Will she, won’t she? The tiara debate has taken up much air time in the run up to King Charles III’s Coronation today.
As Catherine, Princess of Wales stepped out in the rain but full regalia this morning, speculation could subside - she would not be wearing a tiara from the Royal Family’s collection, but something that looked very similar.
The actual floral headpiece is a collaboration between her go-to design house Alexander McQueen and Jess Collett, the London based milliner, delicately crafted from silver embroideries.
She arrived alongside her husband Prince William, Prince of Wales, son Prince Louis, and - to much excitement - Princess Charlotte, who at 8 years old already looked the spitting image of her mother.
Charlotte also had a matching bespoke headpiece made, with one decorative band, unlike her mother’s two. Both also wore white dresses by Alexander McQueen, the same British label designed by Sarah Burton, who was also behind the Princess’ 2011 lace wedding dress.
Royal insider and fashion expert Henry Conway says, “I love that she is wearing McQueen, it is fabulous and has the traditional coronation embroidery on the sleeve - you will notice there is a thistle, which really ties her into Queen Elizabeth II.”
“The flower tiara is sort of redolent of some of the bigger, bigger pieces that the Royal Family have. So if no one else is wearing tiaras, you might as well make that floral statement as close to a tiara as you can,” he says. “It’s a double row of silver flowers, harking back to the Greeks, and then in the shape of a kokoshnik - the Russian royal tiara shape.”
Overall, he is impressed. “I think she looks very smart - and it matches her daughter’s, which I just think is so adorable.” Fanfare online appears to show many others agree.
