The Duchess of Cambridge has had the honour of wearing everything from heirloom diamond tiaras to custom sapphire fringed earrings.
Prince William proposed to Kate in 2010 with his mother’s 14 solitaire diamond and 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire engagement ring, set in 18-karat gold. The ring was selected from the official royal jeweller, Garrard, by Prince Charles and Diana following their engagement in 1981.
The traditional gold wedding band that sits neatly beside the duchess’s engagement ring was made from the royal family’s collection of Welsh yellow gold and is similar to the same worn by both the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II.
While the duchess is not known for wearing extravagant and over-the-top pieces, she did step out in an opulent diamond necklace—a wedding present gifted to the Queen by the Nizam of Hyderabad—when attending an event at the National Portrait Gallery.
Kate is often seen wearing a charm bracelet gifted to her by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, when she wed Prince William, a gold piece complete with a “C” for each of their names alongside a coronet and a crown.
Prince William presented the mother of his children a diamond eternity band following the birth of their son, Prince George. The ring now sits beside her gold wedding band and diamond encrusted engagement ring.
Kate wore the famous Cartier Halo tiara complete with 739 brilliant diamonds and 149 baton diamonds on her wedding day, a piece originally gifted by King George VI to the Queen Mother who then passed it down to Queen Elizabeth II on her 18th birthday.
In 2015, the duchess had the honour of wearing the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara, the very same Princess Diana sported frequently. Diamond encrusted and complete with a number of large pearls, the Garrard tiara was commissioned by Queen Mary and remains in Queen Elizabeth II’s personal collection.
In celebration of their third wedding anniversary, Prince William gifted Kate the Ballon Bleu de Cartier watch complete with sapphire detailing—a timepiece quite similar to both Princess Diana’s and his own.
What can only be described as one of the first gifts of many, Prince William presented the Duchess with a rose gold Victorian ring complete with each of their birthstones—garnets for the Prince and pearls for Kate—during their studies at the University of St. Andrews, a piece she later wore to her graduation.
The maple-leaf brooch Kate wore on her tour of North America in 2011 was a gift from King George VI to the Queen Mother in 1939 and has been worn by the likes of Queen Elizabeth II and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
The duchess has been spotted wearing the Queen’s fern brooch on a number of occasions, a piece the Monarch was given on her coronation world tour in 1953 by a New Zealand women’s group.
Sapphires are a royal favourite and feature in a number of crown jewels, including the Queen Mother’s fringed earrings Kate donned at the Women in Hedge Funds dinner in 2015.
The princess was also gifted a pair of sapphire and diamond earrings from Princess Diana’s personal collection by Prince William following their engagement. Kate then had the gift—that matched her engagement ring—customised into a pair of drop earrings.
Kate has stepped out in the Lotus Flower tiara on a couple occasions, each at an official event at Buckingham Palace. The wedding gift to the Queen Mother in 1923 was reworked from a necklace to tiara and then passed down to Princess Margaret before she passed.
In celebration of their first official Christmas together, Prince William gifted his new wife a pair of green amethyst earrings designed by Kiki McDonough in 2011, which she then wore to the day’s church service.
Following her wedding to Prince William, Prince Charles gifted the duchess a set of matching yellow and white gold pieces consisting of a ring, a bracelet and a pair of drop earrings she has since worn on multiple occasions.
While it’s been said that Kate first wore the Royal Family Order brooch to a Diplomatic Reception just last year, the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace she attended in October 2018 was the first time she was photographed wearing it. “I can confirm that Her Majesty awarded The Duchess of Cambridge with the Order in 2017,” a spokesman for Kensington Palace told Vanity Fair of the diamond-encrusted brooch complete with a small painting of the Monarch, which also happens to be the greatest honour the Queen can give to a female member of the royal family.
Rumoured to have been gifted to the duchess in celebration of Princess Charlotte's birth by her husband Prince William, these custom Kiki McDonough earrings have only been spotted on Kate a handful of times including St. Patrick's Day 2019.
Loaned to members of the royal family by the Irish Guards in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, Kate first wore the piece in 2011 and is reported to have exclusively worn it since then. Believed to have been created by Cartier, the brooch features a single emerald at the centre of the textured leaves. Previously worn by the Queen Mother and Princess Anne also, Kate has worn the brooch on several visits to Northern Ireland as well as St. Patrick's Day celebrations.
The earrings were reportedly a wedding gift from Collingwood jewellers to Kate's late mother-in-law, Princess Diana. According to Hello! Princess Diana debuted the earrings a month before she tied the knot with Prince Charles in 1981.
Kate wore the pearl and diamond drop jewels for the first time in 2017 and was spotted wearing them in October 2018 to a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace. The duchess donned the earrings for a third time to attend the Queen's annual garden party at Buckingham Palace in May 2019. For this outing the duchess paired the earrings with a pink Alexander McQueen coat dress and matching hat.
When Kate attended Queen Elizabeth II’s annual Trooping the Colour parade in celebration of her birthday on June 8, 2019, she opted to wear a pair of earrings borrowed from the monarch herself. The duchess sported Queen Elizabeth II’s Bahrain pearl drop earrings for the occasion, which she previously wore while attending a church service during her visit to Balmoral Castle in Scotland in August 2018. Per People, said diamond-encrusted earrings were reportedly crafted from a shell containing seven pearls, which was a wedding gift to The Queen from the ruler of Bahrain in 1947.
During a visit to the Ely and Careau Children’s Centre in Cardiff, Wales, Kate stepped out wearing a personalised gold necklace that is suspected to have been a birthday gift from Prince William, given that she debuted it just two weeks after her 38th birthday. The necklace, designed by British jeweller Daniella Draper, is called the Gold Midnight Moon necklace and it features the initials G, C and L for her three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
Along with her Bahrain pearl drop earrings, Kate wore a piece passed down by the Queen: a four-strand pearl choker to Prince Philip’s funeral in April, 2021. As reported by People, was commissioned to be created using a collection of cultured pearls gifted to the monarch by the Japanese government. The piece was part of the Queen’s regular jewellery collection in the 1980s and 90s, and was too once worn by the late Princess Diana to a state banquet in the Netherlands.
During her Royal Tour of Scotland, the Duchess of Cambridge visited a drive-in movie showing of Disney’s Cruella, starring Emma Stone. For her appearance, Kate loaned a pair of earrings from The Queen’s Dubai Sapphire Demi-Parure, the first time the Duchess has ever worn a piece from this particular collection.
The Queen first received the set of Dubai sapphires and diamonds from Sheikh Rashid in 1979, which famously made her “exclaim in amazement” when she first saw the jewels. While the original Demi-Parure contained a necklace, earrings and ring, The Queen altered the pieces slightly, transformation the necklace into hooped earrings, and the rings and earrings into a bracelet.
While joining The Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall for an event with world leaders (including US president Joe Biden, and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden), the Duchess of Cambridge wore a three-strand pearl bracelet that had once belonged to Princess Diana. The Princess had worn the bracelet, originally designed by Nigel Milne, to a visit to Hong Kong in 1989. Kate had originally debuted the piece of borrowed jewellery in 2017 during a tour of Berlin, and rewore the bracelet in Sweden in 2018. This time, she chose to pair the accessory with a double-breasted Alexander McQueen coat dress.
In attendance at the second annual Earthshot Prize Awards in Boston, Princess Kate stepped out in a bright green gown by Solace London, paired with an emerald-and-diamond choker once owned by Princess Diana. The choker itself was first owned by Queen Mary in 1911, but was later presented to Diana as a wedding gift following her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981.
Commissioned in 1950 by George VI for his eldest daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II, Kate first wore this necklace for King Charles III's coronation portrait, with her white Alexander McQueen gown and headpiece.
The Princess was spotted wearing this pair of drop earrings on the one-year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's death, along with a burgundy coat dress from Eponine London.
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