In a year full of truly remarkable royal jewelry moments, this was my favorite of all: the reappearance of Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara, which had been tucked away in the royal vaults for almost a decade.
In December 2024, King Charles III and Queen Camilla welcomed the Emir of Qatar to London for a state visit. On the first evening of the visit, they hosted a traditional state banquet for the Emir and his royal consort, Sheikha Jawaher, at Buckingham Palace. The dinner was a white-tie affair, with decorations, gowns, and gala jewels for the ladies.
When she stepped in front of the cameras ahead of the banquet, Queen Camilla drew gasps with her choice of tiara for the evening. She wore diamonds with her red velvet evening gown, including her own diamond earrings, the City of London Fringe Necklace, and, best of all, Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara, which had not been worn in public for nine years.
The glamorous tiara, often compared to a sold wall of diamonds, was inspired by traditional Russian jewels worn by the Romanovs. When the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1888, a committee of aristocratic ladies asked Alexandra what sort of new tiara she’d like as a gift. She requested a diadem similar to the halo-shaped diamond kokoshniks worn by her sister, Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia. Garrard used more than 400 diamonds to craft the new tiara for the princess, and the Ladies of Society presented it to her at Marlborough House on March 10, 1888.
Alexandra wore the tiara often for gala occasions for the next three decades, both before and after her husband’s accession to the throne. She memorably wore the tiara for the wedding of her son and daughter-in-law, the future King George V and Queen Mary, in 1893. Originally a less tightly-organized piece, Alexandra also had a new frame made for the tiara in 1895 that gave the piece a more rigid kokoshnik shape.
When Alexandra died in 1925, the tiara was inherited by Queen Mary, who had long admired the jewel. She wore it often over the quarter of a century that followed, sometimes pairing it with other jewels that had belonged to Alexandra, like this striking collier résille.
Queen Mary bequeathed the tiara—and most of the rest of her jewels—to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953. The kokoshnik arrived in Elizabeth’s jewelry box in October 1953, just in time for her to pack it and bring it along on her coronation tour of the Commonwealth. She wore it for the first time in public for the state opening of parliament in New Zealand on January 12, 1954. For the next sixty-one years, she wore the tiara for a whole range of gala occasions. Her final appearances in the jewel took place in 2015, when she wore the kokoshnik to sit for a portrait and for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in honor of the President of Mexico.
Now, after resting in the royal vault for the better part of a decade, Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara has returned to the spotlight to sparkle once more. Queen Camilla became the fifth royal woman known to have worn the tiara, after Queen Alexandra, Queen Louise of Denmark, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth II. It’s so special to continue to see these iconic royal jewels shining on generation after generation of royal ladies.
And that’s it for my countdown of the ten best royal jewelry moments of 2024! Be sure to weigh in below with your own top ten list in the comments below.
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