Kate Middleton Just Gave Winter’s Suede Bag Trend the Royal Seal of Approval

As perhaps the most visible member of the royal household, Kate Middleton—Catherine, Princess of Wales—is expected to dress with a modest, formal, and respectful sensibility that sits just outside contemporary dress. Never fully “in” fashion, and therefore, never “out” of it, hers is a wardrobe built to last, both in style and material, as evidenced by her frequent repeat wears. But she also loves clothes. Kate Middleton, after all, famously walked the catwalk as a St Andrews undergrad, and often nods to current tastes in subtle, considered ways.

Take, for example, the polka dot Alessandra Rich dress she chose for the 80th anniversary of VE Day in May—less than a month after this magazine identified the same print as making a comeback—or the diminutive DeMellier bag she carried this morning on a visit to the Anna Freud Centre, a foundation dedicated to transforming children’s mental healthcare, in central London. Crafted from “mocha suede,” as the brand describes it, the bag places the princess squarely in the realms of what Vogue’s shopping director Madeline Fass identified as one of the biggest accessory trends of the fall and winter seasons.