Camilla Queen Consort honours the late Queen Elizabeth II at State banquet with 'gorgeous' sentimental jewels

Camilla Queen Consort wears late Queen's tiara, earrings and necklace as she joined King Charles III for their first State banquet as monarch.

The Queen wearing blue sapphire jewels split layout with Camilla Queen Consort wearing same blue sapphire jewels
(Image credit: Getty/ Getty)

Camilla Queen Consort has paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II by wearing her blue sapphire jewellery as she dresses head-to-toe in the colour for the State banquet.


Camilla Queen Consort is wearing head to toe in blue with the Queen's sapphire jewellery completing her 'gorgeous' look at the State banquet.

As wife of King Charles III, Camilla Queen consort attended the first State banquet since her husband took to the throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

But the late monarch wasn't far from thought as Camilla chose to wear an all blue ensemble and wore matching blue sapphire crown, earring and necklace set which previously belonged to the Queen.

The State banquet was held to welcome the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to the UK and Camilla took inspiration from the Queen for her blue ballgown and accessories.

But while her jewels were sentimental, her outfit was thrifty as Camilla had previously worn the Bruce Oldfield dress to the Commonwealth leaders' dinner in Rwanda with King Charles back in June and the dress made another appearance for her Vogue ahead of her 75th birthday.

And if you're wondering about the historical importance of the jewels, the sapphires were acquired in stages by Queen Elizabeth - the necklace and earrings were a wedding gift from her beloved father, King George VI, in November 1947.

Camilla's antique jewels, dating to the Victoria era, once belonged to the Queen and is her Belgium Sapphire Tiara and the George VI Sapphire earrings and necklace. 

And later, Queen Elizabeth II acquired a diamond and sapphire necklace, which used to belong to a Belgian princess. In the 1960s the necklace was set on a tiara frame and originally featured 18 sapphires, sat on a gradient, ranging from 8 to 30cts, before Queen Elizabeth redesigned it in 1952 - removing four of the sapphire clusters from the back and remodelled and reset one of larger stones from the front, to create a beautiful pendant for the necklace. She also commissioned a bracelet to complete the set.

Diamond experts at UK retailer Steven Stone, said, "For her first tiara as Queen Consort, Camilla chose Queen Elizabeth II's Belgian Sapphire tiara - worth £5,000,000, the tiara is another historic piece and was refashioned from a 19th century necklace once owned by Princess Louise of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

The Queen Consort paid further tribute to the late monarch by pairing the tiara with Queen Elizabeth II's King George VI Victoria Suite. Featuring some of the late monarch's most meaningful jewels that were gifted to her by her Father, the suite consists of a sapphire and diamond cluster line necklace, a pair of sapphire earrings and a bracelet. The King George VI Victorian Suite is likely to be worth £5,000,000, meaning that Camilla was wearing a staggering £10,000,000 worth of Queen Elizabeth II's jewels."

Camilla wore the pieces and finished off her outfit with a royal blue sash and wore the Royal Family Order which is made up of a portrait of the Queen on a yellow ribbon. 

And fans have praised the Queen Consort's look.

One wrote, "Queen Camilla looks gorgeous. Blue suits her." Another fan put, "blue is definitely her colour" and a third added, "she look amazing ❤️❤️❤️."

Selina Maycock
Senior Entertainment Writer

Selina is currently a Senior Entertainment Writer for Goodto.com, formerly Senior Entertainment writer for Woman&Home, and My Imperfect Life and has more than 16 years of experience in newspapers, magazines and online. She currently writes a mix of Entertainment news - including celebrity births, weddings and reality show line-ups including Strictly, Dancing On Ice and The Great British Bake Off, reporting the the latest news about the Royal kids Prince George, Charlotte, Louis, Archie and Lilibet as well as Family news stories from baby names to store closures and product recall warnings. Before joining Future Publishing, Selina graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2006 with a degree in Journalism. She is fully NCTJ and NCE qualified and has 100wpm shorthand. When she's not interviewing celebrities you can find her exploring new countryside walking routes, catching up with friends over good food, or making memories.