Princess Kate Pairs Zara with Chanel for Rugby World Cup Match in Marseille

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 17 October 2023

The Princess of Wales stepped out at the Rugby World Cup in Marseille, France on Sunday in a mix of high-low fashion, wearing another of what has become her signature blazers to attend the game between England and Fiji. (Kate is patron of the Rugby Football Union and Rugby Football League.)

For the occasion, Kate brought out a white tweed Zara jacket—a rewear, which seems to be a trend in and of itself for her lately. (She previously wore the double-breasted blazer to a school visit back in February.) She paired the jacket—which featured shoulder pads and textured gold buttons—with wide-legged black Roland Mouret trousers and a black Chanel Mini Flap bag; she accessorized with a Cartier watch and Lenique Louis gold hoop earrings. Kate rarely wears Chanel, but does own two other purses from the brand, Page Six reports, including a black wallet-on-a-chain and a burgundy top-handled style. Kate’s late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, also preferred Chanel handbags, and carried several black quilted styles from the label over the years.

Zara Double Breasted Textured Weave Jacket

Chanel Mini Flap Bag

Lenique Louis Large Gold Spine Hoops Earrings

White blazers have emerged as Kate’s go to for England rugby matches—she chose a white Alexander McQueen pantsuit for a game back in September—and she wore a different Zara blazer (red this time) for an engagement that same month, which she once again paired with black trousers.

Sunday’s outfit was in keeping with her recent trend of wearing pantsuits and separates instead of her signature midi dresses and tailored coats, a pattern she adopted in early September and has carried through since. And it seems that others at the game had a similar idea: Lady Hilary Beaumont, the wife of World Rugby chairperson Sir Bill Beaumont, was seated just one seat away from Kate and wore an almost identical white jacket, proving that even princesses sometimes experience the dreaded faux pas of accidentally wearing the same outfit as someone else. (Beaumont, for her part, paired her white blazer with white pants.) Neither Kate nor Beaumont seemed to react to the twinning moment, and both looked great.

And, just as Kate’s outfit was a win, England emerged victorious over Fiji, winning the game 30-24.

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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