Kate Makes Solo Appearance at Lucien Freud Exhibit

Tonight, Kate made a solo appearance at London's National Portrait Gallery. She attended a private viewing of Lucian Freud Portraits. This is a new exhibit of works by the famous late British painter.

The exhibition officially opens to the general public tomorrow and features 130 artworks spanning the length of Freud's painting career from the early 1940s until his final, unfinished work.

The Duchess, recently became a patron of the National Portrait Gallery. The cause is close to her heart as she studied art history at St. Andrews University (where she met her prince).

Kate was greeted by Freud’s daughter Esther and Sir Paul McCartney’s daughter Mary. Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, and Sandy Nairne, director of the gallery, also joined her on an hour-long tour.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore a grey tweed, double-breasted, 1950s-style frock by the high street clothing label Jesire. The dress had a full skirt with a wide black belt cinching her waist and over sized shawl collar.

Despite the cold weather, she went sans stockings but accessorized with her Jimmy Choo 'Cosmic' ( £435) black suede platform heels, a black clutch, a diamond bracelet & matching earrings, and her Asprey Pendant.

Update 2/10/2012

I have been frantically searching for more info on Jesire. There wasn't much out there but I did find two articles that I'd like to share.

1) Grazia www.graziadaily.co.uk/ reports that Jesire is out of business. The brand was stocked in stores like John Lewis and House of Fraser.

2) Express www.express.co.uk/ reports that the high street brand officially closed it's doors in November 2011. The former managing director of Jesire, Martyn Vines, is planning talks with the original creator of the Jesire coat dress to possibly re-issue it.

It is thought that Kate bought the £169 dress as far back as autumn 2010 at Peter Jones in London’s Sloane Square.

 

Update 3/28/2013

 

Copykate on Ebay

 

Thanks to Copykate on Ebay, Kate's belt has been 'found' but not ID'ed because it does not have a brand name anywhere on it.

 

Copykate on Ebay

 

Additional details about the belt from Copykate:

 



'Material: Leather, metal and high quality smooth-finish elastic woven raffia-like fabric. Front metal clasp fastening

Unbranded'

 

Note: The b80's style belt listed by Copykate is not the same color that Kate wore in the pictures above. My thoughts are that it could have been borrowed from Carol Middleton?