Why Kate Middleton must carry a black mourning outfit on every royal tour
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: The Prince and Princess of Wales have flown to Boston to attend Prince William's Earthshot Prize awards ceremony which is being hosted by the city. And while Kate Middleton has certainly packed a stack of elegant apparel for the visit, there is something that the royal princess has to add to her wardrobe on all of her tours.
The 40-year-old must bring an all-black outfit with her whenever she is traveling abroad in cases of royal deaths so that she is able to wear the appropriate attire for mourning immediately. "Members of the British royal family are required to travel with a black ensemble in the case of the monarch or another senior royal passing while they are traveling," said a royal history expert Jessica Storoschuk of An Historian About Town to Page Six Style.
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Kate Middleton and Prince William match in suits to kick off Boston visit https://t.co/7vcro8Znkv pic.twitter.com/NrLzkTQSFu
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The royal obligation also includes other royal family members such as Princess Anne and Prince William who must also follow suit, in cases of such morbid emergencies while they are away.
The custom reportedly began after Queen Elizabeth II was caught without a mourning dress when she was traveling to Kenya in 1952 and her father, King George VI, died while she was on the tour. "After her father’s unexpected death, she was forced to wait on the plane on the tarmac until an appropriate black outfit could be brought for her to change into," Storoschuk recounted the new queen’s arrival in England, adding, "it is much easier to simply keep it in your travel wardrobe than wait." Since then, it’s been necessary for the royal family members to include a black outfit in their luggage, just in case.
Middleton, 40, and her husband, Prince William, 40, arrived in Boston on Wednesday, November 30, and are looking forward to the latter's 'Super Bowl' moment which encompasses the staging of the awards he founded to discover and scale up environmental solutions to repair the planet, as reported by Hello! Magazine.
The royal couple has come for a three-day visit centered around the prince’s annual Earthshot Prize. "The prize has become the prince's Superbowl moment of the year, and he looks forward to continuing to use the platform each year to shine a light on some of the most impactful projects doing amazing things around the world to save our planet's future," a royal source told the outlet.
The Prince of Wales’ environmental awards will commence in full action on Friday night, December 2 with a star-studded lineup including Billie Eilish, Ellie Goulding, Annie Lennox, and Chloe x Halle.