Let's dig into the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) festivities for the second time today, because a couple highly anticipated events occurred this evening.
The first, of course, is the tiara-filled dinner hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace!
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| Royal Family |
The monarch got things started in a very sparkly way by piling on the diamonds and the rubies, including surprising us by wearing the
Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau Necklace last seen on the Duchess of Cambridge and not seen on the Queen herself since the 1980s. Her tiara is the
Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara (her fave). You can, as always, see a complete rundown of her jewel selections
right here at the Jewel Vault.
All available hands were on deck for the dinner, except Kate (for obvious reasons) and Meghan (who did attend a different reception with Harry earlier in the evening, keep scrolling for that). Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were present...
...and we'll cut to the chase, there were no first tiara appearances for the sisters tonight. Although unmarried princesses have certainly worn tiaras in the past (Anne and Margaret most recently in the British royal family; plenty more outside of that), I'm not surprised that they didn't go digging through the vaults for this black tie occasion. My condolences to those of you nursing deep disappointment!
Plenty of other tiaras on display to soothe that disappointment, though. CHOGM provided a livestream
which you can replay here; I have some shots below (just glimpses, mostly, so apologies for quality. We're lucky we got a livestream at all!).
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| CHOGM screencap |
Typical selections for the Duchess of Cornwall and the Princess Royal. We just saw this whole look on Anne during
last year's Spanish state visit, with the
Festoon Tiara, and
her diamond demi-parure. It's the
Greville Tiara and the
Pear Drop Diamond Demi-Parure for Camilla.
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| CHOGM screencap |
The
Wessex Aquamarine Necklace Tiara was looking splendid on the Countess of Wessex, who paired it with a colorful gemstone necklace that's part of a set of unknown origin that she's had for a few years. She appears to be wearing the dress she wore to
the Swedish royal wedding in 2015.
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| CHOGM screencap |
Princess Alexandra of Kent chipped in with the pearl setting of her
Ogilvy Tiara, nicely accessorized with an intricate pearl and diamond choker.
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| CHOGM screencap |
I was thrilled to see the
Iveagh Tiara, such an interesting and intricate piece, make an appearance on the Duchess of Gloucester. She's also doing something interesting with a pair of jeweled clip brooches on her dress, too, so Birgitte's keeping up the good work.
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| CHOGM screencap |
Wrapping things up on the tiara front, Princess Michael of Kent brought the
Kent City of London Fringe Tiara out to play, another piece we haven't seen in a while.
While we're on the CHOGM evening topic, just before the big Buckingham Palace dinner, Harry and Meghan attended a Women's Empowerment reception. Meghan wore a power dress, basically:
That's a great LBD. It's by Black Halo. Not too dressy, not too casual, all purpose as a great LBD should be. And that's as formal as she got today; Harry made a quick change for the Queen's dinner and Meghan will wait for the many such dinners she has in her future.
Phew! These kids are going all out for CHOGM. Gotta soak it up while we can.
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