Suzy Menkes, a former Vogue editor who was awarded an Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 2005, has fallen into the timeless trap of pitting two powerful women against each other over something very fucking stupid. Specifically, she essentially asked, “Who has more fun wearing their diamonds, pearls, emeralds, and rubies? Catherine of Wales or Queen Camilla?”
“Well, the Princess of Wales is a bit of a disappointment about jewelry, isn’t she?” Menkes said on a resurfaced episode of If Jewels Could Talk that first aired in May. “Camilla actually loves jewelry,” she told the podcast’s host, Carol Woolton, the jewelry contributing editor to British Vogue, adding that Camilla seems to really love “dramatic jewels.” (Also, Kate has her ears pierced, and Camilla doesn’t, which says, to me, that even if Kate is less dramatic, at least she’s more dedicated.)
It’s true that Kate might not wear pieces that are as fantastical as the ones Camilla chooses because, instead, she’s been known to mix affordable accessories from places like Zara and commission pieces from local artists and designers during her visits abroad. This is a much more admirable strategy, in my opinion, especially if your obscenely wealthy, notoriously out-of-touch family continues to face mounting accusations of racism, elitism, and general irrelevancy.
Menkes, for her part, did note this, saying that most of the family’s jewelry “does seem inappropriate in today’s world.” But she still decided that“[Kate] doesn’t seem to have Camilla’s joy at wearing jewelry.” We thought we’d take a look and decide that for ourselves.
