Camilla and Catherine Honor Queen Elizabeth II With Her Iconic Pearl Jewels

At Westminster Abbey on March 9, 2026, Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales arrived at the Commonwealth Day service wearing jewels that once belonged to Queen Elizabeth II, each piece chosen with the kind of quiet deliberateness that royal dressing demands at its most charged moments.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore the Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings, diamond-and-pearl drops set with round pearls that the Hakim of Bahrain gave to the then Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present in 1947. The earrings have traveled far in the decades since: Catherine wore them at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in September 2022 and has returned to them for Remembrance Sunday. For Commonwealth Day, she paired them with a five-strand faux-pearl necklace by Susan Caplan, a vintage-style piece reported to cost $291, layering a democratic price point against priceless provenance. The full look was anchored by a navy blue Catherine Walker coatdress with structured shoulders and a pleated skirt, finished with a large blue hat.

Queen Camilla chose the Cartier Diamond Palm Leaf Brooch, pinning it to the lapel of a bright red Fiona Clare skirt suit worn beneath a matching Phillip Treacy hat. The brooch's history begins not with Elizabeth II but with her mother: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother commissioned the piece from Cartier in 1938, supplying diamonds from her own collection to be set in platinum. The design draws on a traditional curved boteh motif with Persian roots, a form that also appears in Indian artwork and in the palm-shaped sarpech ornaments worn by Indian princes on their turbans. That the brooch became a favorite of the late Queen gives it a double inheritance, and Nilesh Rakholia, founder of the jewelry house Abelini, noted that its provenance "gives the brooch an exceptional level of historical resonance."

The two women appeared to have coordinated their color choices as well, with Catherine in navy and Camilla in red, a pairing that read as an implicit nod to the Union Jack. Rakholia framed the jewelry selections in similarly symbolic terms. "Those pearls were originally gifted to Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present in 1947," he said, adding that the combined choices "feel especially fitting" for Commonwealth Day. "Together, these choices reinforce a theme of heritage," he continued. "They draw from the royal jewelry archive in a way that emphasises stability and continuity."

That message of continuity carried particular weight in context. Several outlets noted that the royal family has been navigating the ongoing fallout from ex-Prince Andrew's arrest and his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and interpreted the heirloom jewelry as a deliberate projection of institutional steadiness. The Cartier brooch, described by Rakholia as a "striking nod to royal continuity," and the Bahrain earrings, worn with the same necklace Kate has reached for at moments of state, together composed something more than an outfit. They read as a considered argument, made in pearls and platinum, for the durability of the institution both women now represent.

Also present at Westminster Abbey were King Charles III, Prince William, Princess Anne, Sir Timothy Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, whose own jewelry choices drew notice: Tatler observed that the Duchess of Gloucester wore ruby earrings, and that Princess Anne opted for pieces with sentimental ties to her late parents.