Kate and William welcomed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender immediately after the presidential flight landed at Heathrow, thus officially kicking off the state visit.
The Princess of Wales looked flawless in a blue coat by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, with an elegant matching hat and earrings that belonged to Diana, a symbolic detail always much noted in royal protocol.
William, smiling and formal, led the couple in the initial greetings, while Kate maintained her distinctive trait: perfect posture, affable tone and controlled elegance, designed for institutional moments.
The welcome at Heathrow, deliberately sober but impeccable, was conceived as the first gesture of diplomatic closeness before the transfer to Windsor, where the entire royal ceremony would then come to life.
