The Princess of Wales has made her first public appearance since Remembrance Sunday. While Queen Camilla skipped out at the last minute, Kate joined Prince William today at the official greeting for Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and one of his three wives, Sheikha Jawaher. We also got a confirmation that Kate will linger at Buckingham Palace after the official welcome ceremony, and she’ll join her husband at the lunch. But she isn’t going to the state dinner at the palace this evening (Camilla is going though). Per the Mail, Kate is “carrying out even more royal duties than previously planned at today’s state visit in London amid what is being seen as a ‘positive sign’ in royal circles.”

For her first appearance in weeks, Kate wore a Sarah Burton-for-McQueen coat dress in burgundy. She paired it with a matching hat from Sahar Millinery. They also let Kate wear some Royal Collection jewels – she’s wearing QEII’s Bahrain pearl drop earrings and the Japanese Pearl choker (the infamous vadge necklace). She also managed to wrangle her sapphire engagement ring back, after the ring went missing for much of the year.

Obviously, Kate looks fine, although I also think she looks like she possibly took an early-morning valium to get through the day. It also feels like there was pressure exerted somewhere to get Kate to come out for this. Some say that Kate has the power and she negotiated much fewer public outings. Some say Kate has been benched, and that she’s being told that she can’t do this or that. It’s probably a little of column A, a little of column B.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.