This girl is street smart

A year after Kate Middleton tied the knot, Rachel Marie Walsh rates the Duchess who made high street shopping cool again

ON her wedding day, Kate Middleton wowed even the most picky fashionistas in an exquisite Alexander McQueen gown. She has graced a small forest’s worth of glossy pages since, but a year is a long time in fashion. Days before her first anniversary, is she a bona fide style icon? That term — once reserved for the likes of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn — is now so freely applied that it’s often hard to discern the nonpareils from the wannabes. Celebrities can hire a great stylist and borrow clothes from designers before they hit the shops. How should that inspire the fashion lover on the street? “What does that teach us?” says Scott Schuman, the award-winning photographer behind The Sartorialist style blog. “That we should have more money? That we should be better looking? At some point looking to [celebrities] for style advice is about as useful as Usain Bolt telling your average track athlete, ‘Just run faster’.” Kate’s not likely to start offering fashion tips to Vogue readers, but when it comes to true style she sets a fine example.

Coco Chanel said that fashion passes but style remains. Kate definitely has a signature style which often recalls her maiden name. “Midi style” involves mid-length skirts, mid-high heels, mid-length coats, cropped blazers and cropped trousers. She even wears her hair half-up on blustery days. Very sweetly, she seems to look to the women around her for style advice. She shares dresses with her mother and bags and coats with sister Pippa. Last year, Kate told Grazia editor Jane Bruton she sometimes has to dress to coordinate with the rest of Britain’s Royal Family.