Kate Middleton Steps Out for Stylish Away Day in Wales Highlighting Family History

 

Kate Middleton Steps Out for Stylish Away Day in Wales Highlighting Family History

Kate Middleton is showcasing traditional and new fashion designs on a visit to Wales.

The Princess of Wales, 44, headed to the far west of the country on Tuesday, Feb. 3, to see a woolen mill, which creates unique blankets and other products using longstanding practices. Later, she plans to see a family-owned denim company that is creating bespoke jeans for the modern designer market.

The visits are part of Princess Kate’s ongoing immersion in the textile and fashion industry as she highlights the heritage skills and modern work techniques that go into creating beautiful, original garments.

Princess Kate started the day at Melin Tregwynt, about 260 miles west of London, which dates from 1841 and is still employing over 40 local people who create woollen blankets, scarves and cushions that are sold across the world.

She was taken around by the mill’s director, Louise Clarke, and shown how the mill is preserving traditional craft skills by drawing on generations of expertise among its staff to mentor and inspire the latest young apprentices.

Kate Middleton in Melin Tregwynt.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

Kate spent time with weavers following the process from design to the finished product and, at the loom, learned about the traditional skills behind the creation of the company’s Welsh double cloth weaving. That is a textile technique producing reversible, thick blankets with inverted patterns on each side.

The mill also keeps a large archive of traditional patterns, which are carefully preserved and faithfully revived so that the craft can be passed on to future apprentices and weavers.

Clarke says Princess Kate "had a keen interest in what everybody was doing and why and how each process affected the next."

Clarke adds, “She was fantastic with everybody. She’s so easy to talk to. Sometimes I get a bit nervous about visits, but today, I’ve been really relaxed. From the minute she came, it was like chatting to someone who had just popped in."

“You could tell she really wanted to be here; it wasn’t just ticking a box," the managing director continues.

When the Princess of Wales was taken into the “mending shed,” she picked out some designs that she clearly had seen in her research. Clarke adds, “She had a go at the mending, she started the loom, and she tied a knot. So by the time we came out of mending, I said to her, ‘You could be our new apprentice.’ She had a go at a few things!”

Noting that Kate has been to Scotland and parts of England as part of the same mission, Clarke adds, “It’s all about making sure we are still making things in this country in the next 50 years.”

The day is part of Princess Kate’s determination to celebrate the heritage, creativity and craftsmanship of Welsh textile manufacturers and the textile industry’s role as part of the U.K.’s cultural and creative voice. In January, she visited a factory in Scotland during her away day with Prince William. There, she got the chance to show off her creative skills by weaving tartan on a loom at the Radical Weavers Charity in Stirling.

Kate Middleton at Melin Tregwynt.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

Kate’s second outing on Feb. 3 is to a more modern company, Hiut Denim, that creates designer jeans once worn by her sister-in-law, Meghan Markle.

In January 2018, the Duchess of Sussex, 44, helped put Hiut Denim on the map when she wore the brand's high-waisted Dina skinny jeans for an official tour of Cardiff with her then-fiancé, Prince Harry. The fashion statement catapulted the brand to global attention and drove a huge demand for orders that cofounder David Hieatt credited to the "Meghan Markle effect."

Kate Middleton visits Wales on Feb. 3, 2026.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

At her second stop at Hiut, Kate will be shown the process of making the jeans and learn more about the sustainability and craftsmanship, including the "Déjà Blue" initiative that sees the company taking back old jeans that are repaired and resold in return for money off another new pair. In a unique touch, the craftspeople who make the jeans always sign the inside of one of the pockets so users know who created each one.

Princess Kate has a longstanding interest in the textiles industry, something that may have its roots through her family links.

Her paternal ancestors were the owners of wool manufacturer and merchant William Lupton & Co, in Leeds, Yorkshire.

In September 2023, she headed to AW Hainsworth, a family-owned heritage textile mill on the outskirts of the city. Lupton & Co. was sold to AW Hainsworth in 1958. Kate’s great-grandfather, Noel Middleton, who married Olive Lupton in 1914, was a director of the company. Noel and Olive had three sons, including Peter Middleton, Kate’s grandfather and dad to her father, Michael Middleton.

In January 2025, the royal visited a woolen garment factory in another part of Wales. At the Corgi factory, in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, she was shown then how the company, which started in 1892 supplying socks to local coalminers, has branched out into creating knitwear.

Getting a flavor of what the factory produces, Princess Kate was taken around the design team to be shown their creative process, especially how Corgi's staff collaborate with world-leading brands. Kate also spent time on the factory floor to meet and hear from the production team as they showed her some of the technical processes they employ.

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