Last night saw the first major state event not only since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II but since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Members of the Royal family and members of government gathered together at Buckingham Palace for a glamorous state dinner in honour of South Africa’s President Ramaphosa. Of course, all eyes were on Catherine, the new Princess of Wales and what she would choose to wear and, unsurprisingly, she blew everyone’s breath away. She chose to continue her long-held relationship with Jenny Packham (designer of *that* gold dress moment), wearing a custom version of the ‘Elspeth’ dress from a 2021 collection. The white gown featured long open sleeves giving the silhouette of a cape, strong shoulder pads and glittering embellishments across the shoulders. It really was a show-stopping dress! State dinners are white tie events, the most formal dress code available, and thus require the most formal of jewels, aka tiaras! Catherine opted once more to wear the Queen Mary’s lover’s knot tiara.

Many confuse Queen Mary’s lover’s knot tiara with the Cambridge lover's knot tiara, and while both contain pearls they are two distinctively different pieces. That particular tiara was a wedding gift to Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel when she married Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, in 1818. She is depicted wearing it at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. The tiara was last worn in 2018 by Princess von Waldburg zu Zeil und Trauchburg (easy for some to say.)

Queen Mary’s lover's knot is the tiara most favoured by Catherine, Princess of Wales having worn it many times since her marriage to Prince William back in 2011. In 1913, Queen Mary decided that she wanted to add yet another new tiara to her rather vast collection of expensive jewellery. Mary was deeply inspired by the aforementioned Cambridge lover’s knot but since she could not buy or inherit that piece, she commissioned Garrard (beloved fine jewellery house of the Royal family) to make a copy. The original piece had a row of pearls across the top, however, these were, at some point, removed and replaced with diamonds. When she became Queen in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II automatically gained custodianship of the beautiful piece and was seen wearing it several times.

While the current Princess of Wales is closely associated with the tiara, its most famous, and recurrent, wearer was the late Princess Diana who began wearing the piece early on in her marriage to Prince Charles. While she clearly adored the piece and wore it spectacularly well, she would also often wear the Spencer family tiara. According to some sources, the lover’s knot would give Diana headaches and she found her family piece to be more comfortable. While Queen Elizabeth handed the tiara over to Diana at the time of her marriage, it was given back to the crown upon her divorce. It wasn’t seen again until it appeared on Kate for the first time in 2015.

Some of the other appearances of the lover’s knot tiara on Catherine

While some expected Catherine to perhaps rewear an old gown for the big night, it’s no real surprise that she went all out, after all, it’s her first glamorous moment in her new life role. We can now sit and predict what she will wear next week in Boston for the 2nd annual Earthshot Awards and, we can say with all certainty, that that dress will be a rewear.