Princess Catherine wears pearl necklace with woodland charms in Italy

Princess Catherine turned a pearl necklace into a family emblem in Reggio Emilia, where she wore Monica Vinader’s strand with three Asprey London charms: an acorn, an oak leaf and a mushroom. Set against a bright blue pantsuit, the look read less like overt court dressing than a quietly layered piece of personal storytelling.

The symbolism was unusually pointed. The acorn and oak leaf echo the Middleton family coat of arms, a heraldic distinction granted to Michael Middleton before his daughter’s 2011 marriage to Prince William. That made the necklace feel like more than a polished accessory during the Princess of Wales’s two-day fact-finding mission for the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which centered on Reggio Emilia’s approach to early development through relationships, environment and community.

Reggio Emilia’s educational philosophy has long been noted for treating children as shaped by the people and spaces around them, and Catherine’s visit brought that idea into focus as she met the city as both a working royal and a mother. Crowds greeted her warmly in northern Italy, adding to the attention around a trip that also marked her first official overseas solo visit since 2022 and her first foreign trip after cancer treatment.

The charms came from Asprey London’s Woodland collection, inspired by British forests and handcrafted in 18 ct gold, enamel and pavé diamonds. Oak leaves, acorns and mushrooms are the collection’s visual vocabulary, which made the pairing with Catherine’s pearl necklace especially effective: the pearl kept the piece elegant and wearable, while the charms supplied narrative, heritage and a distinctly autumnal, woodland register.

The necklace had been worn before, including on a 2022 visit to Denmark, which only strengthened its appeal. Repeat wear gives this kind of jewelry a different charge from a one-off statement piece; the base remains familiar, but the meaning shifts with the place, the moment and the memory attached to it.

That is the enduring lesson of pearl-centered charm jewelry. A strand can carry a birthstone, a family motif or a maternal gift without losing its restraint, and it can accumulate meaning with every outing. In Italy, Catherine showed how a pearl necklace can do what the grandest jewels often cannot: hold a life story in plain sight.