The Wales family on Coronation Day 2023. Getty.
Happy Monday!! Today marks the one-year anniversary of the coronation. What a happy time that was to royal watch!! Let’s take a look back on the best moments, the controversies, and how our perspectives have changed, or not, one year on.
Kate wearing her coronation headpiece. Getty.
The biggest controversy, by far, was first revealed by Valentine Low. He practically shattered royal fans with his scoop that Kate, or any royal lady, would not be wearing a tiara for the coronation. “A coronation would normally be an occasion for female members of the royal family to wear their most dazzling jewellery. However, the Princess of Wales plans to go against expectation at Westminster Abbey on Saturday by not wearing a tiara for the most spectacular royal occasion for 70 years. Instead, it is thought that she is planning to wear a floral headpiece,” Low wrote in his Times column.
I laugh now as I type this, because at the time, it felt like an April Fools’ Day joke. Take a tiara event away from royal fans and you are playing with fire!! Also, the gist of the reports put this decision on Kate. Keen royal fans had a hard time believing that. “The decision to go for the floral look would be fully in keeping with a coronation that reflects King Charles’ belief in the importance of sustainability and his love of nature,” Low explained in The Times. Hmmm… Many surmised that this “no tiara” idea was Charles’, as a way to keep the focus on him or at least tap down the stunning pictures of Kate in a tiara, which tend to rightly get most of the press.
Looking back on this now, with a year’s worth of distance, I do think it was Charles’ idea not to allow tiaras. Kate wouldn’t have floated that on her own, coronations are known for their jewels. Kate looked stunning though. The headpiece she wore was a collaboration between milliner Jess Collett and Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, using real silver thread. “It also nodded to the past, specifically to the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth — the three-dimensional silver and crystal leaf headpiece worn by the Princess of Wales for the historic day looked strikingly similar to the ones worn by the late Queen's maids at her coronation,” People magazine reported.
Lady Anne Coke at QEll coronation. She was one of six maids of honor supporting the Queen and would go on to become Anne Glenconner and a best-selling author. Getty.
Kiki McDonough, a beloved jeweler of Kate’s, shared this about Kate’s headpiece. “I thought it was really interesting, and it was a great compromise. It was a modern touch, but in a way, it was slightly Romanesque because they used to wear gold coronets with leaves. But in the situation, she was in, it looked terribly modern." I think Kate was given the direction that there would be no tiaras worn. From that, Kate and her design team came up with something beautiful.
Charlotte wore a matching headpiece. Getty.
I think it’s appropriate to say that Kate looked beautiful that day, stunning. And still miss the tiaras for such an important event. If anything, Kate’s look that day was an example of pure class. She was able to meet the very high standard royal fans were expecting on such a historic day, while succumbing to Charles’ no tiaras rule. It’s a tribute to her and the talented professionals she has surrounded herself with over the course of her royal career. As we all know, Sarah Burton designed all the dresses for Kate’s wedding party. And she came through also, for the coronation.
The coronation marked a real turning point for Meghan and Harry. One, they stopped the public charade, in many ways, of their relationship. As we noted in our newsletter from that time, Brand Sussex was splitting apart.
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