Kate's Love Affair With Kiki McDonough

This past weekend, we were out of town at my cousin’s wedding, so I am sorry this post is delayed by a day. The wedding truly was a fairytale affair. I don’t know the brand of her dress, but the style of the gown oozed Phillipa Lepley elegance. Beautiful, corseted bodice (like Phillipa’s signature style) with a delicate lace overlay on top that she could remove for the reception. The dress was Princess-level perfection. After the wedding, her sister told me that the earrings the bride wore were Kiki McDonough gifted to her by her husband-to-be the morning of the wedding!

My husband gave me Kiki McDonough’s Grace stud earrings the morning of our wedding, and he gave me the amethyst drops the day our first son was born. I am pregnant with twins now, and we are discussing whether this merits two pairs of earrings or just one. ;) I will let you know how that turns out.

Obviously, this all has got me thinking of Kate’s Kiki collection, and I thought we’d run through some of Kate’s best Kiki pieces in today’s post. Kiki McDonough was one of Kate’s most worn jewelry designers when she first joined the royal family, but she went through a little bit of a Kiki valley in 2020-2023 when she pivoted and wore a lot of gold-plated pieces. I have been delighted of late to see Kiki pieces making more appearances!

Kiki has been with Kate from the beginning, and Kiki is, without a doubt, Queen of Kate’s jewelry box. On February 24, 2011, Kate Middleton was a royal fiancée out on her first public engagement with William in Wales. She was wearing a re-tailored Katherine Hooker coat, snug stockings, cozy Aquatalia booties, a Vivien Sheriff fascinator, and dangling from her ears, glinting in gold and yellow, were citrine drop earrings from Kiki McDonough:

Kate wore these citrine drops all the time in the early days—for both formal royal events and dressed down casual outings.

Just two days after that first appearance in Anglesey, Prince William and Kate Middleton jetted to Fife, Scotland. The couple were attending the kick-off of St. Andrew’s 600th anniversary celebrations, and Kate chose another pair of Kiki McDonough earrings. The white topaz studs surrounded by diamonds—Kiki McDonough's “Grace” earrings—have been worn at home and on tour, for big royal moments and simple shopping excursions.

The couple married that April, and on their first Christmas as a married couple, Kate walked the road to church wearing a new pair of Kiki earrings. Although this style was added to Kiki’s line, at the time, William would have had to special order them, switching out the yellow citrine stones for green amethysts. Royal watchers have assumed (justifiably) that the earrings were William’s Christmas gift to Kate.

These also were added to Kate’s rotation often, although they never were as ubiquitous as the citrine drops or Grace studs.

On Valentine’s Day in 2014, Kate debuted new green amethyst drops. Again, we assume these were on Kate’s breakfast tray with a love note from William. These drops are cushion cut and cleaner, in that they do not have the diamond halo. I haven’t tallied the wears, but once Kate received these, she really switched to them and the ovals have only been spotted once since.

We know she loved the cushion-cut drops, because she also has the drops in citrine (rarely seen publicly), in morganite, which she debuted in 2015 while pregnant with Princess Charlotte, and in white topaz (not pictured).

Other show stopping pieces from Kate’s early Kiki collection include the stunning peridot and blue topaz earrings Kate wore to the African Cats premiere. That is their only wear! Nevertheless, they made a big impression on me. These are still some of my favorite earrings in Kate’s entire collection. Kiki doesn’t have the exact pair that Kate owns in stock anymore, but you can still custom order them.

Kate’s Lola drops, which she debuted around the time of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, were bigger and bolder than most earrings she’d worn to that point, and these have been seen a number of times over the years. Again, these were bespoke when Kate wore them, and Kiki then added them to her inventory.

In the “middle years,” as I think of them right now (2016—2018), Kate debuted a lot of statement drop earrings from Kiki.

But then things quieted down, and as I mentioned at the start, Kate wore cheaper pieces more often. In 2019, she debuted these Candy green amethyst drops (pictured on her at Christmas), which are absolutely on my wish list—wow.

And then in 2023, she debuted the pear drop earrings in green amethyst—she really loves green amethyst.

I am really happy she has been wearing pieces from Kiki collection again, and even expanding her collection. I think it underscores one of the things I love about Kiki McDonough jewelry: the designs are timeless, and they are high-quality jewelry at a relatively affordable price point. They will last a lifetime. I hope my cousin’s wedding-morning Kiki’s are the start of her own beautiful collection.