Catherine's Wimbledon Earrings Are Everything Right Now

On 2 July, the Princess of Wales arrived at Wimbledon for Day 4 of the 2026 Championships in a sapphire-blue Gabriela Hearst linen suit, chocolate brown Ralph Lauren pumps, and a pair of earrings that cost £170 from a British independent jeweller. By the following morning, those earrings were on pre-order backlog with a five-week wait. Carousel Jewels' Stella earrings (sterling silver with 22-carat gold vermeil, a round moonstone at the top, a lapis lazuli drop below) had done the thing that royal jewellery occasionally does when the conditions are exactly right.

I want to be clear about what I find interesting here, and it is not the Kate Effect in its usual transactional form. What I find interesting is the choice itself. The Princess of Wales has access to the Crown Jewels. She has the Lover's Knot tiara and the Garrard sapphire ring and the Cambridge emerald choker. She chose to wear a £170 pair of drop earrings made by a small British brand with ethically sourced stones and plastic-free packaging. She wore them, notably, without the traditional green and purple Wimbledon patron brooch she has worn at the tournament in previous years. The overall effect was deliberate rather than casual. A deliberate woman in a considered outfit made a considered choice to wear lapis lazuli and moonstone to the world's most prestigious tennis tournament, and I think the choice is worth dwelling on.

In Brief: The Princess of Wales wore Carousel Jewels' Stella earrings at Wimbledon 2026: moonstone and lapis lazuli drops in gold vermeil, £170, now on pre-order following the Kate Effect. The earrings first appeared at Easter Sunday at Windsor in 2023. Lapis lazuli has been associated with royalty and wisdom across five millennia of jewellery history; moonstone with feminine intuition and lunar cycles. Both are worth knowing as stones in their own right, well beyond this particular moment.

The earrings

The Stella earrings are 37mm long: a meaningful drop without being architectural. The structure is a flexible joinder between the top and bottom stones, which gives them movement rather than making them static against the jaw. The moonstone sits at the top: a round, pale, slightly iridescent stone that catches light differently depending on the angle, which is the quality that makes moonstones interesting rather than merely pretty. The lapis lazuli hangs below: a flat oval of deep Afghan blue, opaque, with the characteristic slight variations in tone and occasional gold pyrite flecks that distinguish natural lapis from dyed imitations.

The construction is sterling silver with 22-carat gold vermeil, made by artisans; Carousel Jewels is explicit about this, and explicit about recycled silver and ethically sourced gemstones. For £170, this is an unusual level of material and ethical honesty. The earrings are currently sold out following the Wimbledon appearance; Carousel Jewels have opened a pre-order that is running at approximately five to six weeks. They will be worth the wait.

The original earrings: Carousel Jewels Stella Earrings in Lapis and Moonstone, £170 (on pre-order, 5–6 weeks).

The stones, briefly

Lapis lazuli is one of the oldest gemstones in continuous decorative use. It appears in the burial mask of Tutankhamun and in the powdered pigment that Renaissance painters used to make ultramarine blue, a colour so expensive that contracts specified exactly how much of it could be used on a given panel. The stone itself comes almost exclusively from a single valley in Badakhshan province in Afghanistan, the Sar-e-Sang mines, which have been producing lapis for more than six thousand years, according to GIA's gemstone research. The colour is the point: that particular deep opaque blue, associated across cultures and centuries with heaven, royalty, and wisdom, is found nowhere else in the mineral world at quite this saturation and quality.

Moonstone is stranger. Technically an orthoclase feldspar, it produces an optical phenomenon called adularescence: a floating, billowing sheen that appears to move within the stone as the viewing angle changes. The finest stones come from Sri Lanka and produce a blue sheen against a colourless body; Indian moonstones tend toward a beige or brown body with a white sheen; the most coveted are the "blue flash" moonstones that appear almost colourless until the light catches them. We've written before about moonstone's own strange fashion history, which is worth a look if the stone itself is what's drawn you here.

The pairing of lapis and moonstone is not accidental. Deep blue and pale iridescent white, the opacity of the earth and the translucency of light: as colour combinations go, it has been working for a very long time. If you want to go further into the symbolic and spiritual traditions around both stones, the Grimoire witch journal app covers lapis lazuli and moonstone in depth.

Why this moment matters

The Princess of Wales has a sophisticated and deliberate approach to jewellery that rarely gets credit for how sophisticated and deliberate it actually is. The Garrard sapphire ring she wears (Diana's ring, the most photographed piece of jewellery in the world) is the most visible example. But she has worn Van Cleef Alhambra pieces to formal events, Diana's pearl earrings to state occasions, and independent British jewellers' work to the kinds of engagements where the choice will be noticed. This Wimbledon appearance fits the same pattern.

Lapis lazuli's associations with royalty and wisdom are old enough that they would be unremarkable in a purely heraldic context. The moonstone's associations with femininity and intuition are the kind of thing that gets described, in coverage of royal appearances, as a "hidden meaning that royal fans are loving." I will leave readers to decide how much interpretive weight to place on gemstone symbolism. What I will say is that a princess choosing to appear at a significant public event in stones with these particular histories is making a choice that is at minimum aesthetically informed, and possibly rather more deliberate than the pre-order surge suggests anyone is thinking about.

The edit

If the Carousel Jewels Stella is on a five-week wait and you would like a lapis and moonstone earring now, or a variation that takes the same pairing in a different direction:

Etsy: Natural Lapis Lazuli Drop Earrings, Solid 14k Gold — lapis on its own rather than paired with moonstone, handmade in solid 14k gold rather than silver vermeil. Stone quality will vary more than in the Carousel Jewels piece; read seller reviews and look for images that show the actual stones rather than stock photography. Available now.

Wolf & Badger: Clara Cultured Freshwater Pearls & Lapis Lazuli Drop Earrings, Pearls of the Orient — a related structure substituting pearl for moonstone, set in gold vermeil. Pearl adds warmth where moonstone adds iridescence; the overall effect is slightly more traditional but equally considered. Available now.

British Museum Shop: Lapis and Moonstone Earrings — the Museum shop's own version, which carries the additional satisfaction of supporting an institution that holds some of the most important lapis lazuli objects in existence, including pieces from the Royal Tombs of Ur. Available now.

For readers who'd rather skip the pre-order queue altogether and buy the real thing: 1stDibs: Angela Cummings 1988 Clip-On Earrings, 18kt Yellow Gold and Lapis Lazuli — a vintage designer pair, two oval lapis lazuli cabochons set in brushed and polished 18-karat gold, from Cummings's celebrated 1980s tenure designing for Tiffany & Co. This is a different order of piece entirely, priced accordingly (price on request via the listing), but it's the version of this idea that doesn't need a pre-order.

For those who would rather wear lapis lazuli as a single-stone piece without the combination: lapis in a simple gold bezel makes one of the most elegant low-profile earrings available, and it's worth knowing what actually separates a precious stone from a semi-precious one before you buy — the distinction shapes price far more than most people assume.

A note on buying lapis lazuli

One practical note for anyone this piece has sent in search of lapis jewellery: dyed imitations are common and frequently undetected. Natural lapis lazuli has slight variations in tone, occasional gold pyrite flecks, and a deep but not perfectly uniform colour. Perfectly uniform deep blue without any variation is likely dyed howlite or dyed jasper. The Afghan material from Sar-e-Sang is the reference; "Afghan lapis" on a product description is a useful signal, though not a guarantee without a reputable source behind it.

For stones above £200, a reputable dealer's provenance note is the minimum. For significant lapis pieces, GIA and other laboratories can identify origin — the same logic that applies to any opaque stone, where origin and treatment disclosure matters as much as visual quality.

Frequently asked questions

What earrings did Kate Middleton wear at Wimbledon 2026?

The Princess of Wales wore the "Stella" earrings by British independent label Carousel Jewels during her appearance at Wimbledon on 2 July 2026. The earrings feature a round moonstone at the top and a lapis lazuli drop below, set in sterling silver with 22-carat gold vermeil. They are 37mm long and retail at £170. The earrings first appeared publicly at the Easter Sunday service at Windsor Castle in 2023 and sold out within hours of the Wimbledon appearance; Carousel Jewels have opened a pre-order running at five to six weeks.

What is the meaning of Kate Middleton's Wimbledon earrings?

Lapis lazuli has been associated with royalty, wisdom, honour, and truth across multiple cultures for more than five thousand years. Moonstone is traditionally associated with feminine intuition, emotional balance, and lunar cycles. The combination appeared without the traditional Wimbledon patron brooch the Princess usually wears in her role as patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which drew additional attention to the earring choice. How much symbolic weight to place on the stone selection is a matter of interpretation; the choice of stones with these particular histories was not accidental.

Where can I buy the same earrings as Kate Middleton?

The Carousel Jewels Stella earrings in lapis and moonstone are currently on pre-order at carouseljewels.com for £170, with a five to six week wait. Similar lapis and moonstone pairings are available now from Wolf & Badger and the British Museum Shop, and a lapis-only alternative from Etsy, all linked in this article.

What is lapis lazuli and why is it significant?

Lapis lazuli is an opaque, deep blue semi-precious stone sourced primarily from the Sar-e-Sang mines in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, which have been in operation for over six thousand years. The stone has been associated with royalty and wisdom across Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, and Renaissance European cultures. Its powdered form produced ultramarine blue, the most prized pigment in Western painting until synthetic alternatives were developed in the nineteenth century. It is one of the few gemstones whose decorative use predates recorded history.

Sources: Carousel Jewels product information, July 2026; Hola! coverage of the Wimbledon appearance, 2 July 2026; GIA lapis lazuli gemstone notes; British Museum collection documentation on lapis lazuli objects.