Holland Cooper's Founder Says Kate's First Outfit Brought 200 Missed Calls and She Thought Someone Died

LONDON — The designer behind Holland Cooper said the first time Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore the brand, her phone filled with about 200 missed calls and she briefly thought someone had died.

Jade Holland Cooper described the day on the podcast Olivia's House. "I remember looking down at my phone, and I had, like, 200 missed calls," she told host Olivia Atwood. "I thought, 'Oh my God, someone's died! What's happening?'" She called the experience amazing. "The first time she wore it, it was just, like, amazing. She's probably the only person globally you can't pay to wear something...so when she wears something, you know, she likes it, [and] she's picked it organically."

That day was in May 2021, in Scotland. Holland Cooper said Catherine wore two pieces from the label. "She wore our double-breasted blazer in the morning, and then she wore our trench coat on the red carpet in the evening, and it was just like this...supersonic day where the globe goes green, everyone's shopping all over the world."

"You're on every press article, every news coverage, there's 500 million fan accounts—like, it's crazy," she said. "They call it the 'Kate effect' for a reason. It's just like no one else really, and the fan accounts are so massive and so obsessive."

Holland Cooper was founded in 2008. The designer has described it as quintessentially British. "That's what I set out to do, is to create a lifestyle brand that represented British heritage," she said. Speaking to Forbes, she explained the "globe goes green" line: Kate wearing the brand "is a global blow up. When we're looking at our website page on the back end and you see all the dots as to where your customers are—the whole globe just goes green. It's a phenomena."

"There is nothing like it," she said, adding that seeing Catherine in the clothes felt "too good to be true. It's just unbelievable." A photograph of the princess in a Holland Cooper tartan trench is one "I'll cherish forever," she said. "To this day, [it's] one of the best moments of my career." Catherine has worn the brand again since, including a bodysuit in May 2026 and earlier appearances in 2025 and January 2026.

The pattern is older than Holland Cooper. On Nov. 16, 2010, the sapphire-blue Issa wrap dress Catherine wore to announce her engagement to Prince William sold out almost at once. Commentators have since put the annual value of the "Kate effect" to British fashion at about £1 billion, a figure repeated in coverage of royal style rather than a line item in the national accounts.

Shoe designer Camilla Elphick described the same day-of scramble. Catherine first wore her shoes in 2022 at a charity polo match. "It was a normal day at the office, and suddenly I got a flurry of calls from my mum and friends," Elphick told Harper's Bazaar UK. "I had no idea [Kate] was going to wear them. The phones didn't stop ringing all day. We've got a live chat on our website, and it just went off the scale—especially in America. At the time, the style was our most popular anyway, but when people saw Kate wearing it, it completely sold out."

Royal fashion commentator Eloise Moran told Forbes that a single appearance "can introduce a British label to a global audience overnight, and that's incredibly hard to buy. Beyond the immediate sales bump, what Kate really gives brands is credibility." The effect "makes the most impact" when it "feels completely authentic," Moran said. Catherine has become one of British fashion's best ambassadors "simply because she's so consistent. She doesn't chase trends or reinvent herself every season. Instead, she's championed the idea of building a wardrobe around beautifully made British pieces you'll wear again and again." "In an industry that's often obsessed with what's next, she's made longevity feel aspirational," Moran said.

Holland Cooper's account is the small-business version of that claim: no payment, no advance warning, a phone that looked like an emergency, and a website map that filled in. The princess's office does not confirm why a label is chosen. The designers' evidence is the calls, the sellouts and the repeat wears.