Kate Middleton opened this morning’s Future Workforce Summit with a metaphor on clothesmaking. “Love is the first and most essential bond,” the Princess of Wales told an audience of more than 80 of Britain’s most influential business leaders, urging them to invest in the early years to cultivate the skills workplaces will need in the future. “But it is also the invisible thread,” she continued. “Woven with time, attention and tenderness, through consistent, nurturing relationships which creates the grounded and meaningful environments around a child. It is this texture, the weave of love, which forms a child’s emotional world and becomes the foundation, the very fabric of resilience and belonging.”
Her own “fabric of resilience,” as she stepped up to the lectern at Salesforce Tower in London and introduced Sir Gareth Southgate and journalist Mishal Husain, was a slim-cut suit in pale-grey wool, paired with a Smythson handbag, Mappin Webb earrings and a white blouse with a cascading ruffle covering the placket. The outfit was yet another example of Catherine and the late Princess Diana’s shared taste in clothing. When she first wore that sloanie Knatchbull shirt to watch England defeat Australia in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final in September, for instance, it drew keen comparisons to a near-identical outfit Diana once wore when meeting Bryan Adams in Vancouver during her 1986 tour of Canada. “So much alike,” observed one commentator, “in their style and in their work.”
Indeed, Catherine’s dedication to supporting children in their earliest years has reminded many of her late mother-in-law’s. The Princess established the Business Taskforce in March 2023 and was the driving force behind its Early Years report while still undergoing chemotherapy. Setting out the business case for prioritising early childhood, the report unveiled several initiatives, including funding for apprenticeships and leadership programmes, expanded support for baby banks, and the creation of welcoming community spaces for families with young children. “Every child deserves respect and safety, and everyone who cares deserve recognition and appreciation,” she concluded. Every act of care creates community because we are all essentially weavers of the same fabric.”