Fashion Files: The 19 Green Coats
Writing a blog post on Kate’s many green coats felt inevitable at this point. There is only so much you can say on instagram stories but I also wanted to do a deep dive and bigger break down of the coats.
Let’s start with why I started counting how many green coats she has and overall beginning a Coat Counting series. I think we can all agree that 19 coats is a lot for anyone. 19 green coats feels like overkill. Now I will say, I understand a few of these are maternity, and mostly from her third pregnancy and therefore won’t be repeated, however a lot of these coats, as you’ll see, are very similar in silhouette and color.
I think specifically, right now, it comes down to cost. The UK is currently in a cost of living crisis and a majority of Kate’s coats, while yes of British design, they are designer and/or custom, that’s a lot of money to show off especially in those circumstances.
Another point against buying new coats that are similar to things she already owns, is there is no strategy behind it. Kate is known for her strategic dressing, for instance her flag dressing, there is a sense of true thought behind what she wears and when. Some of these newer coats don’t have that same feel, it feels more “Oh I like that, let’s get it!”
If you’re someone that just follows fashion in general, I believe one of the enjoyment out of seeing outfits, is the thought behind it. Lately, there doesn’t seem to be any.
In her earlier days of green coats, there was a lot of rewears. In fast in 2016, she didn’t buy any new green coats and instead re-wore four different ones. The Emilia Wickstead coat she wore in 2012 for the St. Patricks day engagement, she then wore again the next year while pregnant. She adapted more coats to fit events, her personal style and situations, and made them fresh.
Currently, we don’t see that and that’s where my personal frustrations stem from.
So I decided to curate a post of all her green coats, in chronological order of appearance, as well as prominent re-wears.
Reiss coat worn to an early morning Christmas service (left) first seen in 2011, the first really good look we got of it was in 2015 (right).
In 2012, Kate debuted a coat by Emilia Wickstead for her first annual engagement presenting the Irish Guard soldiers with shamrocks to mark St. Patrick’s Day. She re-wore the coat for the same event in 2013 while pregnant with Prince George.
Her next debut of a new coat came in 2013, a Mulberry coat at Windsor for an engagement with the Queen’s Scouts. This was a coat I was really hoping we’d get a repeat of, it doesn’t look to be maternity, maybe just a size or two bigger? Alas, this is the only time she’s worn the coat.
In 2014, we saw three new coats. A Catherine Walker coat (left) she wore on the Australian tour. It was repeated in 2016 for the Chelsea Flower show visit. On the same tour, this time in New Zealand, Kate debuted a coat by Erdem (middle). This is one of her most repeated coats, as she wore it again a couple months later at the Tour de France, in May of 2016, and most recently in October of 2021 where she wore it open for the first time. Finally, for her third St. Patricks day, in what is probably one of my all time favorite looks, Kate wore a Hobbs coat with trench detailing. She re-wore this in 2016 on the Canadian tour.
The first two photos are the 2014 wears, the third is 2016, and the last is 2021.
In 2015, we didn’t see any new green coats until Christmas day. From my count, this Sportmax her most worn green coat (potentially her most worn coat over all!) with five wears total.
The Many Wears of the Sportmax coat- Christmas 2015, February 2016, January 2017, March 2019, March 2022.
In 2016, the Duchess of Cambridge didn’t debut any new green coats but re-wore four.
The two other 2016 repeats aside from the Erdem and Sportmax coats above, Kate re-wore the Catherine Walker (left) and Hobbs coat (right).
In 2017, she brought out a new Catherine Walker coat that is definitely in my top 10 favorites of all her coats! She wore it for St. Patricks day events then kept it on for her arrival in Paris later that same day. She re-wore it again (probably my favorite styling of this coat) in 2018 for the Armistice 100 Service at Westminster Abbey.
From left to right: Catherine Walker; Dolce and Gabbana; Jenny Packham.
Three new coats were debuted in the beginning of 2018. The first one being on her tour of Sweden in February. She then re-wore it a month later for the St Patricks Day event. Until 2019, the St. Patricks day had been a consistent event that either debuted a new coat that was then reworn at least once or was the event we saw the rewear.
I would love to see the green Catherine Walker coat reworked like we’ve seen this one, first debuted in 2018, re-worn in January 2019, then December 2020.
Specifically with this coat, I’m wondering if it is actually a maternity coat or if it’s something we could still see reworn. When Kate visited Norway, as part of that same tour to Sweden, she wore a blue Catherine Walker coat that I thought had been maternity but she has since worn it twice.
The next coat we saw was the Dolce and Gabanna coat. Now when I said I was going to do a deep dive, I tried to keep the dive only in green coats but sometimes you can’t help but go down a rabbit hole, so follow me here. Also this year she debuted a burgundy/plum Dolce coat, which from memory I had thought was the same as the Green just a new color and also the same as the black coat she’s worn, which we’ve seen three times now. However, in doing research, it turns out they’re entirely different coats, with extremely similar silhouettes.
The difference is important mostly because a few of y’all have asked for a post of all of Kate’s dresses and coat dresses she has in multiple colors and this just helped with one set!
Anyway, had this not been Dolce, I would’ve loved a repeat of this coat, however, it can be thrown in the garbage and burned.
I think her bright green Jenny Packham coat might be the most controversal, I feel like it’s not super loved. I would honestly think it’d make a great rewear, since it’s not closed it shouldn’t be strictly maternity and therefore would make a great spring coat for a garden party.
Once again, another St Patricks day, another green coat. This time it’s a new Alexander McQueen. I think if Kate does a rewear this year for the event, this is the most likely pick because of the military inspiration as she is now the colonel of the Irish Guards. Previously this had been William’s role, which is why they always did this event, but now that they are the Prince and Princess of Wales, Kate has that role while William is now the colonel of the Welsh Guards. However, because of this new role, I believe we’ll get yet another new green coat for 2023.
Now we get to this coat from the Pakistan tour. I absolutely adore this but I can’t get past how her coat from 2014, also by Catherine Walker, would’ve been just as easily swapped. Now it could be a sizing issue, if the old coat doesn’t fit anymore, sure that’s reasonable, however Kate has worn multiple things from well over 10 years ago, I have a hard time believing she couldn’t wear a repeat here.
Just like the year previously, the new coats of 2020 were designed by Alexander McQueen and Catherine Walker respectively. Each coat has been reworn, the Catherine Walker (pictured right) was worn later in the year and the McQueen coat (pictured left) has been worn on three other occasions including twice more in 2020 and once last year at Christmas.
The only green coat Kate wore in 2021 was the Erdem coat from above, unzipped with a green top and black trousers.
For the 2022 St Patricks day event, Kate debuted not only a new green coat (pictured left) but a new, to her, designer as well, in Laura Green London. As of writing this, I almost changed my mind in counting it as a coat but instead a coat dress. However, upon looking over the Laura Green London website, this coat comes in two colors the hunting green Kate owns and an Amethyst. On the Amethyst page, it’s shown worn as a coat which leads me to believe the green on is also a coat that can be styled as a coat dress.
I do really love the green Hobbs London (pictured middle). It’s grown on me a lot since first seeing it, I think it being a very different shade of green and more of a trench style, it doesn’t feel extremely unnecessary or too similar to her others.
The McQueen (pictured right) she debuted in Boston however, baffles me. I’m not sure what it does that her one of her others doesn’t. It wasn’t even photographed enough to really show off so that’s not a reason to get it. She has other coats that would do the exact same thing, even one of her many navy coats could’ve achieved the same look.
Personally, I find it all more egregious considering her first green coat of 2023, is yet another new one and it’s Alexander McQueen. Not only are the interchangeable between the two themselves, they’re interchangeable with any of her other coats of the same shade of green.
I think as a whole, we are all looking at excessive consumerism as a problem, and it’s only fair to see it in high profile people as well. Especially when it’s people representing a country that is in a cost of living crisis. As someone who absolutely loves fashion, I can’t say if I had the money to buy every green coat I ever loved at first site, however, I’d like to think I’d think of the optics on it if I was a part of a family who lives for good optics.