By now you’re probably across Princess Kate of Wales’s style signatures. This is not to say that she doesn’t experiment, of course—every now and then, she’ll surprise us by adding a new silhouette or shade to her daily rotation, like a chroma key green bodycon or a sequinned gold cape. Kate, very simply, knows what she likes; more than that, she understands the significance of a dependable wardrobe. After all, her clothes are so much more than clothes. They’re tied to monarchy, and often seen as a form of extra-verbal communication, speaking to politics and personal opinion when Kate herself is prohibited by duty.
One of the most interesting characteristics of Kate’s fashion, however, is its self-reflexivity and reverence for history. Many of her looks are steeped in sentimental meaning, and referential of her royal predecessors; commonly, she’ll nod to her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, with a subtle choice of earring or a particular cut of dress. And while the connections between Kate and Diana’s sartorial oeuvre continue to grow, there’s one detail in particular that’s become a staple of Kate’s wardrobe—a print she relies on in summer and winter alike.
The polka dot, sugar-sweet with a dash of ’80s zest, was beloved by Diana, who sported it in both monochrome and full-throttle colour. Though Kate wasn’t a stranger to the print before 2019, it was from then when she began to embrace the polka dot in earnest, wearing a navy Alessandra Rich dress with a pointed contrast collar. Alessandra Rich, in fact, has been the designer behind the majority of Kate’s polka-dotted pieces, from her midi dress at Wimbledon in 2022 and re-worn earlier this week, to a high-necked, bishop-sleeved number at Royal Ascot last year, an almost exact replica of a dress seen on Diana at the same event in 1988. Cast your mind further back to 1982, when Diana presented a newborn Prince William to the press on the steps of St. Mary’s Hospital in teal polka dots; what did Kate wear 35 years later with a baby Prince George, but a similar frock from Jenny Packham.
Below, we round up the times Kate has showed us how the style the vintage print.
