Kate’s stealthy royal first at coronation concert

The Princess of Wales has broken with tradition at the King’s coronation concert in Windsor – and it seems barely anyone has noticed.

The list of great feminist moments in royal history can be summed up in less space than it takes to explain the lineage of Queen Elizabeth II’s corgis or to explain why Prince Andrew probably isn’t allowed back to Pizza Express

Elizabeth I’s famous speech to the troops at Tilbury. That time the late Queen took the Saudi Crown Prince for a speedy spin around Balmoral in her Range Rover. Queen Camilla’s work on domestic violence and being the first Queen who is the patron of a sexual assault centre. That’s about it, really.

But, on Sunday night, UK time, that short list got just a bit longer when Kate, the Princess of Wales turned up at the coronation concert in Windsor.

Am I perhaps getting a tad excited here? It’s been day after day of flags and fly-pasts and tiny princes. In short, it has been nigh on impossible not to let the Union Jack bonhomie become infectious.

Still no matter that I might have a pathological case of coronation overload, when Kate turned up to the event it constituted a first.

The woman wore pants.

Kate at the coronation concert, in Alexander McQueen. Picture: Yui Mok – WPA Pool/Getty

Yes, I’m fully aware that line reads more like some sort of appalled Victorian newspaper headline than an impressive milestone but still: This was the first time since she signed onto the royal roster Kate has appeared alongside the sovereign wearing trousers. Sayonara skirts! Goodbye girly dresses!

Instead, for Sunday night’s outing, the 41-year-old rolled up looking like a successful CEO about to negotiate a quick takeover deal before a working lunch with Brussels in a $4,700 Alexander McQueen suit (both the suit and her Van Cleef & Arpels necklace were already in her enormous wardrobe).

In the world of royalty, where every gesture, twitch and pocket square is likely gamed out and involves planning on a whiteboard, Kate breaking the habit of her royal lifetime is a deliciously bold and yes, feminist move.

After marrying Prince William in 2011, for year upon depressing year, Kate relentlessly wore dresses or skirts like some sort of Phyllis Schlafly fangirl, often looking more like a 1950s throwback than modern woman.

The only time that pants came out was when she had to do something excessively sporty and casual, like have a go at volleyball or rappelling off of a cliff. Even then, I reckon if Emilia Wickstead could have rustled up a dress that she could have abseiled in without risk of flashing the press, she would bought it in triplicate.

Kate abseiling in pants in 2015. Picture: Chris Jackson-WPA Pool/Getty

Kate seemed like the ultimate Good Girl who was so closely adhering to starchy royal tradition that she was probably buying her underpants from the same haberdasher that Queen Mary used to.

Then in the last 12 months, something has started to change. When the princess went off to try and single-handedly improve the way an entire nation raises their children, it was in a new uniform of smart blazers and boring black pants. She looked like working mothers the world over only she never had any Gogurt splotches on hers acquired as she ran out of the house.

Again and again and again. Blazer, pants; blazer, pants; blazer, pants.

Her poor longtime stylist and dresser Natasha Archer was probably running herself ragged trying to find new Zara versions or mid-priced taupe numbers the length and breadth of the King’s Road.

Down to business in February last year. Picture: AFP

In November 2021. Picture: AFP

The message was not subtle but damn it was good to see: Kate meant business.

No more getting about the place looking like some sort of conservative throwback to the Harold McMillan era; here was an up and at ‘em woman with lives to change and deeply ingrained societal inequities to root out. After all, it’s much harder to shake up the systemic social and corporate structures that make it hard for parents when you’re constantly worried about your having to keep your knees held primly together.

Wills and Kate step out in February. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty

Then in February came a watershed moment when the princess wore the red suit to the launch of her Shaping Us campaign, her latest Early Years Foundation project, a serious escalation of her power dressing game.

However, even while this pants-naissance was playing out there was one line Kate never crossed. She never donned trousers for any sort of official outing with Her late Majesty. Come Trooping the Colour or the royal family’s Christmas walk to church or any sort of service at Westminster Abbey it was dresses, dresses and more dresses.

Which brings us up to the coronation concert, and Kate looking less like she was off to a Women’s Institute meeting and more like she was off to Davos for a quick powwow with Janet Yellen.

This is the first time, as far as I’m aware, that the Princess of Wales has opted for pants for an official appearance alongside the monarch.

Milestone meets moment meets McQueen.

The thing about Kate these days isn’t the descriptors ‘pretty’ and ‘ladylike’ no longer apply, or at least aren’t the first ones that spring to mind. Kate these days looks powerful and confident and her turning up in a suit rather than her 4,000th frock is a cause for feminist celebration.

Or maybe we are simply, finally, seeing her coming into her own.

So with a new King, a new Queen and a new reign, are we going to see more and more of a new Kate?

With Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester at the Coronation Concert. Picture: Leon Neal / POOL / AFP

I’m not saying we are about to see her burning her sensible bras anytime soon or plotting to take down the patriarchy in that spare half-hour before she has to do the school run but what’s clear is that the Princess of Wales clearly feels increasingly comfortable doing things her way.

Sure, maybe wearing a suit isn’t quite there with keeping the Spanish Armada at bay, but Kate in trousers for a royal family engagement? I think that is something to celebrate. Long live the Queen of pants!

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.