Royals: Kate Disappoints at the BAFTA’s

Listen. This dress is lovely and the jewels are truly stellar. It’s a dark green Jenny Packham and very similar to another Packham dress she wore to a St. Andrews fundraiser in 2014, also while pregnant:

However, the BAFTA’s decided to pick up the mantle from the Golden Globes and encouraged all attendees to wear black to bring awareness to sexual harassment in the entertainment industry and the #TimesUp movement. As you will see, almost everyone adhered to the suggested dress code. Kate got close – the dark green looks almost black in certain light, but she decidedly did not opt in to the protest.

I completely understand the Royal Family’s aversion to anything verging on the political, however, wearing black for Kate would have been such an easy and uncontroversial thing to do that it’s disappointing she chose not to. The #TimesUp movement toes the line between the overtly political, which Kate would naturally and understandably avoid, and the progressive social movements that the younger generation of Royal Family members have increasingly spoken out about. I knew it would be a toss up whether she chose to wear black or not, and I understand why she didn’t. But I think it would have been a good moment to garner some positive publicity for The Firm among younger Britons, while also being on the right side of history.

I have no doubt that Kate, Will and the rest of the new generation are privately supportive of women’s rights, #TimesUp, and thoroughly against sexual harassment. But speaking up is important. Will posed for the cover of an LGBT magazine; Harry has openly talked about his experiences with psychology; and they’re about to welcome a divorced, bi-racial American into the family. They’re modernizing quickly, and this would have been a simple but meaningful moment for them to support an important and long overdue cause. But they chose not to, and that makes me sad.

Plus, I can think of at least 5 black gowns that Kate already owns and could have dug out the back of some closet in Kensington Palace for the occasion…