Princess Kate made a stylish new appearance on Sunday in a video congratulating Great Britain and Northern Ireland's Olympic athletes ahead of the closing ceremony of the Paris Games in France.
The video marked the fourth glimpse of the princess that the public have been given so far this year as she continues her chemotherapy treatment following a cancer diagnosis that she announced in March.
Smiling in a relaxed garden setting alongside Prince William who was sporting some new summer stubble, Kate sent "Team GB" her congratulations in the slick video published to the royal's official social-media accounts—which also included cameos from rapper Snoop Dogg and retired soccer player David Beckham.
Fans were quick to praise the princess' appearance. Speculation had circulated in Britain about her possible attendance at some of the Olympic events prior to the closing ceremony.
In June, Kate announced that, though continuing her chemotherapy treatment, she hoped to be able to begin making more appearances and undertaking more work over the summer.
For her video appearance, Kate highlighted her love for a fashion trend she has showcased on a number of occasions in recent years—stripes.
For the clip, the princess wore a navy-and-white striped sweater, which links to another variant of the same style she wore in March for the video announcing her cancer diagnosis.
Since her marriage in 2011, Kate's style and fashion choices have taken on increased public focus, with her selections in 2024 garnering more attention as they exist in the vacuum of her reduced visibility.
In June this year, Kate made her royal engagement debut following her cancer announcement wearing a bold striped outfit. The royal wore a white Jenny Packham dress with black-and-white striped belt and corsage details. It was linked stylistically to the famous costume worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 movie musical My Fair Lady.
The princess has returned to stripes frequently throughout her public life, often in a more casual setting but always horizontal in orientation.
In 2022, Kate played into the nautical connotations associated with stripes wearing a navy-and-white striped sweater with a pair of white shorts for a sailing-themed engagement in the naval city of Plymouth in southwestern England.
Continuing with the nautical theme, Kate wore a navy-and-white striped sweater when meeting members of fishing communities in Fife, Scotland, in 2021 and again at a sailing event in England in 2019.
Kate is not the only royal fan of stripes. Both her stepmother-in-law, Queen Camilla, and sister-in-law, Meghan Markle, have worn striped outfits for official appearances in recent years, though, unlike Kate, they appear to be fans of both horizontal and vertical variations.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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