Here’s the Trick Kate Middleton Uses to Look So Good in Photos
A royal style expert gives the scoop.


Miranda Holder, royal style expert, speaking on TikTok: “Have you ever wondered why Kate Middleton looks so stunning in her photographs?”
This writer, no makeup on and sipping coffee: “Pretty much daily.”
Holder: “Because she does—every single time.”
It’s true: Kate rarely, if ever, photographs badly. But, according to Holder, there’s a trick behind that, and the London-based expert is filling us in on how we, too, can take better photos.
“The Duchess of Cambridge has had some media training, and I’m going to share a cheeky little style hack that she uses,” she says, per The Sun. “She has simply been trained to always keep her chin parallel to the ground. She doesn’t tilt it down, she doesn’t tilt it up—and that ensures a flattering photograph every single time.”
*immediately starts practicing*
After her clip went viral, Holder came back to answer criticism that Kate always photographs well because she’s “stunning to begin with,” according to The Sun. But Holder stood firm.
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“And a whole load of you have come back saying ‘No, it’s just because she’s good-looking, and she’s wealthy and she’s got stylists.' That’s not true.”
Holder says even the most traditionally beautiful among us can photograph poorly.
“So I can tell you from years of working with supermodels, celebrities, and models, that you can be the most gorgeous person in the world and still get a horrific photograph,” she says. “So it really is all about your relationship to the camera and where you place your jaw. If it’s too low, it’s not good. If it’s too high—definitely not good. We don’t want to see your nostrils.”
Time to go road test this one.
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.
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