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Since joining the British royal family, Kate Middleton<\/strong> has only worn tiaras on a few occasions. Those appearances have been scrutinized highlights of the royal calendar, but one banquet in November 2023 stands out as the most spectacular. During a state dinner given at Buckingham Palace in honor of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol<\/strong>, a rare diadem called the Strathmore tiara was threaded into the hair of Prince William<\/strong>\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth wearing the Strathmore tiara with King George VI on her wedding day.<\/p>\n <\/span>Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The tiara, composed of diamonds arranged to form a delicate garland of wild roses, had not been worn in public since the 1930s. Purchased from London jewelers Catchpole & Williams, it was presented to the Queen Mother, Elisabeth Bowes-Lyon, by her father, the Earl of Strathmore, on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of York in 1923. The jewel has an ingenious design; it can be worn as a tiara, but can also be disassembled to form five independent brooches.<\/p>\n Elizabeth wore it as a tiara for a series of portraits taken shortly after her wedding; according Lauren Kiehna<\/strong> of jewelry website The Court Jeweller<\/em>, she was last photographed wearing this piece in the 1930s. Upon her death in 2002, the jewel passed into the hands of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II<\/strong>\u2014who chose never to wear it. The piece was kept in a vault until it was brought out again in 2023 to adorn Kate Middleton\u2019s head at the State Dinner, at a time when many thought it too fragile or damaged to be worn again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n