Kate Middleton chose a 100-year-old tiara at the extravagant State Banquet welcoming the President and First Lady of South Korea to the UK last night.
While this was the first time Kate, 41, has worn the dazzling Strathmore Rose Tiara, it was previously seen on the Queen Mother almost a century ago.
Interestingly, Kate positioned the floral diamond design two inches back from her hairline – in stark contrast to her husband’s great-grandmother, who wore the tiara across her forehead, in 1923.
FEMAIL asked Carol Woolton, author and podcaster of If Jewels Could Talk, what initiated this change, and she explained it’s largely down to comfort.
‘It’s not for nothing that they were tagged the “family fender” because they were heavy, headache-inducing material,’ she explained.
Kate joined her husband Prince William, as well as King Charles and Queen Camilla, in welcoming Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee at the glittering festivities yesterday evening.
The mother of three made a lasting impression as she arrived at Buckingham Palace, wearing a Jenny Packham gown, diamond drop earrings belonging to Queen Elizabeth, her Family Order and GCVO sash and star.
But the royal’s floral tiara, which was a gift to the Queen Mother from her parents in 1923, undoubtedly stole the show.
The Strathmore Rose Tiara was given to Elizabeth, then the Duchess of York, as a wedding gift from her parents in 1923.
Josie Goodbody, author and jewellery editor, told FEMAIL that the bandeau was the most fashionable way to wear a head ornament in the 1920s.
‘The photographs of the Duchess of York, wearing this exquisite diamond set floral tiara, show her wearing it low on her forehead as a bandeau,’ she said.
‘It would have been slightly altered, at the time, to enable the new Duchess to wear it fashionably and to complement her bobbed haircut – which was known as ‘à la garçonne’ and originated in Paris with Gabrielle Chanel. Lady Elizabeth was also a client of Chanel in the 1920s.’
