The first official joint portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has been unveiled—and it sees a highlight of Kate’s royal wardrobe preserved for posterity. In the painting by award-winning British portrait artist Jamie Coreth, the Duchess is wearing her emerald Falconetti dress by Susie Cave’s label The Vampire’s Wife, the same one she wore for a trip to the Guinness factory in Dublin back in 2020.
While it’s typical for Kate to champion British design, at the time, the rare sighting of the royal in a fashion-crowd favorite delighted style watchers more accustomed to seeing her opt for the safety of reliable—and resolutely unflashy—brands like Eponine, Catherine Walker, or Boden. For the Duchess, this metallic dress (previously seen on the likes of Sienna Miller, Alexa Chung, and Ruth Negga), represented a risk.
Also of note on the fashion front: the shoes. Kate wears Manolo Blahnik’s classic Hangisi heels in emerald in the painting. As Carrie Bradshaw’s chosen wedding shoe, the Hangisi had already earned its place in the pop culture hall of fame. Now, the cult stiletto has had the royal seal of approval, and will hang (at least temporarily) in the National Portrait Gallery, too.