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07th Apr 2015
Kate Middleton can’t get a break. Not only does she suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum while pregnant, a debilitating condition accompanied by constant and gruelling nausea, but she gets all kinds of shade from Booker Prize-winning novelists.
In recent days Canadian treasure and writer Margaret Atwood, one of our all-time literary crushes, has decided to let it be known she does not rate the royal’s wardrobe.
?I think she dresses quite uneventfully,? said The Blind Assassin author at a Fashion and Fiction panel at the Victoria and Albert Museum. ?I think she’s watching her back. I think she probably has people who pretty much tell her what is appropriate for her to wear. I don’t think she’ll become the fashion plate that Diana was, and I think she’s probably doing that advisedly, wouldn’t you say??
Poor Kate. As she awaits the birth of her second child, Kate has enough to deal with. Never mind a serious dose of criticism from one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. While we would tend to agree that Kate plays it safe when it comes to fashion, the young mother does have to bear with a lot of global scrutiny. A pair of printed trousers and a midriff-baring top would just lead to a media onslaught.
However, this is not the first time Kate has been subject to rapier criticism from an award-winning novelist. In 2013, Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel infamously described Kate as a person ‘designed by a committee and built by craftsmen, with a perfect plastic smile and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and gloss-varnished? She looks like a nicely brought up young lady, with ?please? and ?thank you? part of her vocabulary.?
Now, in Maggie’s defence she did qualify her statements to say she wasn’t that invested in the Duchess of Cambridge’s sartorial dilemmas, ?To be honest with you, I haven’t paid that much attention? But why would I, really? Too old.?
How very Canadian.
Follow Jeanne Sutton on Twitter @jeannedesutun
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