Meghan Markle — The Duchess Whose Wedding Tiara Drew the World's Attention
Meghan Markle — The Duchess Whose Wedding Tiara Drew the World's Attention
Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau, an Art Deco tiara with a Victorian centrepiece, worn at the 2018 Royal Wedding
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, became the focus of intense international attention to royal jewellery when she wore Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau tiara at her wedding to Prince Harry on 19 May 2018. The choice of the Bandeau — an Art Deco-era piece made by Garrard in 1932 for Queen Mary, with a removable diamond brooch centrepiece dating to 1893 — drew renewed press and collector interest in the Royal Collection's tiara holdings and in Art Deco jewellery design more broadly.
The Bandeau itself
Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau is a flexible diamond bandeau composed of eleven sections, with a flat geometric structure characteristic of Art Deco design. The piece was made by Garrard, the long-time crown jeweller, in 1932 to accommodate a separate diamond brooch that had been given to Queen Mary in 1893 as a wedding present from the County of Lincoln. The brooch, made up of ten brilliant-cut diamonds in a circular arrangement, mounts at the centre of the bandeau when it is worn as a tiara, with the bandeau's flexible side sections curving around the head.
Queen Mary inherited the brooch and commissioned the bandeau specifically as a setting that would let her wear the brooch as a tiara. The piece passed to Queen Elizabeth II on Queen Mary's death in 1953, and was loaned by Queen Elizabeth to Meghan Markle for the 2018 wedding from the Royal Collection.
The choice and its reception
Royal-wedding tiara choices are scrutinised in detail by jewellery press and royal-watchers, with the selected piece typically interpreted for its symbolic and aesthetic significance. The Bandeau choice attracted particular attention because of its Art Deco styling — distinctive among the more elaborate, late-nineteenth-century tiaras that the Royal Collection holds — and because the piece had not been worn publicly in living memory before the 2018 wedding. The choice was widely interpreted in the press as a deliberate selection that suited the sleeker silhouette of Markle's Givenchy wedding dress and that signalled a more contemporary aesthetic than the traditional Royal-wedding tiaras would have communicated.
The Royal Collection context
The Bandeau is one of approximately twenty-five tiaras in the Royal Collection, ranging from large coronation-grade pieces to smaller bandeau-style works. The Collection's holdings include the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara (worn by Princess Diana and later by the Duchess of Cambridge), the Cartier Halo Scroll tiara (worn by the Duchess of Cambridge at her 2011 wedding), and the Vladimir tiara (with interchangeable emerald and pearl drops). The selection of which tiara a royal bride wears is typically made in consultation with the senior royal whose collection the piece comes from, with the choice attracting press scrutiny accordingly.
The wider royal-jewellery effect
The 2018 wedding's tiara choice triggered a measurable spike in international interest in Art Deco jewellery, with auction houses and antique dealers reporting increased demand for Art Deco diamond pieces in the months after the event. The phenomenon — sometimes called the Markle effect by trade and fashion press — is consistent with similar effects from previous royal weddings, including the impact of Princess Diana's sapphire engagement ring on coloured-stone engagement-ring sales in the 1980s.