Kate Middleton shone wearing a gold Cartier shamrock

On St Patrick’s Day, Kate Middleton carried out her first unaccompanied military engagement when she visited the Irish guards on St Patrick’s Day. She gave sprays of shamrocks to the guards and even placed a shamrock on the collar of the Regimental mascot, an Irish wolfhound called, ‘Clonmell’*.  

Her coat-dress was a deep mossy green that was cinched in at the waist with a black patent belt. The outfit was topped off by a dark brown pillbox hat. The only glimmering object of adornment was the gold shamrock. Courtesy of Hello, I learned that her gold shamrock is from Cartier. In the same way jewellers place gold jewellery on black velvet so that they stand out, so too did Kate’s dark colour scheme of green and brown allow the shamrock to glimmer.  Kate’s outfit performed two functions simultaneously; it allowed the chief symbol of the day to take centre stage and it made her look like a sophisticated, in-control modern royal. 

 I’ve read that three of the guards fainted when she was there.

St Patrick’s Day glamour is very hard to achieve: green suits few people and jewellery inspired by the shamrock can look mawkish and even frivolous, such as earrings and necklaces that have shamrocks hanging off them.

There’s never anything vulgar in the way Kate dresses and she is fast becoming both a fashion icon and an ambassador for good taste.

My one fear for Kate would be that she does appear to be getting even thinner. Her pre-wedding slim-down meant she got a tiny Scarlet-O’Hara-like-waist, but it wasn’t as kind to her face and neck. Perhaps Barbara Cartland was right when she said that woman must choose between ‘figure or face’.

*Clonmel is a town in Tipperary, and the origin of the town’s name means ‘vale of honey.’