So much for warring Windsor as it was all smiles at Buckingham Palace yesterday for the Queen’s annual Christmas lunch. Meghan , Duchess of Sussex, pulled up in a Range Rover wearing an old Erdem dress and was closely followed by Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, with Prince William with kids and nanny in tow.
As paparazzi were only able to glimpse the royals from shoulders up through their car windows, the Duchess of Cambridge unleashed the perfect accessory to prove her fashion credentials. With a coral silk dress (rumoured to be Stella McCartney) she employed a pair of earrings made from pearls sculptured by nature. Followers of the Duchess’ style have keenly attributed the drop pearl earrings to In2Design, an American company founded by a mother and daughter duo.
Freshwater pearls - mind, not the perfect milky orbs so commonly associated with twinsets and pashminas - have been gaining momentum since Simone Rocha, Sonia Rykiel and Phoebe Philo’s Celine put them on the runway this year. Idiosyncratic shapes, like they’ve been hammered by the landscape, have carved a place in the jewellery boxes of all our favourite influencers (including Anna Vitiello and Pernille Teisbaek) and now, seemingly, Kate too.
Australian label Albus Lumen has been quietly sourcing creamy freshwater pearls and threading them on to gold plated hoops and studs that recall the simple beauty of Kate’s In2Design pair. Alighieri, the Brit-based brand inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, has a host of cornflake pearl earrings suspended from molten gold-plates that easily fit the Duchess’ brief.
Integrating pearls into your everyday wardrobe has never been easier. Having lost the stuffiness of ladies that lunch, wear yours like Kate (as in at night with a party dress), or like us, with jeans and a blazer.