Even now, when she has been ill and is clearly frail, every time the Duchess appears in public, it’s always in a lovely dress, and with a flourish. If anything, the older she gets, the more sartorially daring she has become. Her hats are borderline Beaton-esque at times. And she clearly keeps an eye on contemporary designers.
In 2018 the Duchess wore a long floral Erdem dress to Harry and Meghan’s wedding – the Duchess of Cambridge later wore the same style when she attended an evening reception at the Chelsea Flower Show. Lesson six : whatever your age, don’t let it dent your enjoyment of fashion.
The Duchess’s love of music runs as deep as her love of her family. She has three living children, Lady Helen, George, Earl of St Andrews – whose wife, Sylvana, lectures, sans title, at Cambridge University (their daughter Lady Amelia Windsor is an ambassador to several brands) – and Lord Edward Windsor.
But fashion remains, as it always has been, a creative outlet for her, as well as a way of expressing her respect for the people she meets in public and the events that she has always enhanced with her presence.
