Queen Camilla attends the Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace on November 19, 2024 (Aaron Chown/PA Images/Alamy)
Tonight at Buckingham Palace, the British royals hosted the annual reception for members of the diplomatic corps—and Queen Camilla made her debut in another tiara from the late Queen’s royal jewelry collection.
The King and Queen arrived with the Prince of Wales for the annual Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening. The event is usually held at the beginning of December, but it was moved forward this year because of the upcoming Qatari state visit to Britain.
For the reception, Queen Camilla wore a favorite blue velvet evening gown from her closet. She pinned the insignia of the Order of the Garter and King Charles III’s Royal Family Order to the dress.
Her bejeweled accessories for the evening were a combination of pieces from the royal vault and personal jewels. Her tiara is a piece from the collection of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Because it features five large aquamarines set in a diamond ribbon design, I’ve always simply called it the Aquamarine Ribbon Tiara.
To my knowledge, Queen Elizabeth II only wore this tiara one time in public, during a dinner at Yellowknife City Hall in the Northwest Territories during a royal tour of Canada in July 1970. She paired it with the Coronation Diamonds and a fringed coat for the occasion.
More recently, the tiara has often been loaned to the Duchess of Edinburgh. When she was Countess of Wessex, Sophie wore the aquamarine tiara often for gala events, especially foreign royal weddings. Here, she wears the tiara with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Pearl Earrings and the King Faisal Diamond Necklace for the pre-wedding dinner in Luxembourg in October 2012.
With the tiara, Camilla wore an aquamarine and diamond necklace and earrings from her own jewelry box. The jewels have been in Camilla’s collection for more than fifteen years, and the set also includes a matching bracelet.
Camilla memorably wore the aquamarine and diamond suite when she attended the Classical Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London in May 2009, pairing the jewels with a blue evening gown made by Vivienne Westwood.
