Princess Catherine spreads ‘the Kate effect’ in butter yellow
If the plan for Princess Catherine’s return to royal duties was to steer attention away from her clothing, things couldn’t be worse.
Hosting a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace with Prince William, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall for 8000 guests, Catherine was on trend in a butter yellow dress from New Zealand designer Emilia Wickstead, with a matching hat by Irish milliner Philip Treacy.
The outfit was last worn by Catherine in 2022, at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II, further demonstrating her status as an early adopter of key trends. Butter yellow was spread across collections last week in Sydney at Australian Fashion Week with Aje, Gary Bigeni and Nicol & Ford.
Princess Catherine in an Emilia Wickstead dress and Philip Treacy hat at Buckingham Palace for a garden party.Credit: Getty Images
At the spring 2025 international ready-to-wear shows, Chanel, Jacquemus, Zimmermann and Chloe all made liberal use of buttery yellow, which was named by interior designers Timothy Corrigan, Heidi Callier and Robin Standefer as the colour of 2025 in Vogue’s annual interior design trend report.
“Butter is the richer, more luminous cousin of cream,” says Melbourne stylist Prue Webb from personal dressing service The Wardrobe Edit. “It’s a delicate yellow with a hint of warmth that flatters, rather than washes out complexions. It’s soft enough to work with plenty of skin tones and has more personality than beige and cream.”
If you’re not ready for a top-to-toe spring look like Catherine, Webb suggests swapping winter neutrals for butter yellow.
“A buttery top or knit is an easy way to lift your look while keeping things minimal and chic,” Webb says. “It’s a natural evolution from the ubiquitous beige and cream of the past few years. It feels playful and joyful, and we need that right now.
“It’s also an unexpected complement to deeper tones like navy and rust, adding lightness.”
Catherine’s solid fashion footing at the garden party follows reports that she was stepping out of the style spotlight in February, when a palace source told The Times: “There is an absolute feeling that it [the public-facing 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,” the palace source said.
Since then, the princess, who is returning to official duties following cancer treatment, has adopted a more subdued style, recycling classic outfits.
Deactivating the Kate Effect, the term used to describe sales spikes driven by Catherine’s wardrobe choices, will take time. Presenting the Queen Elizabeth II Award for Design to Patrick McDowell on May 12, Catherine wore a £490 ($2065) pale olive green blazer from Victoria Beckham, which has sold out. The matching flared trousers with patch pockets have almost sold out.
At the ceremony, launched by Queen Elizabeth in 2018, Catherine also met with other designers, including Conner Ives, the creator of the cult “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt worn by Pedro Pascal and Troye Sivan supporting Trans-rights.