Kate Middleton at Private Tour of Buckingham Palace Exhibit with Queen

Here are the first photos of the Duchess of Cambridge and Queen Elizabeth at the opening of the dress exhibit at Buckingham Palace today. We kind of love the fact that QEII took one look at the headless mannequin and proclaimed, "It's made to look very creepy." Awesome. And she's kinda right.

We'll get back to you on Kate's simple neutral shift, which has a drapey (that is a technical term) V-neck and three-quarter length sleeves. Kate's wearing her Jimmy Choo Lovely pumps and that mystery diamond disk necklace {UPDATE: The Duchess' pave necklace is by Asprey London}. The dress looks like Joseph, very close to the Vanessa dress that Kate wore in Charlottetown in colour, fabric and feel. We haven't found the exact dress, though, so we're still on the case!

{UPDATE: See below for dress details.}

And can we say, right off the bat, that although we love you Kate, we're not feeling this dress. C'mon KMidd, we try to defend you when peeps say you're boring and predictable, but you're making our job a lot harder when you show up in dresses like this. Classic, yes, and in any other shade we would have been on board, but this nude business is so...boring. Really, there's no other word for it. Yawn, snooze--okay, guess we found a few more words. Especially next to the Queen looking like a fresh garden in a riotous floral pattern and lipstick!

This Joseph 3/4 length dress is similar to Kate's, although obviously her's has a deeper V-neckline with more drape (almost looks like she pinned it) and the fabric is different.

The Joseph Athena crepe dress is also similar in colour and fabric.

UPDATE:

Above is a photo of "the" dress - the Joseph Scala Crepe dress,

currently on sale on eBay. {Thanks to Tamara for the find!}

Photos: Clarence House and The Daily Mail