Usually when the Duchess of Cambridge steps out in recycled outfits, women across the country look on with admiration and think, ‘maybe she is like us after all’.
But after Kate made her first public appearance since giving birth five weeks ago, those approving looks will probably be tinged with a little bit of envy.
Yesterday the Duchess, 31, stepped out in a recycled jacket and blouse, and, sensationally, her pre-pregnancy trademark skinny jeans, revealing just how quickly she has managed to snap back into shape.
As well as the £180 jeans by designer Paige, she wore a £39 sleeveless patterned blouse by Zara – last worn when she was just a few months pregnant – with a £570 Ralph Lauren hacking jacket and her favourite £80 Pied a Terre wedges.
The Duchess hadn’t planned to step back into action so soon, with her first official engagement not scheduled until September 12.
But earlier this week sources indicated that she was considering joining Prince William to officially start a marathon on Anglesey, where the couple have lived for two years.
Kate is understood to have been keen to thank locals for their support and discretion before the couple return to London after William’s search and rescue RAF posting ends next month.
In the end a decision wasn’t made until just a few hours before the event yesterday morning, after aides were told that ‘little rascal’ Prince George, as his father likes to call him, had given his parents a relatively peaceful night.
While speaking to locals at the event, the Duchess revealed that her mother, Carole – or granny as she called her – had come up to North Wales to babysit.
‘He’s doing very well. He’s with granny at the moment. He’s sleeping well but I know these things suddenly change at a minute’s notice,’ she told fellow mother Sarah Bingham, 38.
Marian Wyn-Jones, High Sheriff of Gwynedd, said: ‘We were talking about the joy she was having from George and how quick he was changing, she couldn’t quite believe it. She’s enjoying every minute of it. He’s getting quite huge, she said.’
But it seems the Duchess has been finding time to re-start her fitness regime.
Will Stewart, park warden at Holyhead Breakwater Country Park, where the gruelling three-day Ring O’Fire race started, said the Duchess told him she was ‘genuinely interested’ in doing some more walking around the area, ‘especially after the baby’.
He said: ‘She said she wants to get back into shape. I said, “You don’t need to worry about that”. She looked great.’
Although aides have remained tight-lipped about her fitness regime, Kate is sporty and is known to have kept fit by walking her dog, Lupo, and taking part in ante-natal yoga classes, which are said to help women regain their figure by ‘training’ muscles to snap back into shape.
Sarah Barrett, managing editor of website BabyCentre UK, said: ‘Kate looks fantastic – and we wouldn’t be surprised if a little yoga was part of her secret.’