We've all been there: We get all dressed up for a special occasion, we've put our hair up, picked our diamond-and-blue topaz pagoda earrings and Jimmy Choo vamp sandals carefully, clutched the right $700 glittery clutch.
And it just...doesn't...work.
Monday night at the James Bond Spectreroyal premiere in London, Duchess Kate of Cambridge — a beautiful woman who has rarely put a fashion foot wrong in more than four years since she married into the royal family — didn't quite make her outfit work.
It should have worked. It was by a top notch British designer, Jenny Packham, who has provided stunning gowns for her in the past.
It was a little bit daring: See-through, open back, no bra. But it didn't seem to fit right; the wrap-style top seemed too loose for her non-Kardashian-style torso.
And it was a boring, washed-out blue. Her hair was pulled up in an elaborate up-do that seemed a little...old for her (she's 33).
We feel guilty criticizing but we didn't love it. Although, lots of people on Twitter did.
It was especially disappointing after last week, when she stunned in a scarlet Jenny Packham gown at her first state banquet at Buckingham Palace, and stunned again the next day in a short, plum lace Dolce&Gabbana frock at a cultural event.
Moreover, the day dress she wore earlier in the day Monday for a charity event was just a little too frumpy, a little too mumsy, as the Brits put it.
The below-the-knee dress, by British designer Tabitha Webb, was supposed to be very space-agey in design, in a blue-white-and-black splatter pattern, but it came off looking like a dress the late Queen Mother would have worn. And she was born in 1900.
The Express called it "garish."
To be fair, the royal press corps and the bloggers who track her style closely (and know all about what she wears) loved everything she wore on Monday.
How about you?
I'm not sure it comes across in pictures but an elegant - and daring - dress for the Duchess of Cambridge tonight
