Once upon a time, it was rare to see Kate Middleton do the princess thing and wear a tiara. In fact, she didn’t wear one for more than two years after her 2011 royal wedding. But during the reign of King Charles III, she has been breaking out the historic gems more often, and on Tuesday, she wore a tiara for the second time in two weeks at the annual reception for Britain’s diplomatic corps. She arrived at the reception wearing the Queen Mary Lover’s Knot tiara and a pink gown by Jenny Packham.
During the event, she and Prince William posed for a formal photo with the king and Queen Camilla, which was later released as an official photo through Buckingham Palace. According to the BBC, this is an unusual move for the palace as they do not usually take official portraits during the diplomatic corps reception. Queen Camilla wore a white Bruce Oldfield gown and the Girls of Great Britain tiara for the second time, following her debut in the piece during the October banquet at Mansion House in the City of London. The tiara, which was an 1893 wedding present to Queen Mary from a group of women’s groups around Britain, was one of the late queen’s most frequently worn tiaras.
Princess Kate was last spotted in a tiara last month during a banquet honoring a state visit from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. In fact, Kate has been attending formal events so frequently in recent months that she even replicated a look she wore at the June royal wedding in Jordan. Once again, she paired the tiara with a pink Jenny Packham gown, a pair of earrings, often called the Greville Chandeliers, which once belonged to the late queen, and the sash reflecting her status as a Dame Grand Cross Royal Victorian Order.
The reappearance of the two tiaras is a sign that both Kate and Camilla are drawing from a much smaller portion of the late queen’s jewelry collection than might have been expected. According to royal jewelry expert Leslie Fields, both tiaras were a part of Elizabeth II’s personal collection during her life, as opposed to the crown collection which belongs to the state. Kate has worn the Queen Mary Lover’s Knot Tiara, which was also a favorite of Princess Diana, multiple times since 2015. For most of her marriage to Charles, Camilla opted for the Greville Tiara, which once belonged to the Queen Mother, but since the beginning of her husband’s reign last year, Camilla has pulled three different tiaras from her late mother-in-law’s collection, including the Girls of Great Britain, Burmese Ruby, and a sapphire tiara gifted by George VI.
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