Kate Middleton Fashion: Duchess Praised By Designers For Being An Outfit Repeater

Kate Middleton has never been short on style, famously mixing affordable items with designer-name pieces from Alexander McQueen to Jenny Packham for all of her royal obligations. Despite her affinity for high fashion, Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge is also well known for being an outfit repeater, a habit praised by many and frowned upon by a select few.

“I’m sorry, but if I had that job, I would only wear [a dress] once,” E! “Fashion Police” critic Kelly Osbourne said of the duchess in 2011 after Middleton was spotted wearing a coat dress from 2006 to the wedding of Prince William's cousin, Zara Phillips. “If I am going to be the future bloody queen of England, I’m going to wear that dress once because I’m giving up the rest of my life, all of my privacy. At least I can get a new dress every day!”

While the 32-year-old duchess’s recycled styles (many of which sell out within minutes after appearing on her petite frame) may rattle some, Middleton can rest easy knowing that at least two big-name designers have her back.

“I have all respect for what Kate Middleton is doing,” French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, 51, told British Vogue of her style choices last month.

English designer Dame Vivienne Westwood spoke out about Middleton’s recycled wardrobe in February 2013, saying she wished the duchess would repeat her designer garb more often. “It would be great if she wore the same clothes over and again,” she said. “That’s very good for the environment and it would send out a very nice message.”

Another person on Middleton’s side? U.S. and U.K. “Plain Jane” host Louise Roe. “Her recycling is really smart,” Roe told ABC News in 2011. “It does send out the message that, ‘I’m one of you, it’s perfectly all right to reuse your clothes.’ If she were prancing around in $1,000 dresses that she only wore once, I think the criticism would be much louder.”

Middleton most recently repeated a blue LK Bennett number, first worn at an Art Room charity event in West London in February, while attending the Tower of London’s World War I centennial poppy installation alongside William Tuesday.