Kate 2017 Trend #1 (It Involves Jewelry!) & Favorite Evening Gown Poll

Happy almost-New-Year to everyone. Today we start our look back at what Kate wore in 2017. In today’s post, we’ll cover one of the key trends from the year and also vote on your favorite evening gown.

The first trend we’ll examine involves something we all love: glittering, shimmering, shiny things! More specifically, the increase in instances of Kate wearing significant jewelry pieces on loan from the Queen, as well as more items that belonged to the late Diana, Princess of Wales.We begin with Diana’s jewels.

New jewelry seen this year included the Princess’s Collingwood earrings. Below left you see the Duchess wearing them at the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele in Ypres, Belgium. On the right, the first time we saw the earrings, at the Spain state dinner in July.

The earrings are so named because they were a gift from Collingwood Jewelers. In the photo above right Kate is also wearing the Lover’s Knot Tiara, another item closely associated with Diana.

In 2017 we also saw the Duchess wearing Diana’s pearl bracelet for the first time. This montage is from a July reception in Germany.

A closer look at the bracelet, designed by jeweler Nigel Milne in 1988, made of three strands of pearls accented by pearl and diamond spacers. 

The piece is said to have been a favorite of Diana’s, and I can see Kate incorporating it into a more frequent rotation.

Now we move to pieces from the Queen’s collection worn by the Duchess this year. We’ll start with an item that debuted at the Spain state dinner, the Queen’s Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau Necklace, definitely a statement piece.

A refresher on the necklace from our original post, quoting from Her Majesty’s Jewel Vault. “The intricate piece is set in silver and gold and features single rubies between diamond flowers. It’s an interesting bandeau format, a deep v-shape culminating in a diamond pendant.” Also noted at the Jewel Vault, the necklace has not been worn since the 1980s.

Next on the list: another piece worn in Belgium at events commemorating the Battle of Passchendaele.

We’re talking about the Pearl and Diamond Leaf brooch. The following quote is from the Jewel Vault’s sister site, Royal Order of Splendor:

This piece is something of an obscure member of The Queen’s brooch collection. Its provenance is so far unknown and its appearances are scarce; The Queen most notably wore it during a State Visit to South Korea in 1999.

A better view. 

At a private event in November for the Queen and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary, the Duchess wore a pearl necklace belonging to HM.

Known as the Four Row Japanese Pearl Choker, the necklace showcases pearls and a center diamond clasp set with diamonds. It was made by Garrard.

The final piece major piece loaned to Kate by HM that we’ll look at is the Diamond Quatrefoil Bracelet. Kate first wore it to a November function at the Freud Centre.

Once again we turn to Her Majesty’s Jewel Vault for information; “the wide diamond bracelet features multiple diamond quatrefoil motifs, the four-lobed design popular in architecture, art, heraldry, and elsewhere. Each quatrefoil outline is filled with five individual diamonds.” Here you see the bracelet on Kate’s wrist in November.

Below left and right you see it on the Queen’s wrist when she wore it to the State Opening of Parliament in 2010.

This offers a view of how it looked at that 2010 event.

The post at the Jewel Vault notes the bracelet “…is not a well-known member of the royal collection and it’s easy to mistake for other bracelets.”

Of course, Kate has worn many other items on loan, including tiaras, bracelets, brooches and earrings. Most often we see her wear one of several pairs of earrings. In this montage of Kate on her way to the Diplomatic reception over the years, you can some of those earrings. On the far right, the Collingwood pair.

A big “thank you” to Her Majesty’s Jewel Vault and the Royal Order Of Splendor for the outstanding information on both sites.

This isn’t the only jewelry being covered in the year-end posts; I just wanted to get started on looking at some of the year’s main trends. We will have our regular jewelry polls in the next week or so.

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Now it is time to look at the evening gowns worn by the Duchess in 2017. Below, an Alexander McQueen style worn at a February BAFTA reception. It is done in a silk/poly jacquard adorned with small bouquets of violets. The piece features a Bardot neckline, fitted bodice, a full skirt with multiple tiers defined by the horizontally placed satin ribbon, and a hidden zipper at the back.

For a Paris dinner in March, Kate chose a Jenny Packham design with a layer of embroidered and embellished tulle atop a silk satin dress. The floral motif is created by the hand-sewn beading, rhinestones and sequins.

Kate chose a new lace gown by Temperley London for a National Portrait Gallery gala in March. The dress has a fitted bodice and full skirt, sheer sleeves and front upper bodice, and a deeply scooped out back. The sleeves and collar are both trimmed in eyelash lace. (This was first worn to an event last year at Windsor Castle commemorating the Queen’s 90th birthday.) 

This next one is tough because we don’t have good photos, merely screen grabs. It is the Spain State Dinner in July, and Kate is wearing a Marchesa gown with a deep vee neckline front and back in scalloped lace, belled lace sleeves, and a full skirt.

In November the Duchess brought back a gown many are fond of for an event at the Freud Centre, the black lace Zarita by Diane von Furstenberg. The lace used in this piece is the same floral pattern seen in the Temperley green lace dress shown above.

Our final piece in this category is the Jenny Packham worn to this year’s Royal Variety Performance. The dress has a layer of illusion tulle covered in hand-sewn sequins, beads and crystals in a floral motif.

Now it’s time to pick your favorite. I’m excited to see how this poll turns out; we had some dresses this year that were in the “loved it” or “hated it” category, with not much middle ground shown in the reactions.