It is hard to believe we have already come around to the second Remembrance weekend without the Queen! On Saturday night, King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at the Royal Albert Hall for the Festival of Remembrance a little early to unveil bronze statues of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
To me, a lot of modern attempts at portraits and statues fall pretty flat, but these bronze works are beautiful. The likeness is very good (I love how the bronze of Philip has his hands behind his back, as he so often did in life), and they fit well in their positions. They are a beautiful tribute to a truly historic royal couple.
As they do every year now, the Prince and Princess of Wales joined other senior members of the royal family at the Festival of Remembrance. Kate recycled an Emilia Wickstead she has worn before and wore a three-strand pearl necklace that once belonged to QEII.
The headline event was, of course, Sunday’s commemoration at the Cenotaph on Whitehall. As I chronicled on Instagram, Kate recycled a Catherine Walker coat she debuted on Remembrance Sunday some years ago and paired it with the Philip Treaty hat she first wore to William’s Passing Out parade from Sandhurst in 2006.
Kate has worn that hat to the Cenotaph twice before. I think people are mixed on it. Some love it, and others hate it.
Kate’s earrings really had people buzzing. A lot of us thought these earrings, which match QEII’s Diamond and Pearl Leaf brooch, had never been seen before. But once Kate wore them Sunday morning, the internet sleuths went into high gear, and soon photos of the late Queen wearing them began to circulate.