Goodbye high street: The Duchess of Cambridge's wardrobe cost £174,000 this year

Lauren Sharkey
The Duchess has been opting for designer looks this year. She has two versions of this £995 Preen dress: one in red, the other black [Photo: PA]
The Duchess has been opting for designer looks this year. She has two versions of this £995 Preen dress: one in red, the other black [Photo: PA]

The Duchess of Cambridge has long been a supporter of the high street, renowned for recycling her outfits over and over again. So it may come as a surprise to hear that Kate appears to have had an image overhaul this year, favouring mega expensive designer threads over her usual cheaper finds.

The Daily Mail calculated the cost of the Duchess’s 2016 wardrobe and found that it came to £174,000; four times as much as last year’s spend which totalled at around £43,000.

For a royal tour of Canada, Kate mainly wore high-end dresses like this printed Alexander McQueen number and custom green Dolce & Gabbana dress which cost £2000 [Photo: PA]
For a royal tour of Canada, Kate mainly wore high-end dresses like this printed Alexander McQueen number and custom green Dolce & Gabbana dress which cost £2000 [Photo: PA]

Kate’s Canada tour wardrobe alone cost a whopping £62,000. Considering it consisted of dresses by the likes of Jenny Packham, Alexander McQueen and Dolce & Gabbana along with a whole host of designer shoes, that figure seems a little less shocking.

Kate still chose a couple of lower priced looks with this £320 Self Portrait gown being a 2016 highlight [Photo: PA]
Kate still chose a couple of lower priced looks with this £320 Self Portrait gown being a 2016 highlight [Photo: PA]
The Duchess donned a £720 dress yesterday instead of her usual L.K. Bennett designs [Photo: PA]
The Duchess donned a £720 dress yesterday instead of her usual L.K. Bennett designs [Photo: PA]

Just yesterday, she demonstrated her newfound love for high-end, forgoing her usual printed L.K. Bennett dresses for a similar one by Vanessa Seward which retails at £720.

Of course, the Duchess doesn’t actually buy the majority of her clothes with designers being only too happy to gift them to the royal.

Let’s see if this designer taste continues into 2017.

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