American journalists not happy about Royal visit dress code

Reporters who cover the White House in shirtsleeves will need to smarten up during the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to New York and Washington next month

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Credit: Photo: PA

America's famously-scruffy journalists are bristling after being reminded they will need to smarten up during the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to New York and Washington next month.

US reporters - who often cover the White House in shirtsleeves - have taken some umbrage to Buckingham Palace guidelines which direct journalists to dress smartly during Royal visits.

"Why should the United States' press corps — who barely bother to brush the muffin crumbs off their polo shirts before lobbing questions at the President of the United States — schlep extra pieces of clothing to work just so they can make small talk with a (perfectly nice-seeming) British air ambulance pilot-in-training and a former chain-store accessories buyer?" asked New York magazine.

Politico, a site covering Washington politics, noted: "Our much more refined brothers across the pond are apparently worried that the American press corps, with our pride of the haggard and ill-dressed journalists, won’t be appropriately attired when interacting with the royals."

The Duke and Duchess are arriving in New York on December 7 and rumoured to be meeting Jay-Z and Beyoncé - the closest America has to a Royal couple - at a basketball game. The Duke will then travel alone to Washington to attend an anti-corruption conference at the World Bank.

Palace guidelines state the journalists should wear smart attire at all times "out of respect" and warns that "casually dressed members of the media will be turned away".

A Palace spokeswoman confirmed that the guidelines would be in effect during the visit to the US but said there were no proactive reminders sent out to American reporters.

"We certainly didn't issue any directives but there is long-standing guidance that members of the media are expected to dress smartly out of respect for the occasion," she said.

It remains to be seen if reporters in the US will use the Duchess of Cambridge's full title or stick with "Kate Middleton", as she is better known in America.

The flare-up over Royal dress codes comes at perhaps a sensitive moment for reporters in Washington: earlier this week the US Senate felt the need to remind journalists not to walk backwards in the halls of Congress or to be so absorbed on their phones that they ran into people.