Kate Middleton chose one of her favourite designers – Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen – once again, on a trip to Birmingham with husband Prince William, to visit some of the areas affected by the recent riots.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent time speaking to some of the people whose homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged in the events of earlier this month.

Catherine’s skirt and blouse are from the Alexander McQueen pre-fall collection, and the military feel seems to work perfectly with William’s navy suit. The Duchesses shoes, meanwhile, are the navy Prada courts she’s often seen wearing.

More photos from the visit below:

[Images: Fame.]

PICTURES: The unveiling of Princess Catherine Wedding Doll and Prince William Doll made by Arklu which are on sale for £50 each at Hamleys Store on August 18, 2011 in London, England. The dolls will be on sale atwww.arklu.com and all major toy retailers. The box set of both Princess Catherine and Prince William dolls are being sold for £99.95. The individual Arklu Princess Catherine Wedding Doll is priced at £49.95 .

[Images: Fame]

She’s a fashion icon to many, but Kate Middleton also has her share of critics, and this week, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood joined those ranks, slamming the Duchess for her choice of eyeliner:

“I think she’s got a problem with eye make-up,” said Westwood. “The sharp line around her eyes make her look hard. Either she should be smudgy or wear none.”

Westwood went on to say that she finds Kate “ordinary”:

“ It seems to me, that her image is “ordinary woman”. Therefore, High Street shopper. And I just think that she should be an extraordinary woman, wherever she gets her clothes from.”

Isn’t this Kate’s appeal though? Isn’t the fact that she shops on the high street and does her own makeup one the things that makes her relatable? What do you think?

Kate Middleton was in Edinburgh this weekend, attending the wedding of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, along with the rest of the royal family. It was a fairly frugal affair for The Duchess, who, rather than doing that thing most of us do, and panic-buying something new for the wedding, chose instead to go with items she already owned.

For the pre-wedding celebration, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, Kate wore the green Diane Von Furstenberg dress she bought for her trip to North America last month:

Her hair looks particularly lush in this photo, doesn’t it? She looks like a 70s glamour girl!

For the wedding itself, the next day, the Duchess of Cambridge went for another old favourite, in the shape of the gold coat she last wore at the wedding of Laura Parker-Bowles:

With the dress, The Duchess wore a dramatic, floral-trimmed hat, rumoured to be by Philip Treacy. And is that her usual LK Bennett pumps?

We think it is. Kate’s definitely getting her money’s worth out of those, if so!

As for the bride and groom, here they are:

Last week we were speculating about how surreal it must be to see your own wedding dress on public display. Well, for Kate Middleton, that experience would’ve been a touch more surreal given that she was accompanied by the Queen at the time!

Catherine wore a simple pink dress by Joseph, with matching Jimmy Choo pumps, to attend the exhibit, and looked very much at ease as she chatted to the Queen, who’s said to want to get to know The Duchess of Cambridge better now that she’s officially part of The Firm: in fact, Kate and Prince William will spend part of this summer at the Queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland, with Her Maj and Prince Philip.

Enough about that, though: what did the Queen have to say about the exhibition?

“It’s horrid!” she was heard to say to Kate Middleton. Ah.

We’re told she was referring to the headless dummy currently wearing Kate’s wedding dress, than to the dress itself.

When it comes to the Queen, though, you can never really tell…

Boat shoes have never really been considered the most fashionable of items, but of course, that was before Kate Middleton came along. Since the Duchess of Cambridge was spotted wearing Sebago ‘Bala’ deck shoes on her trip to Canada earlier this month, the shoes have completely sold out in the taupe/white colourway seen in these pictures.

You can, of course, still find these on eBay, although you’ll have to be prepared to pay around twice the original price of £80. If you’d rather buy direct from the company’s official website, meanwhile, you’ll have to content yourself with one of the other colours, which include red, navy, yellow, brown and black.

Click here for the Sebago website.

[Kate Middleton images: Fame]

Any excuse to show you these beautiful wedding photos again, eh?

If you want to see Kate Middleton’s wedding dress in real life, rather than just on a computer screen, however, you’ll have to get yourself to Buckingham Palace this summer. The dress, plus a selection of other Royal Wedding memorabilia, will be on display as part of the palace’s annual summer exhibition, which sounds like a real treat for the Mini Middletons among us: as well as the dress, you can also see the tiara Kate wore on the day (borrowed from the queen), her wedding shoes, and even the wedding cake, with the first cut made by the new Duke and Duchess clearly visible. The top three tiers of the cake are replicas, with the top tier having been saved for the birth of the couple’s first child, but the rest is real, so don’t be tempted to have a nibble.

The exhibition runs until October 3rd, and tickets cost £17.50, which is more than double the price usually charged for admission to the palace: the Kate Effect has seen an unprecedented level of demand for tickets.

One person who won’t have had to pay, however, is Kate herself: the Duchess had a sneak preview on Wednesday night. Must be strange to see your wedding clothes out on display to the general public!

[Image: Fame]

If you were worried about Kate Middleton and Prince William being bereft of entertainment after their recent experience with B.A., worry not: the couple weren’t movie-less for long, as they took a trip to their local cinema earlier this week to watch Bridesmaids.

Well, wesay “local” cinema: Cineworld Llandudno is actually around 40 miles from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s home in Anglesey, Wales, but isn’t it refreshing to see the Royal couple managing to live a relatively normal life now that they’re away from the media glare of their North American trip?

We’d love to know what they thought of Bridesmaids, though…

[Image: PRPhotos.com]

Afternoon.

Now tell me: have you been sitting on the edge of your seat since this morning, thinking, “Well, I know what Pippa Middleton wore for her morning run, but I can’t live without knowing what she changed into afterwards!”

No, of course you weren’t. That would be pretty weird, to be honest.

Just in case you were the slightest bit curious, however, let me satisfy that curiosity by revealing that Kate Middleton’s little sis changed into a grey dress, black blazer and black raffia soled wedge shoes to head to the office in London. The question on MY mind, however, is this:

Why does Pippa need three handbags?

Two, I can understand: one is obviously a laptop bag, and one a handbag:

Pippa is also carrying a bulging grey bag in these photos, though, so either she carries around a LOT of stuff every day, or she’s planning on staying the night somewhere.

I will leave you with that tantalising cliffhanger, which will no doubt be solved tomorrow when Pippa goes for her morning run.

See ya!

[Images: Fame]

We all know how annoying it is when you get on board a flight only to find that the in-flight entertainment has packed in, right? Well, it appears that Kate Middleton and Prince William had to endure that very First World Problem themselves, when the screens on board their British Airways flight from LAX last week refused to work.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, plus the rest of the passengers in the First Class Cabin, received £200 worth of Duty Free Vouchers as a result of the technical problem, but would’ve presumably have had to entertain themselves or each other for the duratio of the ten hour flight. Let’s hope they brought a couple of good books with them, eh?

A B.A. spokesman said, “Unfortunately a fault with some parts of the aircraft’s in-flight entertainment system couldn’t be fixed before the aircraft took off from Los Angeles. We apologise to everyone affected and have offered customers either a voucher or frequent flyer miles to say sorry.”

According to other passengers, however, the Duke and Duchess were unperturbed by the problem, and seemed relaxed and happy on board the commercial flight, which they booked in order to save money, having used Air Force and private jets for other parts of their tour of Canada and California. The first class seats cost £5,000 each (Presumably “saving money” is different when you’re a member of the royal family), and the couple wore comfortable clothes, and chatted to other passengers.

What we really want to know, however, is what they bought at duty free with their vouchers? Some perfume for Gran, perhaps?

[Source | Image: Fame]