The Duchess of Cambridge only wore a mask for the first time at a “public event” last week. It’s August! She’s been doing “public” events now for a few months, and it’s ridiculous that her events last week were the first times she was seen wearing a mask. She didn’t even wear one the right way – she entered a building (the baby bank) without a mask, and removed it inside when she was still inside. She and William also wore masks to visit a nursing home, when they were around seniors, but failed to wear masks when they were on a boardwalk and inside an arcade on Barry Island. My point? While it’s great to see the royals FINALLY wearing masks, it’s ridiculous that it’s taken them this long. Especially since, guess what, it does make a different:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that anything the Duchess of Cambridge wears sells out. In the past week, the so-called “Kate effect” was put to public health use when she was photographed, for the first time, wearing a face mask.
The £15 mask, from the London-based childrenswear brand Amaia, swiftly sold out, while the digital fashion aggregator Lyst reported a 185% spike in searches for “floral”, “Liberty print” and “ditsy print” face masks within 24 hours.
The cheering pink and cream face covering seemed carefully chosen, its delicate Liberty floral pattern recalling 1940s tea dresses, cucumber sandwiches and bunting. The overall optics were carefully choreographed, too, the mask being paired with a colour-coordinated cream dress for a visit to the Baby Basics charity in Sheffield on Tuesday, and with a rose-printed pink and blue dress for a visit to a care home in the city. There Prince William also wore a mask, in a complementary shade of cornflower blue.
Wearing jolly, upbeat masks, and coordinating them with an outfit, has become something of a trend. Celebrities and instagram influencers have been experimenting with the visual possibilities of masks for months, sometimes to encourage others to do the same – posting pictures with the hashtag #wearadamnmask, often for the purpose of showing off rather than in the interest of public health.
So once again, Kate is trying to position herself as a trendsetter when really she’s a bandwagoner. And her late adoption of (selective) mask-wearing merely highlights how she should have been wearing a mask in public this whole f–king time. CB and I talk about this in this week’s podcast – William, Kate and all of the royals are important public figures with a huge amount of symbolic power. Mask-wearing should have been so f–king easy for all of them. I don’t care if this or that locality didn’t have mask mandates – this was an opportunity for all of them to go above and beyond for the public health and they’ve all been failing (except for Harry & Meghan, who have worn masks every time we’ve seen them in public).
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
“The £15 mask, from the London-based childrenswear brand Amaia,”
Told you so- this is a child´s mask!
The company does make them for adults as well, and they have some cute patterns, but that mask looks way too small on Kate’s face.
It does not look like a full adult size. I can see it being a pre- teen size though, which is also considered childrenswear. I think they just offered her the biggest mask they had at hand- or Cate is so used at being infatilized by the narrative,she now things she can pull off wearing children´s clothes!
Yup, I also did say in that post a few days ago that she/her PA grabbed Char’s mask in that post lol. Once again, Kate getting praise for too little too late.
My daughter has almost the exact mask, she got it on Etsy for for fraction of that.
I have the same mask too. I paid $5.99 at the drugstore for the adult size one.
There’s something called government guidelines, even if we don’t agree with them, royals are supposed to follow them
As for the mask being frlor children, on the website they sell masks for adults, like this one and others. I have a friend who bought a couple after she saw Kate wearing it
You can exceed the government guidelines with being extra cautious so this remains a stupid argument. No one knows precisely how much this virus can spread and the 2 m distancing is based on a few studies but is no guarantee of safety.
Besides the UK has one of the worst per capita death rates and one of the worst infection rates in the EU so they clearly didn’t have smart people in the government making rules. They have several cities going under a second lockdown so let’s not pretend they got it right. They didn’t. And while the US is a tire fire, many people here come from countries where wearing a mask was encouraged and worn by political leaders in March and this was done outside.
Well government guidelines also say kids Charlotte’s age should go back to school. Yet from what we know, they haven’t done that.
Funny how they’re only following government guidelines they like and find convenient
It was not compulsory to return children to school back in June. Parents were able to make the decision based on their own circumstances. Not all schools re-opened and a large number of children stayed home. I think the position will be different when schools re-open in September (Charlotte’s school will have been out since early July). The government hasn’t set out yet whether or not it will be compulsory.
Not wearing a mask in certain situations is against the law in the UK so these are fundamentally different things.
Unless the government said people CANT wear masks, the two situations are similar – its not compulsory to return kids to school, and its not forbidden to wear a mask. The Cambridges chose not to return Charlotte for various reasons, including her health I’m sure, and they likewise could have chosen to wear masks weeks ago.
Well, the government was sort of saying that: it was saying that it was not necessary to wear a mask. They obviously didn’t forbid it (!) but they gave specific guidance that it was not necessary. Of course they could have worn a mask. But that is not really the point, they are wearing one now because that is the law in the UK. That is not a question of picking and choosing what law to follow when it is convenient, one is illegal and one not. I am just saying that they are not comparable. Its not like Will and Kate could choose to not wear a mask now – there is no choice as its the law.
So government guidelines are NOT to wear masks?
Sorry Annie, but your friend is stupid. I can’t imagine how dense you must be to only decide to wear/buy a mask and have regard for your health when a celebrity does, that’s kind of embarrassing to say the least.
She really gets the most praise for doing the least, doesn’t she?
The bar is on the floor.
I’m pretty sure they’re wilfully dense. The stats alone in Britain should have told them that they could have a big influence (since so many are influenced by celebrities) in how Brits could go as safely as possible about their day, but no. Best to wait for just the right designer mask. What a pair of twits.
Well, wasn’t William on video saying this whole thing was overblown? And Kate is probably one of those white women too delicate to wear a mask, claiming they can’t breath. I have them in my family. They’re not that delicate which anyone who has followed them into a bathroom knows.
With all the dead people when he said that William should have been excoriated far more than he was. What a bastard to joke about a pandemic where thousands had already died in Europe.
Yup – that was March! Italy was fully shut down at that point IIRC. My state in the US shut down shortly thereafter (I remember being at work for the commonwealth service and then I think we shut down the following week.) It wasn’t a joke by that point and William 100% should have known better.
Can I say again – those dresses. Why? Really, why?
Ironically, I was really into Laura Ashley dresses in my 20’s and early 30’s. Now in my late 50’s I would never wear something like that. And, to be honest, my Laura Ashley dresses did not look like an old timey couch pattern!
Wow, those pics really highlight how much her usual photos are ‘shopped to the hilt eh? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her skin so un-airbrushed before.
If only the “Kate effect” translated to her patronages. How sad that after almost a decade, her biggest impact continues to lie in fashion influence only.
She getting a check from that company. I would wager money on it.
I was expecting this to be an excerpt from the Daily Mail but it’s the Guardian. I thought that was supposed to be a decent paper and not a tabloid. Why is this even being covered in a left wing paper?
Ditto
In fairness, the article is written by the Fashion Editor. And it features a photo of Lizzo in a mask that matches her bikini!
There’s also one of Camilla, and the writer mentions how many other famous women (Queen Mathilde, Nancy Pelosi, Jennifer Lopez etc) have been wearing masks in the past few months, and how the royals “have been slower on the uptake.”
The takeaway is Kate is getting praise for turning a mask into a fashion statement. It proves that the world at large sees Kate as a cupcake and not a serious advocate. Sad for a future queen. When Meghan does the 19th* summit it will blow Kate’s COVID fashion out of the water, and it should.
I’m sure that we will see attempts to discredit the 19th before the interview on Friday. There are some angry people who don’t like Meghan using her voice and having opinions.
These are awful pictures oh my goodness. And the mask is definitely too small. I live in DC, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well people are following mask protocol. Even in the 90 degree humidity, people are wearing masks to walk their dogs, jog, etc.
Whatshername loves her face and her appearances are arranged solely for photo ops.
Those look like they’re going to snap.
It’s been called out that not only is the mask too small but she’s wearing it upside down. The pleats should face down like the mask Will is wearing. At least his fits. Also, would they have even been wearing masks if it hadn’t been recently mandated for indoors?
Maybe indeed, after years of being treated as a promising child, Kate, age 38, started believing the narrative and sees no problem in dressing like a Jojo Siwa, royal edition?
They didn’t wear them in Wales because of “the rules”. So no they won’t wear them unless forced.
I knew that was a kid’s sized mask. So tight.
She looks silly with the tiny mask on. She obviously longs to show off her winning (manic) smiles.
William’s assistant looks quite leathery above her mask – also, someone please tell her to get a lighter brow powder; the current shade makes a mockery of her hair colour.
I think that Kate wears a child size mask because of the optics. That size sits lower down on her nose and thus more of her face can be seen. Compare how close Will’s mask is to his eye versus Kate’s.
I think she’s wearing a child sized mask because she showed up without a mask, and it was the only one available.
Dare I say this: Catherine is teetering on the cusp of matronly. 38 is young! She needs better advisers.
I agree; being William’s assistant for a very long time (her own words!) has really taken its toll.
Ooh, look at Kween merching. Where’s the outcry, mugxits? And, British media, why praise or attribute undeserved success to this lackluster woman for doing nothing out of the ordinary? She didn’t make the mask, and the stock was probably limited to begin with seeing how it took her months to put one on her face.
lol i was wondering why was she was wearing a small size, so this was from a child wear company!!! they probably only had a few left as schools are reopening ! Masks have been selling out since March. Im more curious to know if her stans and bloggers will add it to her tally of costs.
The mask doesn’t even fit right! It looks too small and doesn’t go high up enough on the nose. She should’ve just worn a standard surgical mask
Why did she wait until August? Because up until a few weeks ago all Royals were in lockdown. In the UK, there was a complete lockdown, may be hard to understand from US perspective. Basically, Kate stayed at home with kids and William for a couple of months (which in itself is an achievement – I believe she should be praised for that 😉 ). At her previous public events after the lockdown, there was a lot of physical distancing so nobody had a problem with the Royals and other participants not wearing masks.
I understand you don’t like Kate, but in this global situation please do not criticise someone who serves as a good example to wear protective masks. They potentially save people’s lives.
She *could* have served as a good example by wearing a mask at public events much earlier, as the numerous cover stories attest. This is what critics have been saying all along: that the royals needed to model good behavior at all times, instead of doing the bare minimum to honor local regulations.
Spare me the good example when she showed up to a children’s hospice without a mask and was not social distancing (but she was outside the excuse makers say! Droplets don’t travel in the air in the UK according to defenders!)
She also didn’t wear one indoors the next day but of course that was justified because there is no rule in Wales to wear them as if the virus cares about borders on a tiny island.
Kate and William have only now months into this pandemic started wearing masks and only did so when forced to. That is the opposite of setting an example.
Nancy Pelosi, Queen Letizia, numerous politicians and Meghan, set much better examples by wearing masks early and often. Kate is a follower, as usual.
🍿🍿🍿🍿
good for her. Now, she should always wear affordable clothes from british designers all the time to help british industries. Thats what a CEO should do.
tried to wear a scarf as a mask cause they look so damn cool (I think this is just my generation though cause it doesn’t look like that many people share this view and those who do seem to fall into one category though I can’t quite put my finger on what that is besides maybe that they’ve all been famous for more than 5 years and aren’t too young but aren’t too old either), but the scarf just slips off all the damn time((