Here are more photos from King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit to the Vatican yesterday. I’ll give Cam some credit: if she hadn’t worn that absolutely bonkers headpiece, the meeting and photos would not have gotten this much attention. I believe people were shocked by Camilla’s headpiece, honestly. I’ve looked it up – while it’s traditional for non-Catholic queens to wear a mantilla – the black veil and/or head-covering – it’s not traditional for any queen to wear the veil with this kind of large headpiece. Certainly not with a headpiece which resembles a gothic crown of crows. I’ll give Camilla some credit for it though – it’s metal as f–k. I just don’t think she intended to look so metal. Here are some additional details about Camilla’s goth look:
A standout accessory to her attire, Queen Camilla wore a traditional mantilla headpiece with a long black veil, designed by Philip Treacy and featuring a crown of leaf-shaped pieces. The veil of Queen Camilla’s mantilla included delicate floral embroidery, echoing the botanical inspiration of the ornate piece.
Wearing a black silk dress by Fiona Clare and a Philip Treacy mantilla, Camilla wore the Raspberry Pip Brooch. Shaped like a Georgian cross, the brooch is “originally part of Queen Elizabeth II’s private collection, it’s believed to have been one of the late monarch’s favorites. However, it wasn’t publicly worn for decades — until Queen Camilla revived it during the 2023 Christmas service, becoming the first to showcase it in recent history,” Maxwell Stone of U.K. jewelers Steve Stone told WWD via email.
Interestingly, it was never worn in public by the late Queen, but Camilla often wears it as a tribute to Her late Majesty, who died in 2022. The piece is designed in the shape of a Georgian cross, is set with topaz and diamonds, and is valued at an estimated $53,000, per The Daily Express.
Camilla paired the brooch with an Edwardian pearl necklace that has a romantic link to Charles, Tatler reported. The necklace—which features a diamond clasp—was previously worn by Camilla for her 14th anniversary photo with Charles in 2019, as seen in a photograph taken by Alexi Lubomirski. She also wore the necklace to Royal Ascot in 2016 and to the State Opening of Parliament in 2022.
During the British royal couple’s visit to Vatican City, Queen Camilla wore a second look antithetical to her attire while meeting Pope Leo XIV. Queen Camilla wore a white dress with a flowing coat featuring delicate embroidery.
Re: the pearl necklace, I’m pretty sure that piece once belonged to Charles’s grandmother, the Queen Mum, and as soon as he inherited it, he gave it to Camilla. She wore it often as Duchess of Cornwall, and it seems to be one of her favorite pieces. As for the topaz-and-diamond cross… it’s interesting that QEII never wore it publicly, just as it’s interesting that Camilla has consistently pulled out some never-before-seen or rarely-seen pieces from both the Royal Collection and QEII’s private collection. I don’t hate that, but it’s crazy that there are SO MANY pieces no one has ever seen. Of course, no one was looking at Cam’s jewelry, not with that statement headpiece.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
