There are tiaras, and then there are tiaras with a past. On Tuesday night at Windsor Castle, the Princess of Wales walked into a state banquet in a gown the color of late afternoon sun, with a cape that floated behind her as she moved. But the detail that sent royal watchers straight back to their archives was sitting on her head: a pearl-and-diamond tiara that, for most of the 1980s, belonged to the image of another Princess of Wales.
A sunshine-yellow Elie Saab for the Sultan of Oman
King Charles hosted the state banquet on October 20 for Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle, as Buckingham Palace continues to undergo renovations, according to Fox News Digital, as published by Jammin 99.9. Around 160 guests attended, with Prince William at Kate’s side and Queen Camilla in the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara.
Kate chose a bright yellow Elie Saab gown from the house’s spring/summer 2025 collection, with a keyhole opening, a braided neckline and a sheer cape, reportedly priced at around $6,500, according to the New York Post report republished by Jingletree. She finished the look with the Greville diamond chandelier earrings, Queen Mary’s diamond bracelet, a gold Anya Hindmarch clutch and Aquazzura sequined pumps, along with the Royal Victorian Order sash and star traditionally worn at state dinners.
Why the Lover’s Knot is never just a tiara
The piece is Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara, made by Garrard for Queen Mary more than a century ago. It was modeled on a tiara that belonged to her grandmother, Princess Augusta, and originally carried 19 upright pearls in addition to the teardrop pearls that still hang from its diamond arches, as Marie Claire UK has detailed.
Queen Mary left it to Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, and in 1981 the Queen lent it to the new Princess of Wales. Diana wore it so often that it became one of only two tiaras she was regularly photographed in, alongside her family’s Spencer tiara. She reportedly complained that it was so heavy it gave her headaches. After her divorce in 1996, the tiara went back to the Queen, and it stayed out of sight for years.
Kate’s “old faithful”
Kate first brought it back in 2015, and she has worn it more than any other tiara since, according to Just Jared. “Kate is wearing what I like to call her ‘old faithful,'” royal commentator Amanda Matta told Fox News Digital, adding that the tiara “has truly become her signature piece of royal jewelry.”
What made Tuesday night feel special is how rarely it happens now. This was only Kate’s second tiara appearance of 2026, after three in 2025 and none in 2024, the year she stepped back for cancer treatment, Just Jared noted. Each of these evenings now reads less like routine and more like an event, which may be exactly why the photos traveled so fast. It is the same instinct that made her surprise hair change in Scotland a talking point earlier this month.
So what turns a gown into a fairy tale?
Yellow is a rare choice at a state banquet, where jewel tones and pale neutrals tend to dominate. Next to it, the white diamonds and soft pearls of the Lover’s Knot look even brighter, and the sheer cape adds the movement that photographs like a storybook illustration.
If you want to borrow the idea for a wedding or a winter party, without the tiara, the lesson is simple: wear a warm, saturated color close to the face and pair it with pearl or white-metal jewelry rather than gold, so the accents stay luminous instead of blending in. And keep one statement piece, at the ears or in the hair, not both.
The bottom line
The Lover’s Knot has now spent more years on Kate than it ever did on Diana, and yet every appearance still brings her mother-in-law’s image back into the frame. Diana’s style has a way of doing that, from her tiaras to the bag Tod’s named after her. On Tuesday, in sunshine yellow, Kate wore both the history and the moment, and made the tiara look entirely her own.
