There are certain tiaras particular royals gravitate towards and so I wasn’t at all surprised to see the Duchess of Edinburgh step out in her beloved aquamarine headpiece for the State Banquet at Windsor Castle. Held for the State Visit of President Emmanuel Macron of France, these occasions are pretty much the only time we see tiaras worn nowadays.
Duchess Sophie’s Aquamarine Tiara also got brought out of her collection for a State Banquet held last November and it’s one of her favourites. It’s been suggested over the years that it was bespoke made for her and she’s got a trick that means she can get maximum wear out of it.
Whilst few occasions call for a full tiara, plenty of others have a dress code that means you can enjoy wearing a fabulous necklace. The Duchess found herself a design that can do both as the Wessex Aquamarine Tiara can also be worn as a necklace.
Shop Duchess Sophie's Jewellery Favourites
We noticed that Duchess Sophie had added this delicate Missoma bracelet to her collection earlier this year and it brings some subtle glamour to an outfit. It's 18ct gold plated and has a discreet fastening. If you wanted to switch things up, you can add clip-on charms to the links.
Duchess Sophie's small siren stacking ring comes in various metal finishes and colours and she has the rose gold vermeil and rose quartz version in both this larger design and the one with the smaller stone. This is one of those rings that will fit in seamlessly with both everyday and special outfits.
The Siren earrings have been in the Duchess of Edinburgh's collection for a while and they match her stacking rings. They're crafted from rose gold vermeil and have a soft-pink rose quartz stone in them. The shape feels very organic and this design comes in so many other stone and metal combinations too.
We’ve only seen this on a few occasions and not for many years, though it looks every bit as magnificent in this form as it does as a headpiece. Duchess Sophie wore it in March 2006 for a Royal Gala Dinner held to raise money for ChildLine and Mission Enfance.
Her dress had a sweeping V-neckline that framed the necklace perfectly and worn like this you can really appreciate the size and sparkle of the sea-blue aquamarine stone. Later on that year she attended a party held at the Ritz hotel in honour of Queen Elizabeth’s 80th birthday.
Once again, she wore a V-neck dress and a glimmering necklace, but she also wore earrings with diamonds and blue stones. They were a slightly darker shade of blue to the pendant and weren’t a matching set, though it seems to show her preference for this colour gemstone.
Aquamarines bring out the blue of Duchess Sophie’s eyes and the subtle pastel tone of the jewel in her tiara-necklace looks stunning against the diamonds. Although she clearly does enjoy wearing it as a necklace, more recently she’s tended to stick to wearing it as a tiara.
She wore the Wessex Aquamarine Tiara to a special dinner in Monaco in 2005 and has gone on to be seen in it at a huge number of State Banquets, including this year’s, last year’s and one in 2022. Alongside her wedding tiara - the Anthemion Tiara - it’s one of her most-worn tiaras.
Its hidden purpose gives her different options depending on how full-on regal the Duchess wants to look for a particular event. With no other State Visits on the horizon after this one, it might be a while before we see this piece worn as a tiara again.
The interchangeability between tiaras and necklaces isn’t unique amongst the Royal Family’s jewellery items. The Lotus Flower Tiara that Princess Margaret loved and which the Princess of Wales has occasionally worn, was once a necklace belonging to the Queen Mother.
Meanwhile, Queen Mary's Fringe Tiara that Queen Elizabeth, Princess Anne and Princess Beatrice all wore on their wedding days was reportedly made from a necklace that was owned by Queen Victoria.
