At the close of a long weekend of coronation celebrations, Buckingham Palace shared three official portraits of King Charles III, Queen Camilla, and working members of the royal family, including Kate Middleton. King Charles is wearing the full regalia from the Westminster Abbey ceremony, but the portrait gave the public its first glimpse of the ivory Alexander McQueen gown the Princess of Wales wore beneath her formal robes—as well as her chosen jewelry.
Kate’s dress is adorned with embroidery featuring rose, thistle, daffodil, and shamrock motifs, to represent the four nations of the United Kingdom (the same flowers appeared on her wedding dress in 2011). The image also shows how the princess honored the late Queen Elizabeth II on the day by wearing her George VI Festoon Necklace, which was commissioned in 1950 by King George VI for the then Princess Elizabeth. The king asked royal jewelers Garrard to turn 105 loose diamonds from the Royal Collection into a special necklace for his daughter, made up of three tiered strands of diamonds of different sizes.The gift from her father, who died when she was just 25, was one of the queen’s favorite pieces of jewelry.
The queen was first photographed wearing the necklace shortly after her coronation in 1952, and she wore it on several occasions during her first Commonwealth tour. The monarch then selected the Festoon Necklace for many memorable, historic moments throughout her reign, including for at least 10 state openings of parliament and important royal tours and meetings with dignitaries—she was wearing it when she danced with President Gerald Ford at the White House.
This is the first time the Princess of Wales has worn this necklace, and it’s a highly significant choice. All of Kate Middleton’s jewelry choices were sentimental: She also wore diamond and South Sea pearl earrings that previously belonged to Princess Diana, which have a horseshoe design with intricately linked marquise-cut diamonds. Diana was photographed wearing them numerous times, including on a visit to Australia in 1996. As for Kate’s Jess Collett x Alexander McQueen headpiece, that was made extra special by the fact that her daughter, Princess Charlotte, wore a miniature version on the day.
This article first appeared on British Vogue.
