I got it wrong when I covered the Princess of Wales’s appearance for Holocaust Remembrance Day. I correctly ID’d Kate’s earrings, which are the Royal Collection’s “Bahrain earrings,” one of QEII’s favorite pairs. But I thought Kate was also wearing QEII’s five-strand pearl necklace. As it turns out, not so much – Kate apparently purchased this pearl necklace from a Jewish-owned vintage jeweler. As in, Kate and her people planned ahead and specifically chose a piece of jewelry with a Jewish connection for Holocaust Remembrance Day?
Kate Middleton wore a meaningful selection of jewelry to the Holocaust Memorial Day service in London, where she joined Prince William to honor the solemn occasion. On Jan. 27, internationally observed as Holocaust Memorial Day, the Princess of Wales, 43, attended a ceremony commemorating the day and marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The event also marked her first public appearance since revealing on Jan. 14 that she is in remission from cancer — a poignant moment made even more significant by her thoughtful sartorial choices.
During the service, Prince William, 42, and Princess Kate met with Holocaust survivors and participated in a moving tribute. Dressed in an elegant all-black ensemble, the princess subtly conveyed her support through her jewelry. She wore Queen Elizabeth’s Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings, Princess Diana’s tri-strand pearl bracelet and a new five-strand pearl necklace from luxury vintage jeweler Susan Caplan.
While the earrings and bracelet are cherished pieces from Kate’s royal collection, the necklace — a creation by the Jewish-owned brand — was a debut. Susan Caplan expressed gratitude for the princess’ choice, which carried both symbolic and cultural significance on such a meaningful day.
“Today marks 80 years since the Holocaust, and as a Jewish owned brand we are honored that the Princess of Wales chose to wear our necklace for today’s memorial to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day,” the Susan Caplan team wrote on Instagram on Jan. 27, posting pictures of Princess Kate at the event.
I’m actually slightly impressed that Kate and her team thought this out – the bar is in hell, and we’re supposed to be like “wow, she did that one very minor thing of buying jewelry,” but still, she put some thought into it. A piece of jewelry with a Jewish connection, earrings from QEII and a bracelet worn by Diana. Of course, since we’re talking about Kate, she also grabbed her Chanel purse for the appearance, which kind of dulls the significance of the necklace. It would be like showing up to the same event in head-to-toe Hugo Boss.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales attended a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and.the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in London. The event brought together faith and civic leaders as well as survivors of the Holocaust and more recent genocides.,Image: 958095700, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Arthur Edwards/Avalon/Avalon
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales attended a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and.the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in London. The event brought together faith and civic leaders as well as survivors of the Holocaust and more recent genocides.,Image: 958095716, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Arthur Edwards/Avalon/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales meets Rachell Levy during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, Rachell Levy Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales meets Yvonne Bernstein during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, Yvonne Bernstein Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales attends a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
So her staff had time to source and buy the necklace but didn’t announce she was going to the service until the last minute as a “surprise” so she could get all the attention on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Shenanigans.
She certainly got more attention than the King did in the Wail.
Not a good thing when the media makes it all about keen
It was such a surprise she didn’t get that big wig combed and styled properly for the occasion.
Yep! And they sourced the necklace but still let her carry the controversial Chanel bag!
I honestly wonder why she doesn’t have a better team. Is it just Natasha advising her? Does her mother help her? I don’t understand how some things can be the most minute details but others are just totally overlooked.
Chanel is a Jewish owned brand and even was during WW2….
That little conspiracy theorist’s voice in my head is saying “they definitely said that the necklace was from a Jewish-owned brand to try to smother the Chanel handbag backlash but it’s just QEII’s necklace” and I’m trying really hard not to listen to it.
Chanel was never a “Jewish-owned brand.” Coco Chanel licensed her #5 perfume to a French businessman, who was Jewish, and then tried to use her Nazi connections (she was a collaborator) to break their contract. It’s a terrible choice of designer for Holocaust Remembrance Day – no wonder they’re trying to divert attention by focusing on the necklace.
She can never get it right. Hard to believe that she doesn’t have another black purse.
Chanel is a Jewish owned brand and was during WW2 as well
NO, it absolutely was NOT.
Chanel the fashion house was founded by Coco Chanel as a solo venture in 1909 (began as hats, did not expand to clothes until 1913). Operations were suspended during WWII. They did not resume until 1954, well after the war, with Coco Chanel at the helm and Wartheimer owning the business.
The sister company, Parfums Chanel, was co-founded in 1924 by Coco Chanel (10%), Theophile Bader (Jewish, 20%), and Pierre Wartheimer (Jewish, 70%). Wartheimer and Bader handed legal control over to a Christian guy in 1940 so they could safely fuck off over to anywhere that wasn’t Europe without the Nazi’s stealing their business, and resumed control after the war.
There is a LOT of detail to go over that is quite important, but here’s the TL;DR highlights:Coco Chanel founded the fashion house by herself, later founded a separate side business in perfumes with two Jewish guys she absolutely hated, tried to steal the majority of the perfume company out from under them during WWII WHILE SHE WAS ACTIVELY WORKING FOR THE NAZIS, after the war founded a rival perfume company with almost the same name to try to destroy the perfume company with the Chanel name still being run by the Jewish guys, FAILED, and then had to crawl back to them for funding and handed over her entire fashion company to get it.
I actually think the pearls being from a Jewish designer was a thoughtful gesture. But as @nic919 pointed out yesterday, it showed forethought and planning. So why the last minute surprise appearance announcement?
It gives the game away and such a silly game.
The transparent game playing is so off-putting.
I thought she didn’t know in advance if she’d be having a “good” day or a “bad” day?
Controversial take: good for kate. I will applaud anyone who shows integrity around this issue. Yes even Kate. You all realize we could have gotten a nod to the handmaids tale or nazi fashions or an “idc do you” jacket? Stronger people than her are toning it down left and right.
Idgaf if it’s just “for show.” I don’t even think the Chanel purse was intentional. It’s at least showing the world that western civil society obliges decorum around the Holocaust. I will absolutely be happy to welcome ANYONE who is upholding that vision of the world.
It is easy to assume that people know more than they do, I didn’t know about Chanel and I am older than her parents.
My controversial take is that she waited until the last minute to say she was coming because otherwise the event would have been even more about her, with paps lining the roads. So that was a good thing, and to the extent she pre-planned but didn’t announce until the last minute, that’s OK with me. Of course, the Chanel purse is still wrong for this event, and the doll hair is still awful, and she’s probably private-jetting to Mustique for Carol’s 70th as we speak (maybe this visit is even a hedge for when that comes out).
My other take: Did she go back to bottoxing the middle of her forehead, and her crows feet? But not the sides of her forehead because she had that wonky eyebrow issue. Maybe that’s airbrushing though.
Hmm. Idk. I still think it’s more professional to announce an event that she is planning on attending. And not on the day of. She has security and there’s nothing wrong with more attention going towards the memorial.
Pearls are definitely the gem of choice to wear to funerals and memorial. So Kate was armed with the pearls of both Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana. A nice idea. I always remember the Queen with her triple strand of pearls. It would be interesting to know when she wore five strands and to what occasions.
The Queen wore a longer five strand pearl necklace to a reception for one of Anne’s birthdays, I think the 50th? There are photos online.
What I find interesting, apart from the timing issues mentioned above, is that we only know that the necklace came from Susan Kaplan because they posted it on their Instagram page. They actually posted it twice, the first time they merely indicated their pleasure that Kate wore the necklace and the second time they added in their perception of the significance of her having worn it that day, after some people online presume that was why she had worn it. Honestly, to me, the significant seems like more of a happy accident.
The reason Kaiser thought the necklace had belonged to the Queen was because the Telegraph reported it as such. Also, Kensington Palace kept mum and did not correct the Telegraph’s identification of the necklace as one having belonged to the Queen. It was members of the public that brought attention to the Susan Kaplan post
This makes me think they, Kate and KP, were happy if the public thought that Kate the Great was wearing yet another of the Queen’s jewels (as a way to foster an idea that they were close, perhaps?). This makes me wonder about any of the pearl necklaces that Kate wears that were supposedly the Queen’s. Like those she wore around the time of the Queen’s funeral.
Interesting. Thx for that timeline. It’s weird though bc why wouldn’t they want people to connect the pearls with a thoughtful gesture.
Because I don’t think that a “thoughtful gesture” was behind her original intent of wearing the necklace. That “gesture” was touted by other people, derangers mostly, and then Susan Kaplan picked up on it in the second Instagram post.
I think others have already said it: “if you hadn’t planned on going to the memorial did you know to purchase a pearl necklace by a Jewish-owned brand Katie?”
What won’t that group lie about?
I don’t think she gave it a thought but somebody on her staff did. The bar is in hell so I give her no cookies for this.
That hair and the wig hang on her unattractively.
It’s pretty clear in these pictures that the extensions are out in full force.
Fun Fact: Chanel was and is a Jewish owned company. Coco Chanel was furious about it and tried all kind of dirty tricks to snatch control during the war, but the owners (Werthheimers I believe) outsmarted her.
The House of Chanel and Parfums Chanel were two completely separate companies.
House of Chanel was founded by Chanel alone in 1909 and the Wartheimers didn’t buy control until 1954, when Chanel herself came crawling back from her self-imposed post-Nazi-collaboration exile in Switzerland.
Parfums Chanel was founded in 1924 by Chanel (10%), some guy named Bader (20%), and Wartheimer (70%). That was the one she was doing all those dirty tricks to seize control of, basically from the day it was founded because she thought she had gotten screwed over on the deal. She just really ramped it up during the war, and AFTER the war she created another Chanel perfume company in Switzerland to try to destroy Parfums Chanel, but that kinda failed. Then in ’53 she came crawling back to Wartheimer to secure funding to re-establish the House of Chanel and gave him all the rights to the name in the process.
Her hand is still on her tummy as she did before the reported abdominal surgery .
Wow. These people survived the Holocaust, and Kate…bought a necklace. Golf clap, I guess?🤷♀️
A well-researched piece of jewellery for a totally unplanned and last minute event in her schedule.
I still think she looks over-dressed for the event and the mis-matched blacks are making me twitchy.
She’s been wearing a wig for so long I can’t recall what her real hair looks like – any photos out there au naturel?