The Duchess of Cambridge showed off her skills at bicycle maintenance in a designer suit today on a visit to one of Holland's most deprived neighbourhoods.
Not many women would attempt to fix an oily bike in haute couture Catherine Walker suit but the Kate seemed unfazed by the prospect getting dirty.
The 34-year-old - on her first solo royal overseas visit - helped children fixing up bikes on a visit to Rotterdam.
She was there to see if the UK can learn from a project teaching deprived young people practical skills.
She went to the Bouwkeet Makers Space, which straddles the adjoining Bospolder and Tussendijken neighbourhoods in Rotterdam to see a new charity-funded project designed to keep youths off the streets by teaching them manufacturing, maintenance and repair skills.
The project, housed in a formerly derelict post office covering 1,000 square metres, uses an American idea - Makers Spaces are usually places where people pay to use machinery - and is trying to develop it into a scheme to combat high rates of crime and unemployment in the area.
She helped children in the bicycle repair workshop by holding their frames while they adjusted the wheels, brakes and gears.
Later she joined children making Lego robots and had a go at getting one to race along the floor before watching one boy, Driss Ben Mira, 9, demonstrate Meganoid, the large robot he had made.
Driss got the robot to wave his arms but struggled to get it to walk for Kate, who was still impressed. "That's amazing," she said, before smiling and shaking hands with Meganoid. "Very nice to meet you," she told the robot.
Daniel White, a Dutch national with British parents who works as the project director, explained that the centre, which opened in August last year, was unique in Holland.
Asked whether the Duchess was interested in helping to create similar centres in Britain, he said: "Yes, I think so."
