Speed is of the essence

It’s been impossible to escape the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are on tour this week: all the newspapers have covered it, regardless of their political leanings, while the internet has lit up with photographs of Kate in her brightly coloured Caribbean wardrobe. For any journalist reporting on the story, credits for Kate’s clothes, shoes and accessories can’t land a moment too soon: speed is of the essence.

So I was quite surprised when one fashion brand took not just hours but a full day to send an email officially confirming that an item worn by the Duchess was one of theirs.

Was this particular communication just not a priority? Surely it must have been. Nobody shifts stock like Kate. Even the most successful brand can’t afford not to capitalise on her patronage. 

By the time the confirmation email reached journalists’ inboxes, they’d already verified the information via the hive mind of the internet. Useful as this hive mind is, it’s never as assuredly accurate as official confirmation from the source, nor does it tend to include important details such as price, stockist and whether the item is currently available – all of which readers love to know.

We live in strange times indeed when the fastest people to tag Kate’s clothes aren’t PRs but superfans, whose fan accounts proliferate on social media. Yet here we are.