Kate's On Right Side Of History

Long line of royals favour a profile pose

- Emily Retter

While the photo that snatched the headlines this weekend was Kate V V at 40 in sizzling red, it was the subtler profile shot in white which spoke a thousand words about the Duchess's royal status.

While her profile is delicate, her expression soft as the tulle of her dress and her curls whimsically blowing in the breeze of a wind machine, there is a strength about the romantic photograph that shouts queen-in-waiting.

The pose is far from new. It is one which has been used repeatedly down the decades to capture a young princess or duchess coming of age, their elegant footing firm on the path to queendom.

As well as by female monarchs well established in their reign.

Queen Victoria, Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Diana, even Princess Grace of Monaco, not to mention the Queen, have struck similar poses.