Queen Camilla’s brooch-wearing streak continued last week with an appearance in two of the late Queen’s favorite diamond jewels: her Cartier ivy leaf clip brooches.
On Thursday, King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate exceptional individuals and organizations contributing towards humanitarian efforts across the globe.
For the event, Queen Camilla wore a blue dress and her favorite diamond and pearl drop earrings, plus the Greville Ivy Leaf Clips that belonged to her late mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II.
The brooches are sister pieces, made by Cartier in the 1920s and 1930s for Dame Margaret Greville. In 1942, she bequeathed them to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who in turn gave them to her elder daughter, Princess Elizabeth, as a 21st birthday present in April 1947. Elizabeth, who became Queen five years later, wore the brooches for more than seven decades. Here, during a visit to America in 1951, she wears one of the brooches on her coat and the other pinned to her hat. The following year, they were the last jewels she was photographed wearing before her accession to the throne.
If my records are correct, Queen Elizabeth II’s final public appearance in the clip brooches came in May 2022, a full 75 years after she had received them as a birthday gift. She wore them at Windsor Castle for a meeting with the Emir of Qatar.
Queen Camilla made her first appearance in the diamond clips in February 2024. She pinned them to a navy striped jacket as she attended a memorial service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor in honor of the late King Constantine II of Greece.
She wore the brooches again on Christmas Day in 2024, pinning them to a forest green coat for the royal family’s annual walk to church at St. Mary Magdalene near the Sandringham estate.
Last week’s reception marks Camilla’s third outing in the brooches. This time, she pinned them to her dress rather than to her collar, but she continues to prefer to wear one on either side of her neckline.
We also got a glimpse of Camilla’s usual bracelets and rings as she shook hands during the reception, as well as the gold pinky ring that we first noted here last week.
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