Prince George and Princess Charlotte stole the show today as the Cambridge family arrived in British Columbia, Canada to start their 7-day tour.
The Crown in Canada @TheCrownCA
The family was met by a number of dignitaries, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (l), Sharon Johnston (2nd left, chartreuse suit), and Governor General David Johnston.
Kensington Palace
From a Telegraph story by Hannah Furness:
At the tender age of 16 months, a smiling Princess Charlotte appears to have wrapped dignitaries and the watching world alike around her little fingers within moments of touching down on her first overseas tour.
©i-Images
Also from The Telegraph’s story:
Both children were greeted by Mr Trudeau, who knelt down and offered his hand to a shy Prince George to high five.
George looked a little tired (it was after midnight his time) while Charlotte seemed to enjoy taking in the different sights and sounds.
BC Premier Christy Clark
The safety of her mother’s arms may have helped diminish any anxiety.
Canadian Heritage
And from The Daily Mirror:
Plus Kate’s maternal touches, crouching down to chat with George and stroking his hair as she asked if he was OK, gave a glimpse into the Cambridges’ family life.
©i-Images
It looks like William also checked with George to see how he was doing amid the strange surroundings and noise.
©Andrew Parsons/i-Images
I don’t know about you, but I’m usually not very chipper after flying across the pond. George and Charlotte’s body clocks have to be out of whack, they seemed to do quite well. It’s probably not their idea of a rollicking good time.
©Rain Nunn/Nunn Syndication/Polaris
Several of the royal correspondents shared comments made by William about George and Charlotte.
Victoria Murphy / The Daily Mirror @QueenVicMirror
After the ceremonies downtown Kate and William returned to Government House for meetings with the Trudeaus. More from Rebecca English of The Daily Mail.
Rebecca English, The Daily Mail & Mail Online
This is a nice mother-daughter shot.
Canadian Heritage
Now to what the Prince and Princess wore for their big day. Charlotte wore a pastel blue floral dress. It is a traditional little girl’s style with puffed sleeves, pin tucks and smocking on the bodice, and a Peter Pan collar.
©James Whatling/Splash News
The sleeve hems and collar have what is called faggoting detail, essentially embroidery that joins two pieces of fabric together.
The bodice of this dress is very (very) similar to that of the pink frock worn for Charlotte’s first appearance on the iconic Buckingham Palace balcony. I am leaning toward this piece being by the same source as the pink UFO (Unidentified Fashion Object) frock.
It looks like Kate may have switched shoe brands for today’s appearance. UPDATED NOV 29: With apologies, there is the updated info on Charlotte’s shoes. (Evidently a previous update done during the tour did not ‘save’ so we’ve had sadly outdated information on the page for weeks, I apologize.) Charlotte was wearing a pair from Spanish retailer Doña Carmen, the brand’s Mercedita Suela in ‘azul Francia,’ or French blue.
©Doña Carmen / i-Images
The design is easily distinguishable by its brightly colored sole, matching the upper portion of the shoe. It has a leather upper, a rubber sole and decorative scalloped edging. The style retails for €29.95, that is roughly $32 at November exchange rates.
©i-Images/Doña Carmen
Charlotte’s socks are the Fancy Folded Cuff socks, available in cream or white. We show them at Well Dressed Child in New Zealand, where they are $8 NZ, that’s about $6. The store carries many styles very similar, or identical to what George and Charlotte wear.
©Polaris / ClassicalChild.NZ
Charlotte fashion fans will recognize her Amaia Kids Hair Bow, the small size in ‘Capri’ (our photo is of the medium size).
George was in a blue outfit from Pepa and Company: he wore the Boys Plaid Shirt in beige/blue (£39, about $50 ); the Sweater with Wooden Buttons in blue (£39) ; and the Spanish retailer’s Baby Baby Winter Shorts in navy (£38, about $50). Hello Canada spoke with Pepa Gonzalez, the founder of Pepa and Company, about the impact from Prince George being seen in the company’s clothing. :
It was lovely to get so many positive messages from around the world, and pleased that mums were able to discover our brand, because as they say, it´s very difficult to find elegant and traditional children clothing at affordable prices.
We do not yet know about his shoes and continue to search for them. (See original update below.) SHOE UPDATE: As originally identified, Prince George was in a pair of the John Lace-up Classic Shoes. The good folks at Start-rite have sent over a photo showing the John style with 4 eyelets, just like George’s.
Start-rite / Splash News
Readers will probably recognize George’s socks as the Condor for Amaia Kids in navy (£7, or $9).
Presuming this is resolved, we’ll leave you with today’s edition of “The Many Faces of George.”
©i-Images/Nunn – Polaris/Canadian Heritages
We had some serious technical challenges tonight, so I am getting this posted and then hope to update with more photos and info (if available) early tomorrow. A thousand ‘thank yous’ to all who were so patient and helpful tonight.
We’ll see you tomorrow over at What Kate Wore!
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Here is the original update regarding the shoes. Now that we have a photo from Start-rite with the propers show it doesn’t make sense to clog up the post with this info. But it is here if anyone needs the historical reference on the shoe ID.
Updating the shoes: Originally I thought George was wearing Start-Rite’s John in navy, and noted on Twitter the Prince was in his first pair of lace-up shoes. But when looking more closely I noticed the John in navy only had three eyelets for the laces (top left in the picture below) and came to the conclusion it must be a different shoe. After seeing the company tweet that George *was* wearing its John style I did more hunting and discovered the Start-Rite John in gray with the four eyelets (bottom left in photo). I have emailed StartRite and hope they will confirm this is the case, I’m sure it is. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a photo of the shoes in navy.
Start-Rite/i-Images/Start-Rite/Splash
Hi Sorry it’s so late but after seeing old photos of carol middleton shopping for Charlotte when she was younger recently and it’s made me think that the blue dress she wore here is from that little shop as it looks identical to a dress in the window of the shop trotters in London so it’s not available anymore but it does look like it from the small glimpse of the dress in the corner of the photo.
Is Princess Charlotte perhaps wearing the medium sized bow? We have the small sized ones, and they seem different. 🙂
It’s certainly possible, especially if you have the benefit of owning some and knowing firsthand how they look, I could well be wrong. I found a good closeup tonight of Charlotte’s bow and added it to today’s post. To me it looks more like the medium, but I trust your judgment since you have some of them. What do you think? 🙂
Regarding the UFO’s: Is it possible that Kate is having Charlotte’s dresses made for her to avoid a “Charlotte effect?” They seem very determined to have their children live normal lives – and having every kid in your kindergarten suddenly wearing the same outfit you wore two weeks ago would be very wierd. George’s clothes are relatively plain (blue shorts, white polo shirts, blue cardigans) and his style is pretty normal for kids his age. But a girl’s fashion choices are more variable and are unique to the person, so everyone dressing like her would be very noticeable.
A resounding ‘yes’ in answer to your question. I think we are of like minds, believing the non-retail garments are part of Kate’s effort to minimize the mania regarding George & Charlotte’s clothing and other personal items. 🙂
I was thinking about the two UFO dresses Charlotte wore (the pink and the blue one). I know I dress my little 2 yo girl with dresses I used to wear which are exactly that style of the ones Charlotte is wearing. Could it be that Catherine is doing the same with her daughter, having her wear dresses age wore as a kid ? I know she did it for George with his father’s outfits. It is totally the style we would wear as kids (I’m two years younger than the duchess), so I think it is a possibility. And honestly I know many moms who love to see their daughter wear their own dresses (providing our moms dressed us well, not so easy with the 80’s fashion !). I absolutely love dressing my little girl like my mom use to dress me, and am actually happy the duchess dresses Charlotte in that style, I’ve had much less criticism on how I dress my daughter up since pictures of Charlotte have been released. What people told me looked too vintages is now all the rage for little girls ! Unfortunately we have too little photos of Catherine as a baby girl to confirm but I think it’s a strong possibility!
Wonderful article!
Just a little identification issue. The lady in chartreuse is Sharon Johnston, wife of the GG. The Lieutenant Governor, Judith, was wearing burgundy and black and is not shown in this picture.
Both George and Charlotte are growing fast! George looks much more lean in the face and his bigger frame lends a touch more gravitas to the business of always appearing in shorts. Those shiny new lace-up shoes add to the effect. They struck me straightaway when I saw the first pictures, I’m so impressed at the sleuthing on them.
I love Charlotte’s dress though am a bit surprised at the term you use for the sleeve stitching — apols for mentioning but it veers towards a less than polite term on my side of the pond. Still, I’ll take your word for it being ok down your way. It’s such a pretty dress and the smocking looks even more detailed than on the earlier pink, though that may be down to better close-ups.
All in all, both are very classic kids’ outfits and so affordable, especially compared with Mama’s couture!
This occurred to me for a nanosecond. I elected to use the term because not only because it is the appropriate name, but also because it continues to be used in contemporary fashion. Here is a Christopher Kane top made almost exclusively of the material: https://www.modaoperandi.com/christopher-kane-ss16/all-over-faggoting-embroidery-top And here’s a site showing/selling the material. https://www.chadwickheirlooms.com/categories/lace-and-embroideries/footing-and-faggoting 🙂
Many thanks for the update – sorry to put you to the trouble at such a busy time 🙂
Faggoting is an embroidery stitch in the UK.
Thanks for the update. It’s certainly no stranger than odd expressions used in other departments of life
In the close ups, it looks like there’s now a bit of blond in Charlotte’s hair, compared with the dark hair she had in her first year. Perhaps from getting outside and running about at Anmer Hall and elsewhere.
In response to the previous comment – Knock knees (genu valgus) occur as part of normal development between ages 3-6 before resolving (BMJ 2015;351:h3394)
Are we certain on the shirt? It says it’s a Peter Pan collar but the pictures look like a straight edge. Either way they looked great! I can’t believe how well they took on such a long flight, I would have been terribly cranky!
Thank heaven you mentioned this, it was the wrong link! Here’s the corrected one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianheritage-patrimoinecanadien/29826093481/ Thank you! 🙂
I think both children look absolutely adorable as always. What I’m about to add is definitely not a criticism, just an observation … I think Prince George may have a slight case of “knock knees” which is kind of interesting as King George VI (the present Queen’s father) had knock knees, but back in those days they used to splint the child’s legs in an attempt to needlessly correct it, which was a very painful thing to go through, especially for a child.
I think Princess Charlotte has Carole Middleton’s eyes and she also bears a strong resemblance to Pippa. I love her little frock, it’s so pretty.
Thank you for mentioning this. I think Charlotte is the image of Pippa, and Pippa’s eyes resemble her mother’s eyes. In fact, it seems Middleton genes have dominated, since George looks a great deal like Michael Middleton. Both children are beautifully and appropriately dressed — not vintage or retro, but classic/timeless children’s styles that never go out of fashion, especially the smocked dress.Adorable.
I do wish, though, that Kate would get rid of those little barrettes and the rather harsh look they create, pulling Charlotte’s hair to the side of her face. I realize she’s 16 months old, and is just growing her hair, but there must be a more flattering way to style it than a single barrette.