The Princess of Wales Gleams in Blue and Gold Jewelry at the V&A East Storehouse

On Tuesday, the Princess of Wales wore modern blue and gold jewelry as she toured a remarkable new storehouse for V&A treasures in London.

Princess Catherine arrived at the V&A East Storehouse in Hackney Wick on Tuesday for a tour led by the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Tristram Hunt. The storehouse is a working archive that also gives free public access to the museum’s collection of more than 600,000 treasures. Some magnificent pieces are on display as part of several mini curations at the storehouse, including the largest canvas painted by Pablo Picasso. The V&A website includes a fascinating visual story that allows you to see the storehouse in action.

The Princess took a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility, learning about the work that goes into conserving and displaying objects from the museum’s collections. Here, she speaks with Oriole Cullen, Senior Fashion and Textiles Curator, and Kate Parsons, Director of Collections Care and Access, as they view a nineteenth-century riding habit.

For her trip to the storehouse, Catherine wore a blue trouser suit and heels with modern pieces of jewelry from her collection.

Her earrings, the Stella style from Carousel jewelry, are made of 22-carat gold-plated silver and set with lapis and moonstone. The earrings feature an interesting flexible hinge between the two gemstones.

Here’s a view of the earrings from the London-based brand’s website. The company, which uses sustainable shipping materials and plants a tree for each order received, calls the earrings “a refined and easy to wear style.” They retail for £130.

This is the second time that we’ve seen Kate wear the Stella earrings in public. She previously wore them in Windsor on Easter Sunday in April 2023, pairing them with a vibrant royal blue ensemble.

The necklace that Catherine wore for her visit to the V&A Storehouse is also a repeated piece from her jewelry archive: a golden chain necklace from the American jewelry designer Laura Lombardi.

The “Portrait Necklace” is made of 14-carat gold-plated brass. It has an oversized toggle clasp, which Kate wore at the nape of her neck for the storehouse visit. The necklace retails for $188.

One of Catherine’s highest-profile appearances in the necklace came in November 2022, when she wore the jewel to watch the Boston Celtics play the Miami Heat at the Garden in Boston. The game was part of the couple’s visit to Boston for the presentation of the Earthshot Prize.

For her visit to the storehouse, the Princess decided to leave her famous sapphire cluster engagement ring at home. Instead, she stacked her wedding and eternity bands with her newer sapphire and diamond eternity ring, which you can see close-up in this earlier article.