Kate Middleton Wears Californian Designers While British Labels Are Linked To Her Struggle

Another royal engagement, another California designer on Kate Middleton’s back. At Tuesday’s Cancer Research UK reception, where she joined King Charles after both publicly announced cancer diagnoses in 2024, the Princess of Wales stepped out in a red dress by Rodarte. Yes, Rodarte: the Pasadena‑based label run by two Californian sisters. People later noted that Rodarte was the second American designer Kate had worn in recent weeks.

Here is what People reported:

Princess Kate rarely wears American brands, often opting to spotlight her favorite U.K. brands or, when traveling abroad, highlighting the work of local designers.

However, the Rodarte dress was actually the second time in recent weeks that Kate wore an American designer. During the second day of her stay in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia in May, the princess wore a skirt by another L.A.-based designer, Jenni Kayne, marking another first.

Meghan Markle is also a fan of Jenni Kayne, and the Duchess of Sussex, 44, has even worn the same pleated skirt as her sister-in-law. During her 2025 appearance on “The Circuit” with Emily Chang, Meghan wore a yellow version of the piece, pairing it with a sweater in the same shade.

The double wear of American designers has some royal watchers speculating that Princess Kate is hinting that a trip across the pond is on the agenda in the near future.

So Much For Championing British Brands

So last month, during her Italy trip, Kate wore Jenni Kayne, a California label long associated with Meghan Sussex’s wardrobe. Now she steps out in Rodarte, another California‑founded brand. That is not a crime, obviously. Women can wear whatever they want. But the double standard is impossible to ignore.

When Meghan wore American designers or leaned into her California style, parts of the British press framed it as proof that she was too Hollywood, too American and too disconnected from royal tradition. She was supposed to be championing British fashion, they wrote, as wasn’t that the whole point of being a working royal?

Yet here is Kate, the future queen, wearing California brands back‑to‑back, and the coverage is soft, stylish, and glowing. Nobody is asking why the Princess of Wales is not “supporting British fashion,” even as labels linked to her wardrobe have struggled or shut down. The Vampire’s Wife, worn by Kate and once described as a royal favourite, closed in 2024. Eponine London, another Kate-favoured British label, announced it would close after its Autumn/Winter 2025 collection. Seraphine, the maternity brand long associated with Kate, also stopped trading, reportedly leaving most of its staff redundant. So when Kate wears Rodarte and Jenni Kayne back-to-back, the question is fair: why does the “champion British fashion” standard only seem to appear when Meghan wears American designers?

The Jenni Kayne point is especially rich. That brand has openly promoted “Meghan’s Jenni Kayne Favourites,” showing how strongly Meghan is linked to that aesthetic. So when Kate steps out in a similar California‑minimalist look, people are going to notice. And when she follows it up with Rodarte, the pattern becomes clear.

This is not about banning Kate from wearing foreign designers. But if royal fashion is supposed to promote British industry, that standard should apply across the board for current working royals? Or was that another excuse to bully Meghan? Prince Harry wrote in Spare that Kate believed Meghan wanted her fashion contacts, while Meghan already had her own. So why is Kate using Meghan’s go‑to brands while sourcing brands in her home turf? If the outrage only applies when Meghan wears the clothes, then it was never about British brands. It was always about policing Meghan.

The Bigger Problem Is Kate’s Wardrobe Strategy

Beyond the double standard, there is a deeper issue. Fifteen years after her marriage and nearly four years after becoming Princess of Wales, Kate still does not have a proper stylist or a coherent wardrobe strategy. It is baffling that neither Victoria Beckham nor Stella McCartney can put together a few working outfits for her.

Kate’s former stylist, Natasha Archer, was caught following Meghan’s fashion connections on Instagram. She was following Meghan’s friends, her wedding photographer, her hairstylist, her makeup artists, basically stalking her entire life. One could reasonably argue that this was Natasha Archer’s fault, but Natasha has since departed. So why is Kate still copying Meghan? She has been mimicking Meghan’s looks for years, from the clothes down to the specific California brands that make no sense for a British working royal. It is painfully deliberate, and it makes the whole family look silly. We know that Meghan is the blueprint, but Kate seems to want to wallow in Meghan’s, Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II’s shadow.

Final Thoughts

What makes it worse is that Kate could have had something unique. But that would require effort, strategy, and follow‑through, none of which seem to be happening. Instead, her PR team is running around trying to “outshine” Meghan every time Meghan gets good press, and it is not working.

Kate needs a clearer fashion vision, one that does not keep inviting “Meghan did it first” comparisons. Until then, the questions will continue, not because people are being unfair, but because one woman has a defined sense of self and the other still appears to be borrowing from her sister-in-law and her dead mother-in-law’s style fashion file.