Though we take fashion cues from many stylish royals, the Princess of Wales has a penchant for influencing our summer shoe wishlist year after year.
Today she visited the Anna Freud Centre in Angel, north London, as part of a series of engagements for Mental Health Awareness Week. She re-wore a pair of her favourite heels that confirmed to us that two-tone is the style we need to have for the warmer months.
Proving that she always reverts to clothes she feels comfortable in, Kate was gorgeous in green wearing an emerald shirt dress from Suzannah London – the second colourway she owns. It was poignant to wear green today as May 18 marks Mental Health Foundation UK’s ‘wear it green day’ – a movement to raise money for the charity.
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Alongside pairing her dress with yet another affordable pair of earrings from high-street brand Accessorize, the princess wore the 'Fab' 85 two-tone pumps from Alessandra Rich that epitomise 2023's quiet luxury trend. She wore the same shoes with the white version of her Suzannah London dress she wore last June for the Grenfell Tower memorial.
What is quiet luxury?
“Quiet Luxury is a new age minimalism style, and in terms of clothes they are investment pieces and forever staples that will last in your wardrobe,” stylist Georgie Gray told Hello! Fashion. “Think designers such as Loewe, The Row and Loro Piana.”
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Two-tone shoes are clearly a royal-approved, timeless summer style. In July 2022 she stepped out in a sensible pair of two-tone flats to attend the Royal Charity Polo Cup. The Alicia flats by British designer Camilla Elphick almost sold out immediately after she wore them. Thankfully for us, the stunning shoe is back for 2023 and in brand new colourways.
“This year we have made sure that the selection of our most popular Alicia colourways will be more readily available and part of our new core collection,” Camilla told Hello! Fashion, “They have previously been made to order but the demand is now so high we need to have stock. We will also be introducing a new colourway for Alicia almost every month”.
Despite numerous variations of the monochrome shoe, from high-end to high-street, we have to honour Coco Chanel for designing her famous two-tone slingbacks in 1957. Coco would say “They are the final touch of elegance” the brand explains on their website. Designed to take you from day to night (perfect for the longer days where we’re heading out from the office during the week more often), Mademoiselle Chanel said "You leave in the morning wearing beige and black, you have lunch in beige and black, and you attend a cocktail party wearing beige and black. You're dressed for the entire day".
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