Tiaras emerging from the misty past is a theme of my countdown of the best royal jewels of 2025, and that includes the delightful reappearance this November of the Princess of Monaco’s wedding tiara.
Monaco celebrates its National Day each November 19th with a program of events that culminates in a glittering gala at the Grimaldi Forum. Though it’s a white tie event, the ladies of the Grimaldi family don’t usually wear tiaras for the gala these days—but Princess Charlene did this year! She arrived for the opera wearing a sleek gown with the Diamond Foam Tiara, previously seen only during her wedding celebrations more than a decade ago.
The tiara is a modern aigrette-style ornament that mimics the droplets rising off a cresting wave. Designed by the jeweler Lorenz Bäumer, it’s one of the wedding presents that Prince Albert II commissioned for Charlene ahead of their nuptials in the summer of 2011. The water theme of the jewel is appropriate, given Charlene’s history as an elite swimmer and her passion for water sports and water safety.
Glimpses of Charlene wearing the tiara have been rare. We saw video footage of her trying on the tiara at the Palais Princier shortly before the wedding, with Bäumer looking on.
Charlene’s only real public appearance in the tiara, until this year’s outing, came during the couple’s wedding reception on the Opera terraces in Monaco in July 2011.
In November, delightfully, Charlene finally decided to wear the tiara in public again. This time, she opted for its more dramatic setting, wearing the jewel so that the pear-shaped diamonds rise from behind her right ear to hover over her hair. I’ve decided that I will personally take credit for her tiara decision, because I hoped in an article earlier this year that she would wear a tiara on National Day. Wish granted!
Tomorrow morning I’ll reveal the eighth place winner on this year’s best jewels countdown. Hint, hint: there’s another tiara involved…!
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