{"id":207040,"date":"2025-06-23T06:44:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T06:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/207040\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T06:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T06:44:15","slug":"how-kate-middletons-beloved-royal-jeweller-transcended-the-gemstone-industry-with-the-help-of-princess-diana-and-queen-camilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/207040\/","title":{"rendered":"How Kate Middleton’s beloved Royal jeweller transcended the gemstone industry with the help of Princess Diana and Queen Camilla"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kiki has been with Kate since the beginning, even before the now Princess of Wales<\/a> became a member of the British Royal Family<\/a>. But it was in fact the previous Princess of Wales, Diana, who was the first royal to put Kiki McDonough on the map – wearing a pair of iconic earrings, and at The White House<\/a> no less!<\/p>\n

Kiki McDonough has royal client\u00e8le in her blood; her father, Robin Axford, was a director at Harvey & Gore, an antique jeweller based in the Burlington Arcade, to whom Queen Mary<\/a>, perhaps the Royal Family’s most prolific purchaser of jewels, frequented.<\/p>\n

It is four decades since Kiki, having previously worked at Vogue for 18 months as a fashion assistant and in the warehouse of a leather goods company, started designing for jeweller Nigel Milne on Grafton Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not long after the launch of her first collection as a partner of Nigel Milne, Sarah Ferguson wore a pair of Kiki’s heart earrings for an official engagement photo with Prince Andrew.<\/p>\n

A few months later as the Duchess of York<\/a>, she arrived in Bordeaux wearing a pair of onyx heart and bow earrings and a pearl and onyx heart necklace – it was the summer of 1986 and the duchess was still glowing from her royal wedding only weeks earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed Sarah Ferguson had gone to Kiki for jewellery not long after her engagement to Prince Andrew, as she was thrown into official engagements from the get-go, and was not yet able to be leant jewels from the Queen’s collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarah was to become the first of many British royals to wear Kiki McDonough’s colourful jewels on both private and public occasions – culminating in the most regal of all –\u00a0the Coronation<\/a> of King Charles<\/a> III.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The late Princess of Wales with Barbara Bush at the White House, October 1990 wearing Kiki McDonough\u00a0pearl and amethyst earrings<\/p>\n

\"Sarah <\/p>\n

Sarah Ferguson wore Kiki earrings in the shape of hearts for her engagement announcement<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A few months after the fairytale wedding, the Duchess of York wore the designer’s earrings and necklace in Bordeaux<\/p>\n

In her recently published biographical coffee table book, celebrating forty fabulous years as a jeweller and businesswoman, we discover that Kiki was one of the first fine jewellers to branch away from the traditional cardinal gemstones of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the beginning she ingeniously embraced amethysts and aquamarines, tanzanites and tourmalines – and for Diana, the then Princess of Wales, this may have been another step in paving her own path through the rigours of royal life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Always known for breaking the boundaries of the traditional princess protocol – with off-the-shoulder and one-shoulder dresses, hemlines above the knee; she also shook-up royal jewels by wearing Queen Mary’s emerald choker as a bandeau, as well as her own Saudi sapphire choker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So it is not surprising that she found Kiki’s colourful designs a breath of fresh air and in 1990 on a State Visit to the USA, she wore a pair of pearl and amethyst earrings to the White House. A photo from this engagement was on the cover of Hello magazine, amongst many other publications – and the earrings subsequently sold out!<\/p>\n

\"Kate <\/p>\n

Kate Middleton’s first royal engagement in February 2011 that we saw the future queen wear Kiki McDonough earrings to a lifeboat naming ceremony in Anglesey, Wales<\/p>\n

\"Catherine <\/p>\n

Catherine wore Kiki McDonough earrings when she visited Coach Core at the Basildon Sporting Village, 2018<\/p>\n

\"Kiki <\/p>\n

Kiki writes in her book that Kate has been a ‘great help in the evolution of the brand’<\/p>\n

Indeed the story of the former Princess of Wales waiting outside the jeweller’s first standalone store, on Elizabeth Street in Belgravia, is legendary: Kiki was making a cup of coffee and thought that a builder was joking when he told her that the princess was about to take the handle off the door – she seemed so keen to enter! He wasn’t, joking that is!<\/p>\n

But it is Kate, the current Princess of Wales, who has been her most successful royal patron with (according to several sources) at least 20 pieces in a rainbow array of colours.<\/p>\n

As Kate Middleton – it was on her first royal engagement in February 2011 that we saw the future queen wear Kiki McDonough earrings to a lifeboat naming ceremony in Anglesey, Wales.<\/p>\n

In her book, A Life of Colour, the jeweller admits that Kate, has been “a great help in the evolution of the brand”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed I think she might well have a pair of earrings to match every single outfit in\u00a0 her wardrobe in every colourway possible!<\/p>\n

\"Queen <\/p>\n

Queen Camilla chose the designer to make her royal cypher for the Coronation in 2023<\/p>\n

\"Kiki's <\/p>\n

Kiki’s design for Queen Camilla’s Coronation\u00a0is created with 18 carat white gold and set with diamonds, designed in the form of the Queen’s cypher – with C (Camilla) and R (Regina) intertwined, with a crown above<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The jeweller, Kiki with one of her famous clients, artist Sabrina Percy at the Sloane Square store<\/p>\n

\"Her <\/p>\n

Her recently published biographical coffee table book, celebrating forty fabulous years as a jeweller,<\/p>\n

\"Queen <\/p>\n

Queen Camilla in Mombasa in November 2023 during their Majesties royal tour wearing her favourite Apollo topaz pendant<\/p>\n

In recent years we have also seen Queen Camilla wearing pendant jewels from her daughter in law’s favourite jeweller.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps Kiki McDonough’s most official royal commission however was from Buckingham Palace in early 2023: the creation of a cypher brooch for Her Majesty Queen Camilla and her Companions, to be worn at the Coronation on May 6th 2023.<\/p>\n

The jewel is created in 18 carat white gold and set with diamonds, designed in the form of the Queen’s cypher – with C (Camilla) and R (Regina) intertwined, with a crown above.<\/p>\n

Of course, Kiki is more than just a jeweller to royals, my son has a pair of exquisite enamel and gold cufflinks that were given to him by his godmother. She is also a brilliant businesswoman \u2013 who inspires new generations of jewellers every day.<\/p>\n

Kiki McDonough: A Life of Colour: 40 Years of Gemstone Jewellery available on Amazon at \u00a349.99<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiki has been with Kate since the beginning, even before the now Princess of Wales became a member…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[92,533,1412,2607,5105,7710,519,448,7717],"class_list":{"0":"post-207040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-kate-middleton","10":"tag-princess-diana","11":"tag-queen-camilla","12":"tag-royal","13":"tag-royal-families","14":"tag-royal-family","15":"tag-royals","16":"tag-sarah-ferguson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114731330722369272","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}