This is why Kate Middleton almost always carries her bag in her left hand

published 11 February 2020

You might think a bag is just a bag, but when it comes to the royals, there is no such thing. For example, the Queen uses hers to signal to her staff when she's bored of talking to you, and Princess Diana used hers to hide her cleavage when coming out of cars, so that the paps wouldn't get the shot.

And if you've paid close attention to Kate Middleton, or even Meghan Markle, when she was still officially a royal, then you'll notice they almost always carry their clutch bags in their left hands at formal events, even though they are both right handed.

There is a simple reason behind this and it's all down to royal etiquette: it is so that they can have their right hand free to shake hands with guests or hosts.

Royal expert Myka Meier revealed on her Instagram account, 'When entering a room or event, handbags or briefcases are held in the LEFT hand so that your right hand stays open to meet, greet and shake hands! Prince Charles does this too!'

This of course works for another reason, if they don't particularly want to shake hands with people, they simply hold their bag with both hands, thus avoiding any obvious awkwardness.

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.

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