RF. Surprising detail you missed from Princess Catherine’s touching family video

In her latest video message, Kate Middleton went with a familiar, favorite hue for both of the looks she sported in the three-minute clip.

In her Sept. 9 announcement, filmed in August in Norfolk by Will Warr and also featuring her husband Prince William, 42, and their kids Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, Kate announced that she had completed chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. In the new video, Kate wears two blue dresses — a denim shirtdress that the What Kate Wore blog identifies as being from H&M, and a white and blue bohemian dress from U.S.-based brand Veronica Beard.

“Like everyone else around the world, we’ve been praying for a speedy and victorious recovery for Princess Kate,” co-founder Veronica Miele Beard told Vogue of Kate appearing in the brand’s Castella Floral Boho Midi Dress. (She founded Veronica Beard with her nearly identically named sister-in-law, Veronica Swanson Beard, in 2009.) “We had no idea this video was being released or that she would be wearing one of our designs in it.”

The Castella dress is meant for casual, easygoing weekends spent outdoors with loved ones, according to Vogue — perfect for the Princess of Wales, 42, who has expressed in the past her affinity for nature and her deep love for her family.

“What is so striking to us is the powerful femininity and softness she expresses,” Swanson Beard said of the royal. “It was beautiful to see her wearing our dress and pausing, reflecting, living slowly, taking care, healing, loving her family and feeling blessed for her life.”

Both H&M and Veronica Beard are brands Kate’s sister-in-law, Meghan Markle, has shown an affinity for. Meghan wore Veronica Beard as recently as August, when she wore a sleeveless suit by the brand for an official welcome to Colombia alongside her husband, Prince Harry, on Aug. 15.

Following a planned abdominal surgery in January, Kate announced she had been diagnosed with cancer in a March 22 video announcement. When it came to dressing for her Sept. 9 video to tell the world she had completed chemotherapy, Kate tried her hand at some new sartorial choices, but also kept to the familiar — namely the color blue, which Kate wears frequently, as does the entire Wales family of five in coordinated looks. They all dressed in the shade for Easter 2023, and replicated the color palette this past June, when Kate made her first public appearance of 2024 at Trooping the Colour. (Her only other public appearance of the year so far was at Wimbledon on July 14, almost one month to the day after the Trooping the Colour appearance.) The coordinated outfits are likely a show of unity as Kate finishes her treatment and signify solidarity as a family.

Blue was not just Kate’s color theme for the video message but the entire Wales family of five — and even Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, got the style memo when they are seen briefly in the clip.

Blue represents calmness and responsibility, according to Vogue, and is also a patriotic choice, as blue is one of the colors on the UK’s Union Jack flag. For this recent video message in particular, blue might have been chosen, Vogue opines, not just as a show of family unity but because of what the color means to the Princess of Wales individually.

“I think it’s worth considering Catherine’s commitment to blue,” Elizabeth Holmes, who wrote the book HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style, told Vogue in 2023. “For the first official pictures of her as a royal bride-to-be, she wore a vivid blue wrap dress to match the famous sapphire and diamond engagement ring that had belonged to Princess Diana. She has since worn every shade of blue, from a soft and pale (one might even call it Cinderella blue) to a deep navy.”

As she enters a new season of life, it seems Kate’s affinity for blue will stay — and blue isn’t the only familiar fashion choice that makes its way into the clip. What Kate Wore also reported that Kate is wearing her Veja Esplar Sneakers, a style she has been known to wear over the years.

“Despite all that has gone before, I enter this new phase of recovery with a renewed sense of home and appreciation of life,” Kate said in the video. “William and I are so grateful for the support we have received and have drawn great strength from all those who are helping us at this time.”

She added as the video concluded, “Everyone’s kindness, empathy and compassion has been truly humbling. To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey — I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand. Out of darkness can come light, so let that light shine bright.”