There’s a Symbolic Meaning Behind Kate Middleton’s Recent Obsession with Bows in Fashion

Royal fans knew that Kate Middleton wouldn't be attending many events this year amid her cancer treatment. Eagle-eyed fans noticed something about the outfits the Princess of Wales wore to the events she did attend: Many of the look incorporated bows.

Bethan Holt, fashion director at the Telegraph, explained in an interview with People that there might be a deeper meaning behind the bows.

“Over the last year, the bow is the one accessory that she’s repeatedly added and it’s totally transformed previous outfits into something that looks quite different,” Holt, said, calling Kate's look for Trooping the Colour in June "a safe option" but adding that "she had fun with it, upcycling it with the bow.”

The outfit—a white dress with black trim from Jenny Packham—was one Kate wore before, to a pre-coronation lunch last May. She gave the dress a whole new look by adding a statement bow to the neckline.

“It was a piece she already had in her wardrobe and she clearly felt very comfortable in it,” Holt said of Kate rewearing the dress.

As People notes, Kate continued the trend of rewearing past looks with added bows throughout the year. During a surprise visit to Southport in October, the royal re-wore a Whistles polka dot dress with a twist, tying the dress' belt as a bow at the neckline.

In November, Kate had a gorgeous, black velvet bow to a reworn Catherine Walker coatdress for Remembrance Sunday.

At her "Together at Christmas" concert at Westminster Abbey earlier this month, Kate added an affordable $25 velvet bow from British retailer (and Kate's former employer) Jigsaw (for whom she used to work) onto a red Alexander McQueen coat she's worn before.

The royal also incorporated bows in to her outfits for day one of The Amir of the State of Qatar's visit to the United Kingdom, with a bow in her hat, and in an appearance at Wimbledon in July, she accessorized her bright purple dress with a green and purple bow pin.

“I think bows are a bit of a perennial in lots of ways, but there is definitely a bow trend at the moment and she’s doing it in her own way,” Holt, author of The Duchess of Cambridge: A Decade of Modern Royal Style, explained, adding that Kate could be using the trend as a way of showing solidarity for a cause that's important to her husband, Prince William, who attended the Earthshot Prize Awards without her in South Africa in November. Sustainable fashion was a big theme at the event, and many of Kate's bow moments have come with outfits she's worn before to other events in the past.

"She already has a vast and extensive wardrobe, so why shouldn’t she be looking for ways to take existing pieces and re-imagine them?” she said, calling bows a 'very democratic, universal way to do that.”

“I think it also nods to William’s message about sustainability and his Earthshot project. He went to South Africa and did this whole week of wearing sustainable clothes and really making a big point of it, whereas this is a really relatable way of sending the same message, ie: wear what you already own and add one small thing to transform the look,” Holt added.