Last week, The Princess of Wales visited Leicester to celebrate the city’s Indian community, where they were presented with a garland of roses, a symbol of respect and honor in Indian culture, which was also adorned with pearls.

Pearls are, of course, a constant in Kate Middleton’s wardrobe. For the 2026 Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 9, the princess wore a royal blue coat dress by her perennial favorite, Catherine Walker, accessorized with a five-strand pearl necklace designed by Susan Caplan. Polished, poised and smiling alongside her husband Prince William, Kate completed her look with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Bahrain pearl drop earrings, crafted from a stash of seven rare pearls that the Hakim of Bahrain gave to then-Princess Elizabeth on their wedding day in 1947.

Kate has been turning to her pearl necklace more often for public occasions. She wore them with a cream bouclé Self-Portrait jacket and a velvet bow in her hair down to her head. VE Day 80th Anniversary Concert at Horse Guards Parade in May 2025, and in London to honor Holocaust Memorial Day the previous January.

Traditionally, royalty wore trimmed pearls when in mourning. Notably, Kate wore a Garrard pearl and diamond four-strand choker, which the late Queen had commissioned using pearls gifted to her by the Japanese government in the 1970s, to Her Majesty’s state funeral in September 2022.