Kate Middleton has been labelled a "disappointment" in her approach to jewellery by former Vogue editor Suzy Menkes. Photos / Getty Images
Kate Middleton has been labelled a "disappointment" in her approach to jewellery by former Vogue editor Suzy Menkes. Photos / Getty Images
Ever since she arrived at St James’s Palace in November 2010 with the late Princess Diana’s engagement ring on her finger, the Princess of Wales has been afforded rare access to the historic jewellery in the royal vaults.
For her wedding, she borrowed the Cartier Halo tiara. For the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s funerals, she wore the monarch’s pearl choker. She has also worn the Nizam of Hyderabad necklace, an emerald choker that Diana once wore as a headpiece, the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara and the Lotus Flower tiara.
It sounds like a lot – and the collective value of those pieces is many millions of pounds. But over the course of 11 years as a working royal, it’s a relatively modest selection. Perhaps that’s why Suzy Menkes, veteran fashion editor, Vogue contributor and author of The Royal Jewels, believes that Kate doesn’t embrace the privilege as much as she should.
On many occasions we’ve seen the Princess enjoy wearing the kind of costume jewellery pieces that the rest of us might buy on the high street. She teamed a pair of £17.99 ($37.49) Zara chandelier earrings with an Alexander McQueen gown at the Baftas in January. She popped on a pair of £45 Milina earrings to watch the Wimbledon men’s final this month.
The Princess’s jewellery box holds gems from Accessorize, Anthropologie, H&M and J.Crew, as well as smaller brands such as Soru and Simone Rocha. Sézane is a particular favourite – Kate has at least eight pairs of earrings from the French brand.
Some of the reasons for this preference for costume jewellery are obvious: we’re in the midst of a cost of living crisis; it would read a bit brash to wear a £300,000 pair of diamond earrings to visit a hospice or a baby bank. And in wearing jewellery that – while not always “cheap” – is more accessible to the likes of you and I, she appears more relatable. The Princess wears jewellery in the same way most other British women do, says Marisa Hordern, founder and CEO of Missoma, one of the Princess’s go-to jewellery brands.
The Princess of Wales sporting Sezane earrings, with a value of about £90, at Ascot last month. Photo / AP
The most important factors are comfort and confidence. “Whether it’s fine, demi-fine or costume jewellery, what you wear reflects how you feel and what you want to project – and the Princess of Wales shows us time and time again how to wear all three seamlessly and effortlessly.”
These high-street finds also validate the choices of women who shop at the same retailers: if the woman who can buy anything buys her earrings at Zara, then they must be great. “Her timeless and classic style resonates with all women,” reflects Morgane Sézalory, founder of Sézane.
But there could be a more sensitive issue at play. The provenance of jewellery can be a thorny issue for royals – as we saw when the Duchess of Sussex wore a pair of diamond earrings during the Royal Tour of New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga in 2018.
Palace aides initially claimed that the earrings were “borrowed”, but it later emerged they were a gift from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who is accused of ordering the assassination of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Ethical questions aside, gifts from other heads of state remain the property of the Crown, not the recipient.
The Princess wears £7 Accessorize earrings during a visit to the Foundling Museum in January 2022. Photo / Getty Images
There is controversy surrounding the Koh-i-Noor diamond too, which is traditionally used in Queen Consorts’ coronation crowns. Since India gained independence, the governments of India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have all laid claim to the stone. The Queen Consort navigated this issue by choosing to wear Queen Mary’s crown with the Cullinan diamonds as the central feature instead. Kate and her longtime assistant-stylist Natasha Archer are likely being very careful that she doesn’t wear jewellery that might raise awkward questions.
So who gets to wear the royal jewels? It’s not as simple as rifling through the vaults and picking your favourites. The Crown owns most of them, and pieces are loaned out to other royals with the permission of the monarch. This can be on a long-term or lifetime basis, with the piece returned to the Crown on their death.
There is a lot of tact that goes into the decisions about who wears what, too. The Princess of Wales often wears pieces which were worn and loved by Princess Diana, but it would be inappropriate for the Queen to do so. Instead, she often chooses pieces that were worn by the Queen Mother.
Missoma earrings, £139, worn for a visit to the north of Pakistan. Photo / Getty Images
The biggest hurdle for Kate and the Queen in wearing these royal jewels is the lack of occasion, which has steadily been declining since World War II. It’s something Menkes acknowledges in her 1985 book. “The collapse of formal society, which was never rebuilt after the war, and the erosion of aristocratic private life by post-war inflation, combined to make the Queen a bejewelled island from whom the rest of society receded,” she wrote.
It is an unfortunate state of affairs for a family who were gifted with no fewer than 540 individual diamonds during their royal tour of South Africa in 1949.
Lauren Kiehna, the writer and historian behind The Court Jeweller blog, recognises this, too. “There are fewer opportunities for that kind of grandeur,” she says. “There’s a need to match attire to the occasion, and Kate seems to wear more affordable jewellery pieces, often from local or sustainable brands, when the moment calls for more accessibility.
Kate wears Soru earrings, £145, for a reception in Canada.
“Both Camilla and Kate have started delving more into the vaults since the late Queen’s passing, and I expect that we’ll see more important pieces making appearances on both of them in time. But, sadly, the days of wearing important antique jewels on a daily basis appear to be over.”
This shift could not have been clearer than when Kate emerged from her car for the King’s Coronation in a Jess Collett headpiece in lieu of a tiara. A bespoke headpiece like this isn’t cheap, but it is far more affordable than the Lotus Flower tiara, which is valued at around £4 million. It is also more youthful and modern.
And this is really what it comes down to. Kate has married into a family with untold wealth and tradition, but those jewellery suites are old-fashioned and, as her experience and status grows with each year, she is finding new ways to make them her own – and to set herself apart from the royal women who came before her.
The Princess wore a bespoke Jess Collett headpiece at the Coronation. Photo / AP
“Catherine has a very sensitive and modern approach to jewellery,” says Bethan Holt, author of The Duchess of Cambridge: A Decade of Modern Royal Style, and The Telegraph’s fashion director. “I think that she’s wanting to carve her own path within the Royal family.
“Although there are some incredible pieces within the Royal family vaults, I think she’s been very keen to build her own collection, using pieces from the high street and pieces from modern jewellers like Kiki McDonough as well … Which I believe often have been given to her by Prince William to mark special occasions.”
As a result, we sit up and take notice when she does wear an antique piece, says Holt: “It seems especially sentimental and emotional ... So we always know that it’s a very momentous occasion when she chooses Diana’s earrings or the late Queen’s pearl necklace.”
The Princess wears the late Queen's pearl necklace at Prince Phillip's funeral. Photo / Getty Images
Personally, I don’t think Catherine has a lack of interest in jewellery. She learnt from the late Queen that dressing for a royal engagement requires care and judgment and, like a uniform, it is a means of communication. Ultimately, these things come down to a matter of personal taste. One woman’s “disappointment” is another woman’s inspiration. And as far as the royal family is concerned, Kate represents the future.
