When Queen Camilla arrived at the Italian parliament on Wednesday – the day of her 20th wedding anniversary – she won plaudits for her choice of outfit and her svelte figure.
The Queen, in a sweet gesture to King Charles, proved that she was as sustainable as her husband by wearing the same Anna Valentine coat she wore for their wedding 20 years ago.
Like Camilla, he has been wearing the same two coats for more than three decades, relying on his trusted camel overcoat and brown tweed Anderson & Sheppard coat, on numerous occasions.
The couple, who got married at The Guildhall, in Windsor, in 2005, are both cut from the same cloth as the late Queen, who regularly recycled her wardrobe and shared her closet with Princess Margaret.
A member of the Silent Generation, which was notoriously thrifty, she passed her hand-me-downs to senior staff, some of whom sold them through dress agencies, or gave them to her sister Princess Margaret.
In fact, Camilla has worn the dress, which was created by Antonia Robinson and Anna Valentine’s label Robinson Valentine, and is adorned with rows of woven discs, on at least three occasions.
She originally broke with tradition in 2007 by wearing it for the opening of the National Assembly for Wales, replacing the discs with visible seams which run vertically down the gown, and adding embroidery by Beth Somerville, a graduate from the King’s Foundation.
So, which other items in Camilla’s wardrobe have earned her the moniker Queen of Recycling?
Twenty-six years
One of the oldest and most sentimental items in Camilla’s wardrobe is an antique suite of diamond and turquoise jewellery, which she inherited.
The 19th-century necklace and earrings, which were acquired separately, belonged to the family of her father Major Bruce Shand.
Camilla teamed the necklace and earrings with a green velvet gown for Charles’s 50th birthday celebrations at Highgrove in 1998, and has worn them on many other occasions too
She wore the 19th-century necklace and earrings with a green velvet gown for Charles’s 50th birthday celebrations at Highgrove on November 14, 1998, and has worn them on other occasions since including meeting Sir Elton John, dinner at Buckingham Palace, portraits by Mario Testino, state banquets and overseas visits.
But she is not tired of them: on October 25 last year, she wore the earrings with a white Anna Valentine ensemble – a tunic and palazzo trousers – when she opened the Queen Camilla Preschool of Hope, which is run by the Samoa Victim Support Group.
Twenty years
It is one of Queen Camilla’s favourite brooches: the glittering platinum and diamond replica of a stick insect.
She has worn it on several important occasions, including to a service at Westminster Hall, marking Queen Elizabeth’s lying-in-state.
Given to her by her father Bruce, on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005, as an engagement present, it was designed by jeweller Geoffrey Munn, one of the experts on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow
Given to Camilla by her father Bruce as an engagement present on Easter Sunday in 2005, it was designed by jeweller Geoffrey Munn
It was one of a collection of gem-set bugs that Munn created when he was the managing director of the Fabergé egg specialist jeweller Wartski, which has two Royal Warrants.
‘My sons Alexander and Edward had a pet stick insect, aptly named Sticky,’ he wrote in his autobiography A Touch of Gold. ‘It occurred to me that he would make a perfect model, one that would, at very least, be utterly unique.
‘Sticky travelled by taxi to the manufacturing jeweller E. Wolfe & Co. in Hatton Garden for the modellers and setters to replicate him exactly, in glittering platinum and diamonds.
‘The brooch turned out perfectly, and Sticky, oblivious to his recent brush with immortality, came home safe and sound. Neither he, nor I, could have imagined how the story would eventually play out.
‘Mrs Parker Bowles had admired the glittering stick insect brooch. A few days later her father, Major Bruce Shand, rang to see if there was anything he might give to mark her engagement to the Prince of Wales.
He agreed the stick insect was a perfect choice and asked how it might be presented. I suggested, in the tradition of Fabergé, we might conceal it in an Easter egg from Charbonnel et Walker.
‘Once this was agreed, I took the brooch to the famous chocolatier in Bond Street and, simply on trust, handed it over the counter to be collected in an egg the following week.
‘That was when a dreadful apprehension dawned on me: how on earth could I be certain the finished egg would contain the jewel rather than a handful of champagne truffles? Mounting anxiety cost me a good deal of sleep over the weekend.
‘But it reached fever pitch the following Monday when, to my horror, I discovered the Charbonnel et Walker shop on Bond Street was rammed with hundreds of identical primrose yellow eggs, each tied with a matching silk bow.
‘If I had left the diamond brooch there on trust, I was obliged to retrieve it on nothing more than good faith. To my relief, that Easter morning, Mrs Parker Bowles was surprised and thrilled with the brooch.’
11 years
Camilla secretly switched to wearing fake fur hats after being hit by a barrage of criticism for the real-fur number she wore at the Royal Family’s Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalen’s Church in 2010.
Afterwards she bought six bespoke fake fur-trimmed hats from upmarket milliner Lock & Co, which soon became part of her signature winter wardrobe. She has worn her favourite several times, including at the Cheltenham Festival in 2014 and March this year.
The Queen bought six bespoke fake fur-trimmed hats for upmarket milliner Lock & Co, which soon became part of her signature winter wardrobe
So, when she made a subtle change to one of the items in her collection while attending church with the King in January 2023, adding some feathers to the brim, the Twittersphere went mad.
She had paired the hat with an Anna Valentine camel cashmere coat and Russell and Bromley black suede boots, both of which she also wears frequently.
One fan @camillaregbrit tweeted: ‘The Queen greeted young girls after attending Sunday church service at St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Sandringham, this morning. I love that Her Majesty added feathers in her lovely Lock & Co. fur hat. We do love feathers!’
Another posted: ‘I really love the additional feathers in one of my favourite hats of Queen Camilla’s- the Lock & Co. faux fur hat.’
Ten years
Camilla first wore her Anna Valentine polka dot dress, with a co-ordinating navy blazer, heels and clutch bag, for a visit to Venice in April 2009, during a three-day trip to Italy to discuss climate change.
But she didn’t put it to the back of her wardrobe. In fact, she wore it seven times over the next decade.
The Queen first wore the Anna Valentine dress in 2009 and has, in fact, worn it seven times over the next decade
She last donned it for a visit to Wales on July 3, 2019, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Carmarthen and District Youth Opera, of which she is patron.
She and Charles were guests of honour as the choir sang a series of hit songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Seven years
As a country woman, the Queen is a huge fan of the races and has a wardrobe fit for any purpose.
But one of her favourite country coats keeps popping out of her wardrobe.
This favourite coat of the Queens was designed by couturier Roy Allen, she first wore the flared tweed coat, which has a suede collar in 2014
Designed by couturier Roy Allen, she first wore the flared tweed coat, which has a suede collar, to the Cheltenham Festival in 2014 with a fake fur Lock & Co hat, suede boots and leather gloves.
The last time it was seen in public was at Royal Ascot in November 2021.
Five years
When it comes to shoes, Camilla is the Queen of recycling: she owns 13 pairs of shoes by bunion-busters Sole Bliss, worth a staggering £2,237, and has not needed to buy any replacements since 2018, getting them re-heeled and resoled.
She even teamed their £169 navy Carmen shoes with a Dior long gown for a state dinner at the historic 17th-century Palace of Versailles in September 2023.
Queen Camilla is such a fan of these comfortable shoes that she has recommended them to Dames Judi Dench and Mary Berry, who have revealed their gratitude
And she is such a fan that she has recommended them to Dames Judi Dench and Mary Berry, who have revealed their gratitude. Dame Judi told Sole Bliss: ‘The Queen Consort told me I have to try these shoes. You’ve saved me.’
Dame Mary added: ‘I’ve started wearing new high heels recommended to me by the Duchess of Cornwall. I used to buy all my shoes from Russell & Bromley but now I wear these. They’re very good value!’
One year+
There was only one IT bag for the Queen last summer, a £5,000 Lady Dior handbag designed by the Paris fashion house Christian Dior.
She debuted the sand-coloured cannage lambskin bag with a teal Dior dress at Royal Ascot on June 19; teamed it with an Anna Valentine taupe shirt dress, adorned with giraffes, for Wimbledon on July 10; and with a powder pink Anna Valentine dress for a trip to Wales on July 11.
There was only one IT bag for the Queen last summer, a £5,000 Lady Dior handbag designed by the Paris fashion house Christian Dior
But eagle-eyed royal watchers immediately spotted that the bag was synonymous with Princess Diana: she was given a black Chouchou bag, by France’s First Lady Bernadette Chirac during a visit to Paris in 1995.
When she died two years later, the bag, which was a prototype not yet released to the public, with four letter charms spelling DIOR, was renamed the Lady Dior bag in her honour.
‘The House’s iconic Lady Dior bag is eternally linked to Lady Diana, Princess of Wales,’ the Christian Dior website stated afterwards.
‘It’s only natural that Lady Diana, who loved the bag for its modern, elegant curves – and simply “because it suited [her] well” eventually inspired the name of this object of desire.’
Princess Diana debuted her bag on an official visit to Argentina and loved it so much she ordered it in different colours: she carried a blue one when she made her showstopping appearance at the Met Gala in New York the following year in a tribute to Dior.
