Kate Middleton Subtly Honors Queen Elizabeth While Presenting Fashion Award Named in Her Honor

• Kate Middleton presented the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design at an event hosted by the British Fashion Council on May 13.

• Paying homage to British fashion in head-to-toe Victoria Beckham, Kate also paid a subtle tribute to Queen Elizabeth, whom the award was named after.

• Kate wore the late Queen’s Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings, as she has done many times before—usually for events that involve the Queen or her memory.

When it comes to Kate Middleton, nearly every outfit of hers tells a fashion story of some kind—and the look she wore today to present an award honoring British fashion was no exception.

The Princess of Wales wore mustard green Victoria Beckham separates on May 13 when she visited 180 Studios on the Strand in central London to present designer Patrick McDowell with the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design at an event hosted by the British Fashion Council on Tuesday. (When speaking of Kate, McDowell called the future queen “a real style icon.”)

At an event celebrating British fashion, it was only right to wear a British designer—which she did in the form of Victoria Beckham. It was also appropriate, as part of today’s fashion story, to subtly pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth, who founded the prize in 2018 to encourage and promote British designers and who died four years later in 2022—and whose jewelry Kate often wears.

Kate paired her jacket, trousers, and statement white shirt with the late Queen’s Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings, which Kate first wore in 2016 and has worn several times since, mostly to events that nod to Her late Majesty. The late Queen used to wear this particular pair of earrings with frequency early in her reign in the 1950s; the year after Princess Diana married into the royal family in 1981, the former Princess of Wales began wearing them as well. The earrings were received as a wedding present to the then Princess Elizabeth from the Hakim of Bahrain in 1947, the year she married Prince Philip that November 20. The earrings are, according to Tatler, “comprised of round diamond studs, from which are suspended round and baguette-cut diamonds in an Art Deco style, plus two of the Bahrain pearls.”

For the past nine years, Kate has been the exclusive wearer of these earrings, and wore them to the Queen’s funeral in 2022, the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral the year prior, and Remembrance Sunday events. She’s also worn them to less somber occasions, like Trooping the Colour in 2019, which celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s 93rd birthday.

“Since I first met Kate, she has worn pearls beautifully, and seems to have an ongoing love of pearls which has developed as her own style has, too,” British jeweler Claudia Bradby—whose designs have been worn by Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton and Helen Mirren—previously told People. (Bradby also worked with Kate before she married Prince William in 2011, back when Kate was working as a buyer at Jigsaw.) “It’s a very low-key luxury look and it tells a story—that’s the beautiful thing about jewelry.”

Sources told MailOnline that it was important to Kate to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth’s legacy through giving out the prize, adding that she has “long championed British fashion and designers” and “looks forward to continuing to do so in the years ahead.”

Of winning the award—which celebrates sustainable fashion, as Kate has been known to do—McDowell said, “It’s a huge privilege and honor. Throughout her tenure [Kate] has been an amazing advocate of British fashion and really flies the flag for British fashion.”

“She also looks incredible and is a real style icon,” he said, via The Times. “It is extra special to receive an award from her today. The royal family has been incredibly supportive, from Queen Elizabeth [to] the King.”

The award was established to “provide continuing recognition of the cultural and trade role the British design and fashion industry has played since the start of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign until the present day,” according to The Times.

“Our work centers around British craftsmanship we make in the U.K.,” McDowell said. “We try and make incredibly beautiful, sustainable circular fashion, and it’s a real honor that the royal family and the British Fashion Council have seen that.”

At one point in the day, the Princess of Wales was shown a new style of jacket called the “Wales Bar.” When asked why it was called that, she was told it was named in her honor.

“It was such a dream come true that she was presenting the award,” McDowell told People. “To see her in person and see her genuine interest and real love of fashion and, crucially, the people making the clothes—which is a love I share—was so special. She was so interested. She spent so much time meeting each of the team. She was really so kind, and that genuine interest is so crucial to how British fashion is put forward on a global stage.”

Read the original article on InStyle