Another sovereign was on Queen Camilla’s mind the day she met Pope Leo XIV. Joined by King Charles III, Camilla used Vatican dress code to shift the spotlight away from Prince Andrew’s current headline-making misdeeds and invoke another member of the royal family: the late Queen Elizabeth.
This was no mere audience or regular state visit: the king and head of the Church of England prayed together with a Catholic pontiff for the first time in 500 years. And Camilla dressed for the occasion. She opted to forgo a tiara like the one Queen Elizabeth donned when she met John XXIII on solemn occasions in 1961 or John Paul II in 1980. Instead, Camilla sported a mantilla—a more all-encompassing black veil encircled in a crown of matching leaves designed by Philip Treacy, the celebrated milliner discovered by Isabella Blow. Treacy often lends his services to the sovereign, but also works with other celebrated figures like Grace Jones. The creation is very similar in concept to the Jess Collett x Alexander McQueen signature silver leaf tiara sported by Princess Catherine on Charles’s coronation day, another subtle nod to the past.
Queen Camilla’s stylishly-framed face looked like a 16th-century portrait—a contemporary Catherine of Aragon. Which is slightly ironic, since relations between the Church of England and the Church of Rome broke down with the schism of 1534 when Henry VIII repudiated Catherine and married Anne Boleyn. Perhaps this sartorial reference was also a studied diplomatic move—a nod toward the concord that Charles, who has called himself a “defender of all faiths,” hopes to achieve.
In addition to the veil, Vatican protocol for occasions such as this calls for an all-black, simple dress code with no visible marks or flashy jewelry. Camilla wore a no-frills dress designed by Fiona Clare, adorning the frock with a special brooch that once belonged to Elizabeth II. It was a Georgian-era cross called the “raspberry seed,” a nod to the rubies embedded within it. The accessory took on a whole new meaning when Queen Camilla and King Charles met—and prayed with—Pope Leo XIV.
Originally published in Vanity Fair Italia
