Princess Kate's regal style transformation from quintessential girl next door to glamorous future queen has won praise online after images captured throughout the royal's two decades in the public eye went viral.
Kate first entered the glare of the public spotlight in 2004 when it was broken in the British tabloids that she was in a serious relationship with Prince William. The pair met in 2001 while studying at the University of St Andrew's in Scotland; they became friends and began dating soon after.
William and Kate's early relationship saw a renewal of public interest in 2023, when their meeting was dramatized by Netflix for the final season of the hit royal drama The Crown.
After the 2004 publication of images showing William and Kate embracing during a skiing vacation, the future princess became an object of fascination for the press, public and paparazzi.
Regularly throughout the 2000s, Kate would have photographers stationed outside her London home. By 2005, her family lawyers had sent warnings to newspaper editors, asking them to cease publication of intrusive reports into her private life; and in 2007, on the day of her 25th birthday, over 20 photographers descended on the future royal as she walked to her car, resulting in a frenzy of camera flashes and obstruction.
Later that same year, a government report on press regulation contained an entire section on the "hounding" of Kate by the media, using the 25th-birthday incident as an example of the failure of guidelines that were in place.
Despite the media hounding, Kate grew in popularity among the public, with the photographs that were taken of her being widely consumed. One aspect of these that earned the future princess widespread praise were her fashion choices.
Uploaded to TikTok by user @sabrinaa_alvess, on August 2, a compilation of images of Kate taken throughout the early 2000s has been contrasted with more recent footage captured during her time as Princess of Wales.
Kate's cool and approachable pre-royal style was defined by her mix-and-match wardrobe, featuring staple pieces including blouses, jackets and jeans. This would quickly see a surge in demand from shoppers when she wore them.
As Princess of Wales and future queen, Kate's wardrobe has taken a more elegant form, more likely to include coat dresses, pantsuits and gowns than the classic, off-duty jeans and blouse combinations of her younger days.
The viral video has been viewed over 1.4 million times on the social media site so far, and gained in excess of 117,000 likes and 475 comments, many of which have praised the royal and her elegant style.
"Now that's a royal style upgrade though I loved her Kiera Knightly 2000s London Girl aesthetic," wrote one TikTok user.
"She was born to be a princess," posted another, with a further comment reading: "She's like a shining diamond before & after."
Kate continues to win praise from the fashion press and fans for her style.
So far, in 2024 the princess has remained mostly out of the public eye, taking a break from her usual schedule of royal duties in January to undergo abdominal surgery. In March, she announced that she had received a cancer diagnosis and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, which remains ongoing.
In June, Kate made her first official appearance of the year at the Trooping the Colour celebrations in London. She made a second appearance at the Wimbledon tennis finals in the English capital in July.
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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