It might surprise you to know that over the course of her decades-long career as a senior royal, Catherine, Princess of Wales and Duchess of Cambridge and Cornwall, has only been spotted in four different tiaras. But while popular media has taught us to associate queens past, present and future with all manner of sparkling headpieces, in reality, tiaras are subject to a number of rules. Tradition dictates that tiaras can only be worn when a royal comes of age—that is, when a princess or member of the nobility turns 18—and moreover, reserved for special occasions. It’s why you don’t see the royal family in diadems for everyday public engagements. Instead, they’ll wear tiaras on their wedding day, as well as at white-tie occasions including coronations, inaugurations, state visits, and formal dinners.
Most importantly, tiaras are loaned to royal women loaned from the Royal collection, often for a lifetime. Thus, three known tiaras are currently in the Duchess of Cambridge’s possession. The platinum-and-diamond Cartier Scroll, an 18th birthday gift from Elizabeth, Duchess of York to Queen Elizabeth II, was Kate’s first, worn on the event of her 2011 wedding to Prince William. Her second, the diamond-and-pearl Lotus Flower tiara, was a wedding gift for The Queen Mother, and later favoured by both Elizabeth and Princess Margaret; Kate wore the piece in 2013, at a diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace. Most recently, she wore the Strathmore Rose Tiara at a state banquet for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife—a diadem, if rumour is to be believed, not worn by a royal since the 1930s.
But it is Kate’s fourth tiara that is perhaps her favourite: the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara, which the duchess has been spotted in time and time again. The diadem, a 1914 replica of a headpiece worn by Princess Augusta of Hesse, was passed down to Elizabeth, and later, Princess Diana. For Kate, who often pays sartorial tribute to her late mother-in-law, it seems fitting that the Lover’s Knot, with its diamonds and dangling pearls, has become one of her signatures.
Below, we look back on 12 of the princess’s most dazzling tiara moments.
