It is a moment that has become the stuff of royal folklore.
The then unknown future Princess of Wales strides down the St Andrews catwalk aged 20 in a transparent lace dress.
Fellow St Andrews University undergraduate Prince William, in the audience, whispered to a friend: “Kate’s hot.”
The rest, of course, is history…
‘Something of a fluke’
Fife press photographer Walter Neilson, 57, will never forget the night he covered the student-run Don’t Walk fashion show in 2002, an event captured in The Crown finale which is out on Netflix on Thursday.
He said: “I was basically the last to know the significance of the picture.”
Walter was at the show on behalf of local hairdresser Sophie Butler to photograph the models whose hair she had styled.
And he could never have imagined one of the pictures he took that night would go on to be published worldwide more than 100,000 times.
Walter admits his iconic image of Kate Middleton was “something of a fluke”.
The former Glenrothes postman, who only took up photography in 1995, was doing a commission for Sophie when the image came about.
He almost said NO to covering the fashion show due to other commitments in Edinburgh.
However, he was persuaded to think again by Sophie’s husband, Tim Butler, who had been impressed with his work when covering a photoshoot at his restaurant in St Monans.
In an exclusive interview with The Courier last year to mark the 20th anniversary of the career-defining image, Walter revealed he still receives royalties for it.
And looking back on his old files, he rediscovered a range of pictures of Kate he took at the St Andrews show, which we have published in this piece.
“I still get income every month from that ‘iconic’ see-through dress photo,” says Walter.
“Somewhere in the world it’s being sold, it’s being used in a magazine or a book.
“I’m still getting income from it 20 years later, all thanks to me being the photographer for Sophie Butler who was the hairdresser for the fashion show that night.
‘Calls from all over the place’
“But at the time, no one knew who Kate was. The tabloid photographers were there for William.
“Once the other photographers had photographed William, they all left. I just stayed because I was working with the hairdresser.
“We’d heard a rumour he was there to see someone – one of the models – but no one knew who she was.”
As speculation grew about William’s girlfriend, and having photographed everyone on the catwalk, Walter recalls how he was initially selling front page photographs to German magazines that weren’t even of Kate Middleton.
He soon started getting phone calls from American TV channels at 3am asking to use his “iconic” photograph.
It wasn’t until a while after the fashion shoot, however, when Kate and Wills were apparently living together in St Andrews, that his ‘dress’ photograph became highly sought after.
He said: “I was getting calls from all over the place. I was scanning through the archives.
“It was my first digital camera and very low resolution, but it still managed to make it in magazines.
“I’ve actually got four photographs of her on the catwalk.
“There’s one of her wearing a jumper, which is ghastly. But the see through dress was the one.
“Apparently there was meant to be a skirt but she pulled it up.”
How much did Walter make for Kate Middleton fashion show?
He had never considered how many times the photo had been reproduced until eight years ago when a journalist in Kirkcaldy asked him.
“I went back through all the receipts and invoices, and credits,” he recalled.
“It was over 100,000 which over 20 years isn’t that much.
“But it’s something I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t been there for Sophie Butler. It was totally extra income.
“For the first couple of months, people were paying £1,000 for a front page in a general magazine.
“Nowadays it’s more difficult to keep tabs on its use when it’s ‘out there’ on the internet.
“But one thing I probably shouldn’t have done was give it to an agency.
“There was another photographer who photographed William and Kate in St Andrews at another event, and he kept the monies all for himself.
“He told me after, ‘Don’t ever give it to an agency because they’ll give it to another agency and by the time it comes back to you’ll be getting 10%’. It was a learning curve.”
Walter has never met Kate Middleton officially.
He once tried to speak to her in the street after explaining he had taken her photograph for Sophie Butler.
Kate was on the committee that helped organise the show, Walter recalls, and she had even taken photos to help promote it.
He says THAT picture was “easily the most iconic” he’s ever taken.
It helped him get more work. A lot of editors in London had his number, and they’d phone up if they needed something from the Fife area. Sometimes, however, Walter would turn work down.
“They’d phone up and say ‘we’ve heard a rumour that William is going to be in Anstruther today’ and I’d say ‘No, I’m not going on wild goose chases’.”
Wills and Kate’s secret appearance
He laughs though when he thinks back to the 2003 fashion show that took place a year later at the Fairmont Hotel outside St Andrews.
“Just about every newspaper in Scotland had sent a reporter and photographer because rumour was Kate and Wills would attend,” he says.
“I went as a guest of Sophie Butler. There was no sign of the royals, but at the very end, when most guests had left, Wills and Kate walked down the atrium steps.
“I grabbed my camera and a royal bodyguard grabbed me and another stood inches away from my lens.
“They had been sitting in a bar all night overlooking the catwalk. Now that would have been a moneymaking photo!”
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