New York Fashion Week has just come to a close, but it was a 50m-long table in Windsor Castle that proved the most glamorous catwalk this week. Forget the front row’s preferred understated “stealth wealth” look — in St George’s Hall on Wednesday night, little effort was made to hide the bling.
Instead it came on an imperial scale. The Princess of Wales wore high-necked and hand-embroidered gold filigree lace coat, created by the British — usually bridal — designer Phillipa Lepley over a strapless white silk gown. Kate’s newly blonde hair was loose but topped with the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara, created in 1913 for Queen Mary by Garrard.
Kate wore the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara
AP
Meanwhile, Queen Camilla matched her sweeping cobalt blue gown with the Belgian Sapphire tiara by Van Cleef & Arpels and Greville diamond festoon necklace.
The Queen and King
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The Princess Royal wore an ivory silk damask skirt suit with her aquamarine pineflower tiara, once an anniversary gift from George VI to his wife, Queen Elizabeth, who then gave it to Anne before her wedding in 1973.
The Princess Royal and Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence
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From one historic dynasty to shades of the Eighties soap opera, Melania Trump was bare-shouldered in a primrose yellow column dress by Carolina Herrera, not dissimilar in both hue and style to one she wore during 2018’s state visit that invited comparison to Disney’s Beauty & the Beast’s ballroom scene.
Melania Trump, the US first lady, and, below, with the Queen
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Undeterred, the first lady’s look on Wednesday night also came belted at the waist with lilac satin, like a modern update on a Singer Sergeant heiress — or The Gilded Age meets Downton Abbey perhaps. With it a giant pair of emerald earrings that might well have come from a nearby neighbour on Fifth Avenue, Cartier.
There has been plenty of speculation as to why, of all recent first ladies, Trump has not been featured on the prestigious Vogue magazine cover since entering the White House. After this though, she will grace the history books instead.
State banquet seating plan