Kate Middleton’s Funeral Accessory Paid Tribute to Princess Diana in Addition to Queen Elizabeth
Kate Middleton‘s standout accessory at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was part of the late monarch’s elegant jewelry collection. And it was one that Princess Diana also borrowed from the queen and wore.
Read on to learn more about the jewelry piece and how Kate often creates homages to Diana, a mother-in-law she never met.
Kate Middleton’s funeral accessory was a 4-strand pearl choker that belonged to Queen Elizabeth
The choker Kate wore to the historic funeral is made from cultured pearls and was gifted to Queen Elizabeth by the Japanese government sometime before 1982. When Diana traveled to the Netherlands for a state visit that year, she wore the piece on loan from the queen.
In recent years, Kate has been spotted in the choker on more than one occasion. She wore it to the queen’s anniversary party in 2017 and Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021, before, most recently, the queen’s funeral in 2022.
Kate Middleton often creates ‘echoes’ of Princess Diana
One royal expert argued that even though Kate is a “very different woman” from her late mother-in-law and doesn’t seek to emulate her, she creates “echoes” of the former Princess of Wales.
“I think a respectful nod, a respectful tribute,” Katie Nicholl, the royal correspondent for Vanity Fair, told 9Honey (per Express). She added Kate’s “echoes” of Diana are more of “an acknowledgment of the continuation of history” than an imitation.
“Her success has been in carving her own identity in the royal family,” Nicholl said of the new Princess of Wales.
Kate Middleton’s veiled funeral accessory was another solemn tribute to Queen Elizabeth
Princess Charlotte matched her mom in a black coat-dress and shoes paired with a black hat at the queen’s funeral. Furthermore, it was Charlotte’s first time publicly wearing a brooch, a horseshoe that Queen Elizabeth gifted to represent their shared love for horses.
Kate also wore a black hat, but hers had a mourning veil attached, as is traditional according to royal family dress code rules. That is there “to act as armour [sic] as well as a signifier of grief” for the mourner (per BBC).
As mourning attire goes, the veil serves multiple functions. It helps shield the face of the person in grief, traditionally signifies their loss, and serves as a form of self-expression.
Modern covers are often latticed so the individual wearing them can see clearly. In contrast, Jackie Kennedy famously wore a relatively short, black, opaque veil to the funeral of her assassinated husband, John F. Kennedy, in 1963.
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth and other royal family members wore slightly longer see-through covers to her father’s funeral in 1952.
