The French designer Roland Mouret has a great deal to answer for in British fashion. Not only is he credited with Victoria Beckham’s fashion education, he is perhaps also the only person to have persuaded Catherine, Princess of Wales to gently push against royal protocol. Consider the thigh-slit Ella gown Kate wore to a formal dinner at Claridge’s in 2012; the sliced décolletage of the Nansen dress she chose for the 40th-anniversary gala of SportsAid in 2016; or the off-the-shoulder number she wore to the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 – hardly scandalous in the grand scheme of things, but by palace standards, teetering on the brink of risqué.
And yet, while Mouret is best known for his form-fitting cuts, he has, over the years, become just as much a part of the princess’s day-to-day working wardrobe. Yesterday afternoon, Kate visited the University of East London to mark the launch of Foundations for Life, wearing a high-waisted Mouret suit, a silk shirt-style Mouret bodysuit and toffee-coloured Ralph Lauren pumps.The choice of tailoring, constructed from the designer’s signature stretch-accommodating cady fabric, afforded the princess enough freedom of movement to get hands-on with the young children and families gathered in the nursery environments of the university’s early years education department.
And if Kate’s look feels at all familiar, that’s because it is. The princess first wore yesterday’s suit for a charity engagement in east London in 2023, and again for an audience with Jordan’s Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Princess Rajwa Al Hussein in 2025. Ever since she first emerged on the public stage, the Princess of Wales has been committed to rewearing pieces from her own wardrobe. Once dubbed “thrifty Kate” in the tabloid press, that practice now sends out a more considered message about sustainability in fashion, while forming part of a diplomatic approach to dress that says: “Don’t look at me, look instead at the causes I’m supporting.”
