Duchess Catherine has stepped out for the first time this year to visit a primary school with UK charity The Art Room.
The Duchess looked glowing as she showed off her growing baby bump as she hits the six-month mark of her pregnancy. Prince George’s little brother or sister due in April this year.
Catherine looked so stunning in an elegant 60s style navy shift dress with embellished beaded edging, by UK maternity label Madderson that the style instantly flew off shelves. Expectant mothers flocked to get their hands on the same frock as the Duchess, with the retailers website struggling under all the traffic from desperate buyers – despite the hefty $830 (£450) price tag!
The Duchess was visiting Barlby Primary School as part of her role as patron of London-based charity ‘The Art Room’ which offers art as therapy to young people who are experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties or facing challenges in their lives. Catherine was there to officially name the new art room, ‘The Clore’ after the Clore Duffield Foundation that funded it.
There to name the newly launched school art room, Catherine was also accompanied by the flamboyant Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry, who was dressed in drag. It was not an unusual look for the artist though who also dressed in a ‘mother of the bride’ outfit when attending Buckingham Palace last year to be awarded with a CBE from Prince Charles.
Catherine was originally scheduled to attend the new art room in October last year but had to cancel due to the severe illness that plagued the early days of her pregnancy – hyperemesis gravidarum.
As part of her visit, she met with both students and staff and then joined a round table discussion about the work of the charity with experts and wealthy benefactor Dame Vivien Duffield.
The very next day Catherine will then attend another event hosted by the Fostering Network, the UK’s leading fostering charity, to “celebrate the dedicated work of foster carers.
These two charities are one of a portfolio of charities for which the Duchess holds patronages including East Anglia Children’s hospice, which the Duchess visited just over a month ago and the National Portrait Gallery, which hosted the Duchess’s first public outing of the year in 2014.
These first scheduled events follow Catherine’s 33rd birthday, which was last week, making it a busy start to the year for the Duchess who is clearly not letting the fact that she is nearly six months pregnant slow her down!