal wedding. This is a lovely look in a terribly wrong setting. We understand wanting to show up at a respectful level of formality, but this just looks over the top and out of place in this setting. No one else is dressed like this and she tends to stand out in a way that doesn’t provide the best optics. We just can’t understand why anyone would think white lace was the way to go here, knowing she’d be a lone white face surrounded by people of color in so many of the pictures. We’ve tried to picture the Queen, Camilla and even Meghan in this situation and we don’t think any of senior royal woman would be inclined to wear a look this formal and this likely to set her above the people around her. To be fair, the Queen was quite turned out when she made this trip in 1994, but she had the benefit even then of coming off like a stuffy grandmother rather than a colonialist. This is just a little too much royal glam (not to mention purity signaling) for the time and place, given the nature of this trip.

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As we’ve noted several times throughout this veering-close-to-disastrous tour, William and Kate can’t really shoulder the blame for centuries of history and decades of royal relationships coming to a head. The threat of the Caribbean Commonwealth nations removing the monarchy has never been more evident and there was little chance of these two ever changing the course of nations.

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Despite the stories the family likes to tell about itself and the way fictionalized versions like The Crown make them out to be players on the international stage, there has never been a time in their history when the British royal family had less power and influence than they do right now.  Believe it or not, we’ve been taking an extremely reserved approach to critiquing this tour, but this week’s podcast is going to be partially turned over to unpacking all of the things that are a little too nuanced or far afield of a fashion blog post. For now we’ll just say this: the Cambridges aren’t at fault for the outcome of this tour, but they and their planners have allowed for some absolutely dreadful and dated imagery to define it, throwing into question whether the family is up to the challenge of sustaining the monarchy into the next several generations.

In other, perhaps less serious news …

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The Cambridges arrived in the Bahamas and attended a private meeting with Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, at his office in Nassau, Bahamas. This look is somewhat within her Caribbean style guide: bright color, full skirt, dangly earrings, but we have no real complaints or critiques. This sort of low-key royal look is what’s been working best for her on this trip. This really may have been one tour where she should be taking her style cues from her decidedly frumpy husband. She’s better off image-wise when she doesn’t look like she’s trying too hard.

Style Credits:
First Look: Alexander McQueen Lace Dress | Philip Treacy Hat | Anya Hindmarch ‘Maud’ Clutch | Emmy London Rebecca Pump
Second Look: Emilia Wickstead Dress | Sézane ‘Taylor’ Earrings | Gianvito Rossi Pump

[Photo Credit: INSTARimages.com, Jane Barlow/Pa Images/Instarimages.com]

• Alexander McQueen
• Anya Hindmarch
• Catherine Duchess of Cambridge
• Emilia Wickstead
• Emmy London
• Gianvito Rossi
• Kate Middleton
• Philip Treacy
• Royal Watch
• Sézane