Kate Middleton and Prince William stepped out for an in-person engagement today at Waterloo Station in London to see a photo from the Hold Still exhibit there and speak to the
subject of the picture. The Duchess helped select the photos included in the series, which depicts life in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Duchess dressed very much for the fall season, opting to wear a long red coat with black heels and a black purse. Her most controversial move? Her and Prince William's decision not to wear masks the entire time, even when they were less than six feet apart from others there:
Kate did wear a mask for some parts of the visit, exiting her car in a white floral one and wearing it while she spoke to the photo's subject, pharmacist Joyce Duah, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Wearing masks when interacting with people not in your household (especially in cases where you are keeping less than six feet apart from them) is recommended as masks significantly help prevent the spread of COVID-19, per the World Health Organization. The UK generally requires mask use in most public indoor settings; the Duke and Duchess were outside for this engagement. (That hasn't stopped them from not wearing masks indoors during other events.)
Kate and William debuted the final 100 portraits for the Hold Still exhibit on their Instagram in September, by the way. "Introducing, the final 100 portraits," their Kensington Palace Instagram team wrote. "In May this year, in collaboration with the@NationalPortraitGallery, we invited people of all ages, from across the UK to submit a photographic portrait which they had taken during lockdown. The images present a unique record of our shared and individual experiences during this extraordinary period of history, conveying humor and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope."
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