Not for nothing is Princess Anne known as the Queen of the royal rewear. The Princess Royal, 74, has been known to recycle outfits across a span of five decades, dazzling at the most lavish of events in dresses first seen when the royal was in her 20s. Commonwealth Day 2025 was no different, with Princess Anne not only making her return in a coat she wore to Commonwealth Day celebrations in 2023 but also selecting one of the most sentimental brooches in her jewellery collection.
The Princess Royal was the picture of elegance at Westminster Abbey, where she joined King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William, the Princess of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester for a service of appreciation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was in attendance, as was Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner (the sartorial spitting image of the Princess of Wales in a deep red dress) and Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch. As Princess Anne enjoyed performances by Joan Armatraiding and Braimah and Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, royal watchers everywhere were moved by her poignant choice of jewellery.
The stalactite brooch gleamed under Westminster Abbey’s vaulted ceilings, and the Princess’s choice to wear the eye-catching piece is no doubt all the more moving considering its emotional history. The brooch, crafted from cascading diamonds and yellow gold, has been in the Princess Royal’s possession since 1973, when she was gifted it before her wedding to Captain Mark Philips by her mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Princess Anne paired the piece with an architectural teal coat, one that fans of the royal’s wardrobe will no doubt have recognised from her outings to the Cheltenham Festival in 2016 and 2020, as well as a parade in honour of the Afghanistan Operational Service Medals in 2013, and the royal Christmas celebrations at Sandringham in 2016. Most notably, though, the Princess had previously sported the sharp statement coat for a previous Commonwealth Day celebration in 2023.
As for the Princess’s earrings, Anne was seen sporting a glittering pair of floral-inspired jewels, which date back (at least!) to 1984, when she wore them for a banquet held in the Gambia.
Of course, Princess Anne wasn’t the only royal to grace Westminster Abbey with an oh-so-royal re-wear on Monday. Queen Camilla channeled Spring style in a baby pink satin coat dress by Fiona Clare – who said that she was ‘proud and honoured’ to have been offered Queen Camilla’s royal warrant in a December social media post. Her Majesty paired the dress with a matching hat by legendary milliner Philip Treacy. Clearly a favourite look of the Queen’s, the dress and hat had previously been worn on Camilla’s trip to France with King Charles in 2023, when the royal pair met with President Emmanuel Macron.
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The Princess of Wales, too, was sporting a red Catherine Walker dress that she had previously donned for the Together At Christmas carol service in 2021. Like her aunt, Catherine opted for some truly sentimental jewellery for the Commonwealth Day celebrations today. The mother of three wore a pearl choker necklace at Westminster Abbey, a piece previously owned by Queen Elizabeth II and crafted by Garrard from pearls reportedly gifted to the Queen by the Japanese government in the 1970s to mark her state visit to the nation.
The late Queen rarely wore the necklace, but fans caught a glimpse of the four strands of pearls during a visit to Bangladesh in 1983. Elizabeth II loaned the jewels to Princess Diana in 1982, when the late Princess of Wales welcomed Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to a banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Kate Middleton has worn the choker to some of her most major royal engagements. In 2017, she chose it for a party held in honour of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s diamond wedding anniversary, and in a truly poignant gesture, the then Duchess of Cambridge wore the pearls for Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021.
The Princess of Wales also wore Princess Diana’s beloved Collingwood pearl earrings, a set gifted to Prince William’s mother to mark her wedding day. Princess Diana wore the earrings soon after the nuptials, showcasing them at a dinner held at Claridge’s for King Khalid of Saudi Arabia in June 1981.
The late Princess of Wales also chose the Collingwood pearls for a trip to watch Starlight Express in 1984 and paired them with Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot tiara during a dinner at the British Embassy in Washington D.C, the day after her iconic dance with John Travolta in the White House.
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Kate Middleton would go on to treasure the Collingwood earrings, making her debut in them in 2017 for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in honour of the Spanish royals. On that occasion, Catherine, like Princess Diana, paired them with the Lover’s Knot tiara – a combination to which she also turned for the Dutch state banquet and the Diplomatic Corps reception in 2018. Perhaps most famously, the Princess of Wales wore the pearl earrings for her majestic 40th birthday portrait in 2021.
Elsewhere in the celebrations, King Charles will officially start the countdown to the 2026 Commonwealth Games, set to be held in Glasgow, by launching the Commonwealth Sport King’s Baton Relay from Buckingham Palace. Baroness Scotland will then host both King Charles and Queen Camilla at Marlborough House for the annual Commonwealth Day Reception, where they will hear a commemorative song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber in honour of the inaugural Commonwealth Peace Prize, which was awarded on 3 March to Rev Dr James Movel Wuye and Imam Dr Muhammad Nurayn Ashafa for their work promoting inter-faith unity between Muslims and Christians.
