'I didn't know that dress would be worn on a windy runway!' Kate's favourite designer Jenny Packham on why she'll add more weights to her hemlines from now on

British designer Jenny Packham is the Duchess's go-to dressmaker
The Londoner's Mayfair boutique is in a former bank
Changing room for private clients is inside the old bank vault
Average cost of a bespoke dress is £2,000 to £3,000

PUBLISHED: 13:30 EST, 27 September 2012 | UPDATED: 15:02 EST, 27 September 2012

Forget topless photographs in French magazines.

It's those flyaway hemlines worn on windy airport runways Kate should be most concerned about.

Now the Duchess of Cambridge's favourite dressmaker, London's Jenny Packham - the woman behind the infamously feather-light yellow frock that almost cost the elder Middleton sister her modesty at Calgary Airport - has revealed she'll be weighting down the royal hemline from now on.

The Duchess arrives in Yellowknife, Canada,wearing a summer yellow Jenny Packham dress, and strides down the runway at Calgary Airport.

The Jenny Packham dress, not weighted sufficiently in the hemline, flies up in the runway wind, revealing a little more than was ever intended.

Kate wore a specially designed Jenny Packham primrose yellow shift dress during her tour of Canada, and had a slight wardrobe malfunction on the windy runway at Calgary Airport.

'I had a little handwritten letter from a lady in Wisconsin passionately criticising me for the primrose yellow shift dress I made for the duchess,' Packham, who was born in Southampton, told London's Evening Standard.

'She said didn't I know about putting weights around the bottom of a hem so it can't blow up?

'Well, I didn't know it was going to be worn on a windy runway - but I did think maybe in future I will put in more weighting, just in case...'

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The Duchess suffered a similar sartorial slip-up on the runway at Brisbane airport as she and her husband Prince William were returning home from their Diamond Jubilee tour of the Far East and South Pacific.

This time she was wearing not a Packham creation but a floral dress by Project D, the label of Danni Minogue and Tabitha Somerwet Webb.

SOME ROYAL WARDROBE TIPS FIT FOR A QUEEN-IN-THE-MAKING

Queen Elizabeth takes tailored measures to ensure her skirt always knows its place.

Perhaps Kate would benefit from the sage advice of her grandmother-in-law.

Queen Elizabeth herself is reported to be a fan of having tiny lead weights sewn into the hemlines of her skirts and dresses to save her from embarrassment of this type.

The monarch also ensures all her dresses and skirts are made made with underskirts of a tighter circumference than normal. That way there is no chance of them lifting above knee-height.

Similarly, to stop her getting too warm when she is on official business, the Queen insists on loose clothing.

All her clothes are made of natural fibres, and Angela Kelly, her personal assistant and curator of the royal wardrobe, ensures that a duplicate for every outfit is close to hand.

That way. if something is spilled on her clothes or there is any other mishap, Her Majesty can discreetly change into a new set without anyone knowing.

No item of the Queen's wardrobe is sent to a dry cleaner — all clothes are hand-washed, steamed and pressed by one of her three dressers to avoid any unpleasant chemical smells.

Kate chose this duck-egg blue dress, one of two she wore by Jenny Packham on the tour, to a lunch with the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The Duchess of Cambridge pays her respect to war dead of both WWI and WWII in Singapore wearing a Jenny Packham dress.

Kate wore Jenny Packham's duck-egg blue pleated dress in Malaysia, left, and Singapore, right, during the Diamond Jubilee tour.

Back in London, Packham's flagship boutique is on the site of a former bank in Mayfair.

Indeed, the private dressing room - where clients such as the Duchess of Cambridge and Hollywood actresses including Kate Winslet, Elizabeth Hurley and Angelina Jolie are presented with their bespoke clothes - is a windowless room inside a former vault.

The place is full of scented candles, flowers and zebra-print furniture.

The Duke and Duchess at the 10th annual ARK dinner in Kensington, to which Kate wore a rose sequinned Jenny Packham gown costing £3,835.

Kate and William at the Olympic concert at the Royal Albert Hall, to which she wore Packham's emerald green gown.

Kate wearing two Jenny Packham gowns to events in London alongside her husband, Prince William.

Packham - who also designed the emerald green floor-length dress the Duchess wore to the Olympic concert at the Royal Albert Hall, two of the dresses she wore on her recent Jubilee tour in Singapore, and a pale grey floral summer dress worn in Los Angeles last year - does not sell the designs she has made for the young royal.

Each and every one of them are bespoke, designed for Kate alone.

'We're not Reiss,' said Packham, who admits she is not high fashion and doesn't 'feel the need to be quirky or avant garde'.

Still, business has gone up by 40 per cent in the past 18 months thank to the 'Duchess effect'.

And anyone who does wish to buy one of Packham's non-bespoke, off-the-rack creations must be prepared to part with anything from £2,000 to £3,000.

Kate wearing an orchid-print Packham dress to the National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where they viewed for the first time an orchid named after Princess Diana.

The Duchess of Cambridge at the first engagement in Singapore, wearing a Jenny Packham orchid-print dress.

Kate in Packham's orchid-print dress in the Far East

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As Queen in training, Catherine's beginning to seem like a slow learner. I think they are a glamourous couple, truly in love, and do a fine job representing Britain abroad. Maybe it's a matter of a more experienced staff and tea with Granny and Carol Middleton to explain How It's Done

- Greybirdk , FairfaxVA, 28/9/2012 16:10

Click to rate Rating 3

nvrat: and you should be proud to represent the citizenship of the United States. You'd be surprised how often we hear your fellow citizens telling us how we should enjoy our new royal family. We thank you kindly for your excellent advice. When will you be getting one? Well, and I mean this in a warm, special relationship kind of way, shut up then.

- me , here, United Kingdom, 28/9/2012 14:46

Click to rate Rating 2

Sorry but you would think a future Queen consort would know better than to go commando wearing a floaty dress!

- Twentyyearoldfemale1 , England, United Kingdom, 28/9/2012 14:45

Click to rate Rating 27

Those dresses are absolutley stunning

- minnie mouse , manchester UK, 28/9/2012 14:15

Click to rate Rating 20

Normally I have no interest in royalty but, Kate is one gorgeous gal and you Britts should be proud of her and Prince William. They are young, attractive, ambitious, lively and make a beautiful couple. Just because they enjoy life and do things that offend older people or goes against some royal code does not make her and William a disgraceful couple. Hell, you people should enjoy their world wide popularity, support and endorse them in every way. In time they will become like Queen E. and then what...? the alternative would be to send you the Obama`s, if you are interested then you could really be embarrassed.

- nvrat , Carson City, 28/9/2012 13:52

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Me,here - you are right. Perfect job for an exhibitionist.

- Jackied , Leeds, 28/9/2012 13:49

Click to rate Rating 15

Britain is blessed to have Kate as our future Queen. She seems like a lovely lady.

- Laurence of Pewsey , Pewsey, 28/9/2012 12:14

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Did you have to wait for permission to print her legs DM...?!

- Jah Live , London, 28/9/2012 12:07

Click to rate Rating 26

The Queen's many years of experience in this area may help Catherine with her lovely but light weight dresses. I'm sure the Queen had this worked out many years ago. The Queen doesn't seem to let too many things bother her. And her clothes should be the least of her worries. I do admire how she handles public problems. I doubt I could manage even with a life time of practice. The Queen deserves an attagirl on this one.

- Pa gurl , Glenside Pa, United States, 28/9/2012 11:42

Click to rate Rating 27

"there's nothing offensive with the occasional flash of leg". It's not the leg. It's the backside and, as they say, if you keep doing something it's no longer a mistake. Maybe it's a mistake when you're fourteen, not when you're thirty, you're educated and expensively advised, you're one of the most photographed people in the world, and getting dressed is your full-time job, for which you trained full-time for 10 years and, lastly, you represent an entire country (and this is paid for, by the country). But I agree, she has fabulous legs.

- me , here, United Kingdom, 28/9/2012 11:37

Click to rate Rating 33

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