14 DAY TRIAL // Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge and wife of Prince William, has such a large share of the public vote of confidence that, in the eyes of many, she can do no wrong. Yet she never seems able to face the forces of nature, no matter how weak (like, say, a breeze), and thus keep all her clothes in the proper place, covering the most important bits of her anatomy.
The other day, several tabloids from Germany and now Australia ran photos of Kate’s bare derriere, snapped as she was getting off a helicopter, when the wind caught in her skirt and lifted it up. Before arguing whether they had any “right” of running these pics, you should probably know that this isn’t the first time this happens.
In fact, barring that instance in which a tab ran paparazzi photos of a completely topless Kate on vacation on private property, she’s often been photographed in such compromising positions. After all, she is a member of the Royal family and, as such, more decorum is expected of her than of many other (if not most) women her age.
Above is a photo of Kate arriving in Australia for the Royal tour in April. She’s dressed very fashionably but the fabric of her skirt is extremely flimsy, so she’s forced to hold down on it because the wind keeps lifting it up.
Again, this is just one of the many instances this happened: on every royal tour and even on solo appearances, Kate always manages to get herself into a pickle of this type. With the risk of repeating myself, this might not seem like such a huge deal to regular women, but the Duchess is anything but.
Right after said Australian tour, there was a lot of talk of how upset the Queen was with Kate because she was failing to live up to expectations on a series of accounts, including her fashion choices, her shoe choices, and her insistence of doing her own hair and makeup.
I imagine the Queen is downright fuming right now, after this new scandal. With her, so are millions of Brits who believe their Duchess should dress more appropriately, according to her status and the image she has to project in the world. Before anything, Kate is an institution, a representative of the Royal family and not a woman who should run this kind of sartorial risks.
Fabric weights: Kate, use them!
Whether Kate should wear longer skirts and dresses is debatable, although from what I can see, many Brits believe she should opt for them, to prevent wardrobe malfunctions when she bends forward (that too has happened, by the way).
However, mishaps like the most recent one could easily be avoided by simply adding fabric weights to the dress. Kate could easily wear practically the same dress with her favorite length, made of her favorite fabric and, instead, just not flash the paparazzi whenever the wind blew harder.
Not few are those who think that she should show a bit more responsibility in the picking of her outfits: she is a Duchess and she should dress like one. That also includes making sure she isn’t left exposed like this, which shouldn’t be that hard for her considering she’s already been embarrassed several times.
At this point, because of the many times she’s been embarrassed like this, not few are those who believe the Duchess has a strain of exhibitionist in her. That might sound far-fetched but think of it this way: if this had happened to you so many times, in public places with the media present, wouldn’t you do something to prevent it?
Media coverage: where should we draw the line?
Then there are those who claim it’s not Kate’s fault that her skirt keeps being lifted up in the air, but the media’s for showing it. As we speak, the British media is positively steaming with outrage that those tabs “dared” to publish the photos, together with comments along the lines of “she’s got a nice bum, she should be proud” and “so glad this happened.”
Meanwhile, the tabs defend themselves by saying not publishing the photos would equal a violation of the freedom of the press especially since the photos are not taken from a distance, while Kate was on private property in her spare time, as was the case with the topless pics.
The Royal family is said to be looking into legal options regarding this new scandal but it sure seems to me like a much easier (and definitely less costly) option would be to just instruct Kate’s dressmakers to put those fabric weights in her hemlines. Wouldn’t you say?