Queen Camilla wears historic royal jewellery for state banquet

If there was a fashion memo issued to Queen Camilla and Melania Trump for this visit, it’s clear that both received it and took note.

Both women wore shades of pink for the state banquet at the White House in honour of the King and Queen. They were also co-ordinated earlier in the day in pale, almost-white hues.

For the evening banquet, Her Majesty chose a fuchsia gown by Fiona Clare, one of her most trusted couturiers, which featured an intricately beaded bodice and sleeves.

Jewellery is important at these ceremonial occasions, and it’s notable that the Queen elected not to wear a tiara. Instead, she made an impactful choice in her diamond and amethyst demi-parure, a set which has been passed down through the queens of the Royal family, from Queen Victoria (who inherited the set from her mother) to now. Elizabeth II wore elements of it on numerous occasions, including a state visit to the US in 1991.

The First Lady wore one of her favourite labels, Dior, whose creative director is Northern Ireland-born Jonathan Anderson. Her couture gown was a light candyfloss shade, with sculptural, structured folds, and was teamed with opera gloves.

The message? It’s their co-ordination that spoke most powerfully: harmony, co-operation and warmth. My colleague Bethan Holt expressed it best: “These subtle but meaningful callbacks create a visual thread tying these historic moments together.”

Other guests pulled out all the stops too: Ivanka Trump in a pale blue caped Reem Acra gown, Lauren Sanchez Bezos in a black off-the-shoulder ballgown with a green necklace.

The first full day of the King and Queen’s visit to the US began with a formal welcome ceremony, and both Camilla and Melania wore light-coloured outfits with wide-brimmed hats. Flanking their husbands as they arrived on the South Lawn at the White House, their mirrored outfits served as a visual representation of the Special Relationship. Assignment well and truly understood.

Was the almost-white palette also intended to signify peace or harmony in turbulent geopolitical times? Who knows, but the message would be an appropriate one.

Of course, each woman has her own style signature, and neither was sacrificed in the name of international diplomacy. Melania is reliably fond of a light-coloured jacket with a defined waist and co-ordinating skirt. So fond that she’s worn three variations on the look in the past week alone, including the Adam Lippes butter yellow outfit worn to greet the royal arrivals on Monday afternoon.

Her Ralph Lauren suit was completed by an Eric Javits boater, a summery iteration of a millinery style that has become her signature – the Don’t Get Too Close silhouette, also seen at her husband’s inauguration, and during the Trumps’ state visit to the UK last year.

In contrast, the Queen’s pistachio-hued silk crepe dress had a softer silhouette, in keeping with her own personal style. The design is Fiona Clare, and every dress is made bespoke.

Designing for a world stage is less about fashion, more about helping the Queen to look and feel her best, Clare tells the Telegraph. “You want to make anyone look elegant, and create the illusion of height,” she says. “I always think about the dress as a complete cut. I always panel it, and shape my panels to emphasise her waist.

It’s important that the design doesn’t distract the wearer from their role, or from the occasion she may be attending. “It needs to be really comfortable, and work for walking around and sitting down, so you don’t even need to think about what you’re wearing, I think that is so important.”

The Queen’s hats, almost always Philip Treacey, are wide-brimmed as well, but turned up at one side, making for a photo-friendly image.

Her Majesty chose one of the Royal family’s most historic brooches to complete her daytime ensemble. The Cullinan V brooch features an 18.8 carat heart-shaped diamond at its centre.

It was one of nine major diamonds cut from the famous 3,000-carat Cullinan stone mined in South Africa in 1905. The original stone had been presented to King Edward VII, but it was his daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, who chose how this diamond would be set.

The brooch was a favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth II throughout her life (as was the “Granny’s Chips” brooch, which featured the Cullinan III and IV diamonds). She wore it on many occasions but perhaps most memorably in the Paddington Bear sketch which she filmed at Buckingham Palace shortly before she died. The brooch was set into Queen Camilla’s crown for the Coronation in 2023 and since then she has reverted to wearing it as a brooch.

Cullinan I is on the British Royal Sceptre and Cullinan II on the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain.

That she chose such a meaningful piece of jewellery lends gravitas to the occasion. It acknowledges the depth of history between the two countries, and the importance of their continued alliance.

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