Today the UK welcomed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) heads of state and government, their spouses and other representatives to London for a two-day leaders' meeting. The intergovernmental military alliance was established at the signing of the treaty in 1949. Now 29 countries are involved; it exists to protect the people and territory of its members through collective defence. Allies work together every day to preserve peace for one billion people.
The UK is one of NATO’s twelve founding members and London was home to its first headquarters at Belgravia Square; it's fitting to mark the 70th anniversary in the capital. Lord Ismay made his maiden speech as the first secretary general in the building in 1952.
Other royals in attendance included the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
The Queen and Prince Charles welcoming guests.
Kate spent time with an array of guests.
The Duchess chatting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Cambridges spent time with PM Trudeau and his wife Sophie during their 2016 tour of Canada with George and Charlotte.
I remember George appeared quite tired upon arrival and rebuffed the PM when he offered a handshake :)
Prince Anne with Belgium's Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes.
The reception was held in the Green Drawing Room.
Of course Prince William wasn't with his wife tonight as he's currently undertaking a short official visit in Kuwait and Oman. William's time in Kuwait saw him explore the country's efforts to tackle climate change issues and address environmental challenges through beach cleans, recycling and education. He also attended an event focused on highlighting Kuwait's culture and attended a meeting with His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
A sea of flags outside Buckingham Palace including the blue NATO flags.
The Palace shared archive footage of Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh visiting the Commander of NATO's Allied Command Operations, General Norstad, in 1957.
Another shot of Kate from Kensington Palace.
An official portrait of Her Majesty and Prince Charles with the NATO Secretary General and heads of state.
UPDATE: Rebecca English reports Kate's green dress was by McQueen, not Emilia Wickstead as previously thought. Music Royal shared a better look via a screenshot from the Mail Online.
The Duchess accessorised with the Queen's diamond drop earrings she's worn on multiple occasions over the years.
I'll update should additional photos emerge. Often times with Palace receptions, just one photographer is present to cover the event and we see only a handful of photos. Kate's next scheduled engagement is on Wednesday for the white-tie Diplomatic Reception.
Thank you so much, Charlotte. You never disappoint!
ReplyDeleteKate looks great, both dignified and animated. Once again I love the way she "speaks with her hands". 🙂
Ditto, Zora from Prague - Charlotte has done her usual stellar job, and I love the way Catherine gestures with her hands, and the twinkle in her eyes. :o)
DeleteZora that's a great way to describe Kate. She is both dignified and animated. Confidence becomes her and she is a dignified natural in a room full of international leaders, and yet very much her charming animated self. She represents Britain well! The Queen looks amazing and quite in her element. cc
DeleteI agree, CeCe. HM is incredible! She also has the twinkle in her eyes that Dougies girl mentiones with Kate 😃
DeleteGreat post, as always, Charlotte! I love Kate in green :)
ReplyDeleteStunning. The color and style are perfect. Kate looks exquisite. The Queen looks lovely, and the other ladies are well turned out. Fun seeing the 1957 footage. How young they were.
ReplyDeleteWishing William a safe journey.
The Queen and Camilla look wonderful, especially HM. Gorgeous fabric for her dress. Kate made some very becoming alterations to the original (eeek!) style. Not wild about that vivid shade of green personally, but it suits her; she looks energized, and every woman in the room must be suffering secret hair envy. Charles looks peppy tonight. Sorry about .... ;)
ReplyDeleteI hope we get to see the full length dress. It doesn't resemble the dress in the picture much. I love the color and she looks beautiful for this occasion. Kate is doing a terrific job as a senior royal.
ReplyDeleteThe color as it photographs on Kate at the reception is stunning. Bit too kermit-y (at least on my monitor) and almost neon in the file photos of the two possible garments. Hair and makeup are nice today as well, although I saw a couple of in-car arrival photos and looked for a minute like she had brought back the heavy Farrah Fawcett bangs/fringe that I really do not like on her.
ReplyDeleteI thought so too but when she most likely combed through her hair as she does as a nervous gesture, it was perfect.
DeleteKate looks wonderful. Agree with Sheila that the dress does not look anything like the one shown. Hard to tell exactly what it looks like from the photos. I am not a fan of that green but hoping the shade looks better in person. I think tase yes of events would be fascinating to attend but one would have to really gear up for making the rounds of handshaking, and small talk. Do you think she has an assistant in the background?
ReplyDeleteIn some of the photos you can see Catherine Quinn sitting next to Kate in the car, so I am guessing she was nearby to provide names and countries as Kate worked her way through the reception.
DeleteWhoops typo. Fifth sentence should read "I think that this type of event would be fascinating to attend but one would have to really gear up for handshaking and small talk."
Deletethanks RachelZA,
DeleteAli
I don’t know how you identify items and post so fast Charlotte! Kate always looks great in green. Lovely to see the Queen so elegant tonight as well. Finally, very proud to see our Prime Minister enjoying a likely animated conversation.
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see Kate so at ease with leaders on the world stage, she has come a long way! Well done, she can certainly hold her own.
ReplyDeleteI saw a photo in which Camilla's dress looked red, but this bittersweet color is lovely! The Queen looked terrific, and I love that Kate wore some smashing earrings. She has certainly worn this color in the past, and the dress looks a bit plainer than the suggestion above, but all the woman seemed to dress conservatively. Anne looked good!
ReplyDeleteIn one of the photos on, I think, People's website, Catherine Quinn was sitting beside Kate in the car. So nice to see that she is still going out with her as she works out her notice. Even after all the years W & K have been married, I think Kate probably was nervous. She was on her own without William or Harry to ease her in. Hope that doesn't sound like she is weak but simply I know how I would feel if I were going to the in law's without my husband or favorite brother-in-law.
ReplyDeleteValerie, don't worry, in no way this implies Kate is weak or something like that (at least to me). I can very well understand the feeling you describe - it can be stressful to do something without your usual, nice and very skilled and experienced colleague (= I mean William). Also I think Kate has a great sense of responsibility and just doesn't want to disappoint (herself, HM, William, the public...). Both of these can make her nervous, but neither of them is a sign of weakness.
DeleteElla
So beautiful. Polished and elegant. She absolutely glows in that color.
ReplyDeleteThe dress looks nothing like the original. It omits the diagonal pleating in the bodice and the waist band is at a different angle plus it has cuffed sleeves. The main similarity is the material and colour. I am intrigued by the process for selecting her outfits. Maybe she likes certain aspects of a particular outfit and then commissions them to make a specified style and colour?
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I’ve enjoyed this blog for years, as I find Duchess Catherine to be a very admirable woman. However I’m quite shocked to find such a lack of respect for the U.S. Mrs Trump is a lovely woman, I would have loved to see photos of her with Duchess Catherine. Additionally, NATO would not exist without the Americans. Badly done.
ReplyDeleteHello,
DeleteWe didn't see any photos of Kate interacting with the First Lady. I did make a decision before the event to simply focus on the royals as much as possible to avoid a political debate. I didn't include PM Johnson either as I didn't want to ignite a Brexit/election discussion. The feedback I get generally tells me readers would prefer to avoid politics on the blog.
I've been enjoying your blog for years too and I couldn't agree more! Following the Royals is pure escapism and it wouldn't be the same with political discussion!
DeleteThank you Charlotte and Team for all you do. As an American living in Florida, I would much rather read/see the Royals on this blog and leave out all other distractions
DeleteI deeply appreciate Charlotte's avoiding politicism of this event! Maria
DeleteI’ve been critical with Charlotte about many things on both blogs but I fully support that she does not include political figures on this post or any other.
DeleteIn addition to being a pleasure to read and in keeping with a lower blood pressure to not include politics, there would be no point. There would just be hundreds of disagreeing emails!
DeleteThank you charlotte for not including politics on this blog! this is a greater place without them:)
DeleteAn absolutely stunning outfit for this important diplomatic reception. Well done Kate!
ReplyDeleteI am not convinced it's an altered version of the dress. I think it is the blouse with a matching green skirt. The wide band on her waist could be the waistband.
ReplyDeleteI think a darker shade would have suited her better but she has worn several items in this shade of green so she must be fond of it.
The whole ensemble is pretty high-necked and dare I say boring. I expected something appropriate and classic but elegant. This Wickstead creation is neither. The cut in combination with the colour looks rather dowdy in my opnion. The virbant green makes it worse in my opinion. A darker jewel tone, black or cream/white would habe looked better for this particular outfit.
Her Majesty seems to be very happy and fit.
C.
Kate seems incredibly engaged and confident in these photos. I still hope to see more. The earrings complement the dress very well and are perfect for the occasion. I always liked this color in Kate, it makes her shine.
ReplyDeleteI am happy about the Mary Berry special, but quite disappointed with lack of "traditional" pre-Christmas engagements. With nothing announced as of now, and with Meghan on family leave, we are left without festive engagements and that is a bit unfortunate. I hope that there will be some unannounced engagements but I hoped for something like their RAF party and visit to Cyprus and that seems quite unlikely to me now.
Ella
She is doing a Christmas engagement today!
DeleteNatacha, that was such a nice surprise for me! I found out about an hour after I had written this post lol :-)
DeleteElla
Ella, I also hoped that they would make the RAF Christmas party an annual event. It is such a lovely concept. Maybe next year.
DeleteKate is doing really well at what must be an intimidating event. I know she's met world leaders plenty of times before but not this many all at once without the support of her husband! I don't like the colour of her dress but that's a minor quibble. On the whole, she's done a good job representing me (a Brit) tonight.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Charlotte. I enjoyed the post. The Duchess of Cambridge is doing very well in her role. I see the growth and apparently, so does the Queen.
ReplyDeleteRebecca English has Tweeted, "I’m reliably told that the Duchess of Cambridge was in
ReplyDelete@McQueen at last night’s #NATO reception (not Wickstead as previously thought)"
https://twitter.com/RE_DailyMail/status/1202188086609883136
(As a UK reader and dealing with impending Brexit, I really appreciate that you have kept politics out of things and think that both the tone and point of Anonymous at 03:53 to be very "badly done". This blog is a lovely, pretty respite from all the stuff going on in the real world!)
Amen Katie! If the DOC stopped to chat with Prime Minister Trudeau that's probably because she and William have been hosted by him twice in Canada on an official tour. He probably asked her if George has forgiven him yet [laughing]. And the phrase "badly done" by the previous poster was so condescending. Really, I could just hear Elton's chastising Emma in Jane Austen's novel of the same name (and the old movie.) Conjured up all kinds of images but mainly I laughed. This is Charlotte's blog and she can post whatever photos she wants. Period.
DeleteIt was Mr Knightley, of course. And it was intentional; no disrespect intended.
DeleteI was merely voicing my disappointment in not seeing the First Lady along with the Duchess of Cambridge. But it's true there aren't any photos to be found. Thank you.
Not Elton, Mr Knightley!
DeleteI apologize, was relying on my memory, not a good idea when I haven’t read Jane for 20 years ;)
DeleteI have been lucky enough to attend similar royal receptions and the royal family have a regular practice of circulating around and not staying with any one person for very long, so Catherine would have been doing that. She may have stayed a few minutes longer with the Trudeaus because she knew them from visiting Canada with William. According to the news reports, the US President arrived very late and was the last leader to be greeted by the Queen, so that would be why there were very few photographs of them at this function.
DeleteKate looks fab! The color of the dress is lovely on her & doesn't look too bright on my monitor. However the dress is the same old, same old with the pleat/tuck down the center & at waist. She has so many similar or slight variations of this. Her hair is wonderful & love the earrings.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to see this dress in full. it is very "Kermity" as another poster said, but she really does pull off this color. Im in love with those earings:)
ReplyDeletegreen really suits her she looks great thanks for your hardwork charlotte
ReplyDelete