Year in Review: Kate and Mette-Marit's 2014 Bests

Blue , Britain , hats , LK Bennett , Norway , Print , Review 2014 , Valentino , White    Comment   

Each year, I like to pick a single Best of the Year outfit for each of the royal ladies we check in with most frequently. I chose these two royal ladies to kick things off because of one big similarity: I had a really hard time picking a best for both of them.

The Duchess of Cambridge

The thing about Kate is that she's a very consistent dresser. This works in her favor most of the time - nothing came to mind when I started pondering what her worst of the year would be, for example - but it sure did make it hard for me to pick any one thing that stood out as the year's best. I was tempted to name the recently reused Packham, but honestly that would have been because it gave us her two biggest jewel moments for the year and not because of the dress. So I flipped back through the year and emerged with this one in mind:

It almost feels too ordinary to be the year's best, if you know what I mean - and you will, once you see how many gowns make my list as we roll on - but I love the clean silhouette and the poppy print. It's also among the fruits of the Cambridge's New Zealand/Australia tour, certainly one of 2014's most memorable royal trips. So there you go: L.K. Bennett and blue poppies it is!

Crown Princess Mette-Marit

Mette-Marit stumped me for a different reason. You see, she usually turns up the volume and does her best sartorial work at international royal events, so I automatically start there when it comes to looking for her best of the year. But this year...we didn't really have any such events! So we're left with her events at home, which was a lot of similar day outfits, most of the Pia Tjelta by Ti Mo collection, and a handful of repeated gowns, sometimes revamped but leaving me longing for the original. Le sigh.

So I settled on a Valentino coat worn during the celebrations for the anniversary of Norway's constitution, a piece I like so much I picked it when it came time for her closet raid. I'm having a bit of a love affair with white this year, and nobody does it better than M-M, so it feels right after all. 

Your turn: What were your 2014 Kate and Mette-Marit favorites?

Photos: L.K. Bennett and CPL Shannon McCarthy / © Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence,  NRK.no/Style.com/Stortinget