It is believed that the diamond and pearl fringes on the current piece came from a tiara owned by Louise of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the Duchess of Argyll, who died childless, leaving part of her treasure to her nephew, Prince George, husband of Marina of Kent.
The tiara, in its new design, was a hallmark of Katharine of Kent’s life as a duchess, as she wore it from the late 1990s through the early 2000s, when she gradually decided to step back from her royal duties. Lady Marina Windsor is the second bride to choose the tiara in its current, combined form. Before her, it adorned the ensemble of Lady Helen, the second daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Kent—and thus the bride’s aunt—when she married her husband, Tim Taylor, in 1992.
Lady Marina Windsor is the daughter of George Windsor, Earl of St. Andrews, and Sylvana Tomaselli, an academic of Italian-Canadian descent who had been previously married. Because Tomaselli was a divorcee, she married George in a civil ceremony in 1988 and instead of a white dress and tiara, wore a blue polka-dot velvet suit and a formal hat.
Tim Taylor and Lady Helen on their wedding day in Windsor in 1992.
Mathieu Polak/Getty Images
With the Duchess of Kent retired, and her daughter Helen and the wives of her sons George and Nicholas living lives far from the royal spotlight, the diamond-and-pearl tiara remained locked away in a safe for years until it reemerged in 2022 at the exhibition Power & Image: Royal & Aristocratic Tiaras, organized in London by Sotheby’s. Thanks to Lady Marina Windsor, it has returned once more to shine for the public in the light of day.
Originally published in Vanity Fair Italia.
