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Prince William and Kate Middleton had reportedly been on a date before that famous fashion show. They reportedly grabbed drinks over the 2001 Christmas break. Back then, they were just first-year university students.

Royal biographer Ingrid Seward wrote for the Daily Mail, “What no one knew back then—but I can exclusively reveal now—is that the couple had already been on a date.” William reportedly drove for over an hour to pick Middleton up from her parents’ place in Bucklebury. 

Then, they headed to the Old Boot Inn in nearby Stanford Dingley. At the time, William and Middleton were both studying art history at St Andrews. Middleton stuck with it and eventually graduated with a degree in the subject. William, though, wasn’t really enjoying the course. 

According to Seward, he was bored with the classes and worried that quitting would make him look like “a loser.” Middleton apparently told him to look at other subjects. The two then sat down and talked through his options. William later switched from art history to geography. 

Seward called it “a crucial shift in their fledgling relationship.” She said Middleton wasn’t just someone William found attractive. He also saw her as someone he could trust and ask for advice. A few months later, Middleton ended up on the runway at St Andrews. 

She walked in the university’s Don’t Walk charity fashion show in late March 2002. The student-run event took place at the St Andrews Bay Hotel. William was there too. According to British Vogue, he paid £200 for a front-row seat. 

Then Middleton walked out in that famous sheer dress. William turned to his friend Fergus Boyd and reportedly said, “Wow, Fergus, Kate’s hot!” Yves Saint Laurent reportedly sponsored the show, although the detail comes from Seward’s recent account. 

Middleton wore a sheer black-and-gold outfit with blue-ribbon trim. Underneath, she had a black bandeau bra and bikini bottoms. St Andrews student Charlotte Todd designed the outfit for an assignment called The Art of Seduction. Todd didn’t choose Middleton to wear it. 

“I didn’t know who Kate Middleton was and I didn’t put her in it. It was just pure chance!” Todd later told People. The outfit cost less than $50 to make. Todd had originally designed it as a skirt, not a dress. Years later, it became one of the best-known pieces linked to William and Middleton’s university romance. The dress went up for auction in 2011. That was also the year the two married.

It sold for $125,000. Todd said she was “thrilled” to have played a small part in their story. “A small part of me will always be part of royal history. It’s madness!” she told the outlet. By fall 2002, William and Middleton were living together as roommates. Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale also lived with them.

The setup helped keep their relationship under wraps. Their romance didn’t become public until years later. Seward also compared their relationship with William’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The royal couple married on July 29, 1981. Before their wedding, they had spent time together on roughly 13 occasions. 

However, William and Middleton’s university relationship looked very different. “Catherine and William were seeing each other that many times in a week,” Seward wrote. William wanted to handle his relationship differently from his parents’ marriage.

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