The Princess of Wales used her Remembrance weekend wardrobe to honour two of the Royal Family’s most influential women: the late Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana.
Catherine, 44, is widely admired for her polished style, but it is often the personal meaning behind her accessories that makes her outfits particularly striking. Her jewellery choices frequently carry a connection to royal history and family.
For Remembrance Sunday, she wore a black coat with the Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings once owned by her late mother-in-law, Diana.
Collingwood, the London jeweller trusted by the Spencer family, gave the earrings to Diana before her 1981 wedding to then-Prince Charles. Each piece features a diamond setting supporting a large, luminous pearl.
The previous evening, at the Festival of Remembrance, Kate paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II with the late monarch’s ‘Orbital’ pendant earrings, which she inherited in 2016.
For the event, the princess revived a black polka-dot silk midi dress by Alessandra Rich and paired it with a handmade poppy brooch created by Izzy Ager of Lock & Co.
She also made several alterations to the drop-waist dress, first worn at the Service of Thanksgiving for Prince Philip in 2022, including removing its decorative silver shoulder buttons.
The Princess of Wales paid tribute to the late Queen and Princess Diana through her carefully chosen Remembrance weekend jewellery and outfits
Kate wore Diana’s Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings for Remembrance Sunday
The front slit had also been stitched closed, while the dress’s original belt was replaced with a black suede design from Ba&Sh, giving the outfit a more formal look for the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Kate completed the ensemble with Queen Elizabeth’s much-loved diamond ‘Orbital’, also known as ‘Frame’, pendant earrings, which the monarch passed on to Prince William’s wife 10 years ago.
The ornate design features a floral diamond cluster followed by four descending diamonds set within a glittering frame.
The earrings’ origins remain unclear, but Elizabeth II treasured the pieces and wore them on several occasions throughout her 70-year reign, including the State Opening of Parliament in 2012.
Since receiving the earrings, Kate has reserved them for significant events. She wore them for her 40th birthday portraits in 2022 and at Princess Eugenie’s 2018 wedding to Jack Brooksbank.
Black slingback heels by Alessandra Rich, a Jimmy Choo clutch and her Irish Guards Regimental Brooch completed her Festival of Remembrance look.
The next morning, Kate joined senior members of the Royal Family as King Charles and Prince William led the nation in remembering Britain’s war dead during the emotional Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph.
Standing beside Queen Camilla on the balcony, Kate again honoured Diana by wearing the late princess’s Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings.
The earrings were presented to Diana as a wedding gift by Collingwood, a jeweller with longstanding ties to the Spencer family. She began wearing them several weeks before her marriage to Prince Charles, and they soon became one of her best-known accessories.
Their elegant design features a round diamond stud, a smaller suspended diamond and a bell-shaped setting decorated with three rows of diamonds around the glowing pearl drop.
Kate wore Queen Elizabeth II’s ‘Orbital’ pendant earrings to the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall
The princess brought back her black polka-dot Alessandra Rich silk dress, previously worn at Prince Philip’s 2022 Service of Thanksgiving
Kate altered the drop-waist dress by removing its silver shoulder buttons; she is pictured wearing it at Prince Philip’s memorial service at Westminster Abbey on March 29, 2022
Kate first wore the earrings at a state banquet in 2017 and has since styled them for a range of important occasions, including alongside Diana’s much-loved Lover’s Knot Tiara.
She also wore jewellery associated with Diana at last year’s memorial service, continuing her habit of using carefully selected accessories to reflect the Royal Family’s history.
For this year’s service, Kate introduced a bespoke black coat by Catherine Walker, one of her most trusted designers.
She teamed the coat with a wide-brimmed hat from Jane Taylor Millinery, three poppies and her HMS Glasgow Brooch. The brooch was made by Glasgow jewellers James Porter & Son to mark her role as sponsor of the Royal Navy vessel.
Its design incorporates the ship’s crest, the Scottish thistle and an image of St Kentigern, Glasgow’s patron saint.
There is no confirmed explanation for why members of the Royal Family wear three poppies on Remembrance Sunday, although several theories have emerged.
One interpretation is that the three flowers represent the three branches of the British military: the Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.
Another suggests that Kate wears three poppies in memory of her three great-uncles, brothers of her great-grandmother, who died during the First World War.
A further theory is that the trio helps ensure the poppies are clearly visible to television viewers and the wider public.
Camilla and Kate, who watched the ceremony from the balconies of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, both wore three poppies, as did the Duchess of Edinburgh.
Kate stood beside Queen Camilla during the Remembrance Sunday service wearing Diana’s Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings
Around 10,000 veterans took part in the Royal British Legion’s march past, representing more than 300 Armed Forces and civilian organisations.
People of all ages joined the procession along Whitehall, including bereaved children, military cadets and some of the last surviving veterans of the Second World War.
King Charles led the ceremony by laying the first wreath at the Cenotaph in memory of those killed in conflicts dating back to the First World War. Prince William followed him.
Dressed in field marshal uniform with a greatcoat, cap and sword, the King saluted as he stepped away from the Whitehall monument after leading the nation in a two-minute silence.
His wreath echoed one created for King George VI, featuring 41 paper poppy petals arranged against black leaves.
William, wearing the uniform of a lieutenant colonel of the Household Cavalry with a black cloak and sword, also saluted after laying his wreath.
The Prince of Wales completed seven and a half years of full-time operational military service in 2013 and continues to champion the work and welfare of serving and former personnel.
He was followed by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, and the Princess Royal, who also laid wreaths.
Meanwhile, the King’s younger son, Prince Harry, attended a separate memorial service in Brackley, Northamptonshire, after returning to the UK with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their children in August.
Senior royals and former and serving politicians laid wreaths at the Cenotaph before the impeccably observed silence and a moving rendition of the Last Post.
Harry, who returned to Britain this year after six years living in California, was not seen at the central London ceremony. Instead, he marked Remembrance in a quieter setting.
Photographs showed him among local residents in the market town, wearing his military medals and a poppy.
An onlooker said: ‘He was at the memorial service, standing next to the pub.
‘He stood there watching, and afterwards he went into the market and began shaking everyone’s hand.
‘He stayed for the whole service. We were there for 20 or 30 minutes, and he had arrived before us. He simply wanted to show his respect.
‘It is a shame. At the end of the day, he served, so why shouldn’t he be able to pay his respects?’
Prince Harry spent more than a decade in the military, rising to the rank of captain and completing two tours of Afghanistan.