Ever since Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, walked down the aisle in a breathtaking Alexander McQueen by Sarah Burton wedding gown in 2011, she not only became British royalty but also a fashion princess.
This year, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics, Catherine only cemented her status as the best-dressed royal, where she set trends, inspired styles, and caused more than a few designer items to sell out within hours.
Her personal style—prim, proper and uncompromisingly classic—may not be as adventurous and daring as some other best-dressed winners, but she still manages to make a dazzling spectacle with her trendsetting (and sometimes repeat) staples.
Her favorite designers include Erdem, Jenny Packham, Katherine Hooker, LK Bennett and McQueen, natch. But what makes Catherine so charming is that she wears High Street style from Reiss and Zara just as royally.
Now that she’s pregnant, rest assured Kate will have the most well-dressed baby bump of 2013.
Credit: FameFlynet & Getty
- Tweet
- Tell us what you think »
- 31 Comments
MORE FROM RED CARPET FASHION AWARDS:
Posted by Rachel Watkins on December 24th, 2012 In: Best Of, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge
Lea Seydoux In Dolce & Gabbana – ‘La Vie D’Adele’ Cannes Film Festival Photocall
LoveGold Will Stream The 2013 amfAR Benefit Gala Live
Roberto Cavalli Cannes Dinner Party
Nicole Kidman’s Antonio Berardi Embellished Crepe Gown
Thandie Newton In Stella McCartney – Jimmy Choo ‘The Season’ Dinner Party
Zachary Quinto In Alexander McQueen – ‘All Is Lost’ Cannes Film Festival Premiere
My wishlist for 2013 is:
More Mozaaaahhh!!!
I had to vote for Kate, because we didn’t saw the other Royals enough to pick them as best dressed IMO. Although she isn’t a fashion icon in my eyes, she did have gorgeous looks, especially her flawless Jenny Packham look, which also made it to my own BDOTY list. I’m really looking forward to her maternity looks.
Some examples are:
I know it would be very unrealistic to ask FC to feature other royals regularly (these girls are out A LOT)! But it would be a great idea if every once in a while to do a style spotlight on some European royals so that the readers would know about them.
1) CP Mary’s elegant style
2) CP Letizia’s practical styles
3) CP Maxima’s daring fashion choices. (And her doppleganger/ bestie CP Mathilde)
4) Grand Duchess Maria Theresa of Luxembourg, who wears more Elie Saab Couture than anyone else on earth!
I don’t agree much since I am mostly bored of her choices, but well she’s the only Royal who has such presence on Red Carpet
And I love that now, she has been wearing other designers and become teeny teeny tiny edgy
+1
Red dress is wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
To be fair, FC almost exclusively only post about the Duchess of Cambridge while she is the worst dressed of them all…..
She does not deserve this title at all.
And to add to noo: Queen Nor, Queen Rania, Mozah, Princess Mathilde of Belgium (so underrated), Tatiana Princess of Greece etc etc
Maybe we could have lest Kristen Stewart and more round up royalty
You are not being fair at all.
Pictures of Catherine are more readily available on the picture agencies I use, so yes of course there is more coverage of her as agencies like Getty document her every move.
Plus she is more well known the world over
I don’t really believe she deserves this title either. Obviously it’s hard for a royal to dress appropriate and interesting and edgy at the same time. However, I do feel that other princesses do a better job. I myself enjoy the modern, yet classy, style of for example Mathilde and Maxima, which I find far more interesting.
However, I totally get your reasoning FC, and you have to give credit to Kate, since she never really misstepped, while being under a magnifying glass.
I very much enjoyed your blog these year FC, especially these lists. Keep up the good work in 2013! I’m already looking forward to your moment in RM
Sorry if my comment offended you. It is your blog and you are the one putting time and money into it so it makes sense you go for the wider audience
I am sorry to say that I will disagree on the fact that other Houses are less publicised. They are less known to a certain extent but are still somewhat head of state of their country in a way so yes AFP, Getty do follow them. (tons of picture of Mathilde of Belgium) Most of them also have websites, facebook pages etc… For all the blogs dedicated to royals who are always very well updated I believe there is somewhat a lot of pictures available. But this is a fashion blog, not a royals one
However, I can completely understand that this is YOUR blog first and foremost, so you can decide to cover someone as much or as little as you would like. Other royals take part in 10x or even 100x the events the Duchess of Cambridge took part this year (it’s not for nothing most royal watchers actually compare her to her counterpart in Spain, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Monaco and question her work ethic…)
Same could be said for Michelle Obama who does a lot of public appearances but doesn’t get half the coverage of other starlets.. while wearing a lot of interesting pieces!
But anyway, sorry to have offended you. I still very much enjoy your blog and I can definitely see how much you work hard on it! Merry Christmas and even better things for 2013
I dont agree with it either but I understand why she won. She is more well known around the world so more people probably didnt put a whole lot of thought into this vote, they went with what is familiar. I picked with Crown Princess Mary, even when she gets it wrong, she somehow still pulls it off.
Thanks, noo and Ines for reminding me of other stylish royals. FC is only one person so I do not expect more coverage — I’d rather she continue to cover menswear, for sure, lol! But I wouldn’t miss this award if I did not see it again, given the amount of coverage that’s feasible.
Personally I think the title should be: The Royal with the Most Press Coverage.
She has had some missteps this past year, IMO, but without belaboring that, she is also the most photographed. I always like to see what she’s wearing because there is so much hype over her.
+1 I agree. She is no style icon or best dressed. She is just popular and very well known of course.
But, I look forward to see her maternity wear.
I wish we can have a “best dress 1st Lady of 2012″ in order to vote for the always calssy and “unboringé Mrs Michelle Obama
People were consistently underwhelmed and frustrated by her boring choices and repetitive style. She is not the best dressed royal, but the most famous. This ‘award’ is undeserved.
FC you forgot to add the picture of Kate in that cream lace McQueen dress she wore which I thought was her best look ever.
Eh??? I forgot??? I just picked 4 images at random or 4 that I liked. There is no right or wrong .
If I had tried to be that precise going over 1000s of images I would have gone to bed at 10am this morning instead of 4am putting all these posts together.
It was quite clear who was going to win this award. Kate is the most photographed royal so it only makes sense that she wins this since we hardly see the others royals.
Her style is a total bore most of the time but she always looks proper so I’ll give her that.
Really ??????
The daily mail had an article this year breaking down the Duchess’ outfits by color that I found interesting:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2183868/Kate-Middleton-Here-chart-colours-Duchess-Cambridge-global-icon.html
Looking at it, I realized, that she’s a much better dresser than I gave her credit for. There’s not much “wow” there, but there are no missteps, either.
Having said that, I still wrote in Princess Marie Chantal of Greece.
Thank you for that! It was really cool to look at and it reminded me of how much I love her style. I’m a fan of her and she definitely won my vote!
Looking at it, I realized how ridiculous it was for people to criticize her for repeating outfits. That’s a lot of designer clothes on taxpayers’ money.
Can’t say that she is very deserving but she did quite a decent job overall. I have no doubt she’ll dress her baby bump beautifully.
Call me weird, but I adore Kate…or rather…Catherine. Granted, her style isn’t wild or adventurous. But she is always classy and well put together. That can be such a rarity to find anymore
So I am welcome this result with open arms. Now, if only she would ditch the black pumps and wear more jewel tones…..
Looking forward to the baby bump! Also people need to stop picking on FC. This was a reader-voted award which doesn’t mean that Kate was even FC’s favorite. I mean, she might have been but she might not have been and either way it’s fine. The limited availability of photos is something that it’s easy for commentors to forget because we’re not blogging. FC, thank you for everything. This was a wonderful year and I’ve been following your blog every step of the way.
Kate may not be avant-garde or even stylish in many people’s eyes, but it’s important to remember how much influence she has all over the world. True, this award shouldn’t be based on coverage or renown, but the fact is she makes an impact (whether this is only because she is a duchess or not is a different debate), and does so without looking outrageous. Personally, I think that’s quite a feat.
Couldn’t agree more. She may not be the most stylish Royal, but she’s never made a major misstep and usually looks good (but safe).
Never made a major misstep? You must’ve missed the photos of her dresses flying up, exposing her rear end……and the tight short dress she wore to a function with the Queen and Prince Philip that really exposed her upper thighs when she bent over. Prince Philip probably enjoyed it, but she didn’t look classy. And then there were the super tight blue jeans at the beginning of the Olympics with those atrocious cork wedge heels that looked like hooves.. LOL.
I don’t see how she can be blamed for the wind blowing her skirt up.
I would’ve said Sheika Mozah…. Kate plays it too safe and boring all the time for me to like it…