Kate Middleton Debuts New End of Summer Haircut at Rugby World Cup Match — See the Style

Kate Middleton is starting September with a new hairstyle!

On Saturday, the Princess of Wales attended the Rugby World Cup 2023 Group Stage match between England and Argentina in Marseille, France. While her crisp white Alexander McQueen suit and Mappin & Webb earrings and necklace looked familiar (she sported the same combination at the 2022 Commonwealth Games with Prince William and Princess Charlotte last summer), she wore her hair in a new way.

Princess Kate, 41, arrived at Stade de Marseille with face-framing layers and subtle curtain bangs, rocking a new middle part look. And while she still had some highlights, her hair hue appeared slightly darker than during the summer months.

While the Princess of Wales stepped out the day before in Wales to honor Queen Elizabeth on the first anniversary of her death, her hair was swept into a chignon and topped with a hat, disguising the new style. In a touching tribute, Kate pinned on a pair of pearl and diamond earrings that previously belonged to her grandmother-in-law for the service at the historic St. Davids Cathedral.

"Pearls are one of the very few jewelry items you can wear in mourning and are inextricably linked with Queen Elizabeth and her personal jewelry legacy," Bethan Holt, author of The Queen: 70 Years of Majestic Style, previously told PEOPLE. "It's a symbol of mourning a monarch but also a grandmother or great-grandmother."

When Princess Kate and Prince William made a second stop at Câr-Y-Môr Seaweed Farm in Wales later that day, they changed from their church clothes into casual outfits, but Kate kept her hair up. The princess also swapped Queen Elizabeth’s pearls for a pair of gold hoops to check out Wales’ first "regenerative ocean farm" and a key partner of Notpla, the sustainable packaging start-up and winner of William’s 2022 Earthshot Prize for "Build a Waste-Free World."

Through the summer, Princess Kate often wore her hair with a side part, styled straight and cascading down her back. She had her tresses this way while filming for Mike Tindall’s The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast at Windsor Castle with Prince William and Princess Anne, appearing in a special episode in honor of the Rugby World Cup that dropped on Saturday. Prince William, Princess Kate and Princess Anne are the patrons of the Welsh Rugby Union, Rugby Football Union (of England) and Scottish Rugby Union, respectively, and Zara Tindall’s husband was an ideal interviewer! Mike, 44, is a retired pro rugby player who helped England win the Rugby World Cup in 2003.

While the 50-minute chat was mostly all about sports, Princess Anne’s son-in-law shed light on Kate's personality behind the scenes.

"I'm not going to say you're uber competitive," he said before pausing to give a nod indicating that she really was.

Princess Kate replied coyly, "I'm not competitive at all."

"I've seen her play beer pong!" Mike said.

While Kate’s hair looked long on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby like it did in July — from Prince William’s Royal Charity Polo Day to Wimbledon — she subtly changed her hair around this time last year as well. In September 2022, the royal stepped out with shorter, layered tresses than she had had over the summer to attend a preview day with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at the Lambrook School.

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Kate and William’s children enrolled as new pupils at the private prep after the family relocated from London to Windsor, and the preview day photos were released to mark the milestone of a new school.

While the Wales kids headed back to the classroom last week, the big day did not include a public photo op. Though the Prince and Princess of Wales’ three children have starred in first day of school portraits in years past, images aren’t released each school year. That's because William and Kate treat school as a private area so that their kids can grow up in as pressure-free an atmosphere as possible.