Kate Middleton Just Showed Her New Pantsuit Style Is Here to Stay

The Princess of Wales made a chic style statement on Tuesday as she appeared in Cardiff, Wales, to mark Black History Month with Prince William.

Kate showed royal fashion fans that her new style of business-formal dressing for engagements is here to stay as she wore her sixth pantsuit in five weeks, appearing in a pinstriped ensemble with a fitted blazer and wide-legged pants by the British brand Holland Cooper.

Kate's pantsuits have become the subject of increased discussion by social media fans and commentators in recent months.

Over the past year, the princess has added a variety of the outfits to her wardrobe in different cuts and colors, increasingly relying on them for daytime engagements.

Kate's choice of the Holland Cooper pinstripe suit on Tuesday also marked a very rare occasion where the princess has worn the same outfit for back-to-back engagements.

Kate was photographed wearing the suit last Friday while meeting Apple boss Tim Cook at Windsor Castle along with William.

In a post to X (formerly Twitter), Cook wrote that it was a "true honor" to meet with William and Kate, alongside two images in the castle's White Drawing Room where the princess can be seen in the pantsuit with a pale gray turtleneck.

Though Kate is well known for reusing and recycling outfits from her vast wardrobe of event wear, built up during her 12-year marriage, it is unusual for the royal to wear the same look for successive appearances.

Kate has worn Holland Cooper on previous occasions. Most notably, it was the design house behind a purple and blue tartan coat worn by the princess to an open-air movie screening at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2021.

The brand was founded by designer Jade Holland Cooper in 2008 and has its aesthetic roots grounded in the English countryside and country pursuits loved by Kate.

The royal has streamlined her style since becoming the princess of Wales, a title given to her by King Charles III following his appointment of William as the prince of Wales after his accession to the throne in September 2022.

With the senior titles, William and Kate took on more serious commitments within the monarchy, which included a greater share of public appearances.

During this time, Kate has appeared less and less in printed dresses or skirt and blouse combinations for official events, instead replacing them with ever-reliable pantsuits.

Celebrity stylist and royal fashion expert Miranda Holder previously spoke to Newsweek about the transformation, saying that the princess' pantsuits have "most definitely prevailed, whereas before this we were most familiar with the princess in skirts and dresses."

She continued: "The whole aesthetic is far more formal and occasionally a little austere. It is indeed as if the princess means business and takes her contribution to the many causes she supports extremely seriously and wishes to refocus the public's attention on the charity in hand rather than the brand she is wearing."

Kate and William's appearance in Cardiff was made to mark Black History Month and the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush ship, which brought some of the first Caribbean migrants to Britain after World War II to help rebuild the country.

The ship gave its name to the Windrush Generation, a term used to describe migrants who were encouraged to settle in Britain between 1948 and 1973 to aid in the country's postwar recovery.

Large numbers of these migrants—most coming from the Caribbean nations—were the subject of a British political scandal in 2017 when it was found that thousands had been wrongly classed as illegal immigrants, with some deported after stricter immigration laws were enforced.

In Cardiff on Tuesday, the prince and princess met with members of the Windrush Cymru Elders, Black History Cymru 365 and the Ethnic Minority Youth Forum for Wales groups at the Grange Pavilion, discussing their work with the local communities.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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