Historic Diamonds / Royal Stories
Inside Princess Diana’s Daring Diamond Transformations
By Josie Goodbody, Updated August 5, 2025
Take a look at how Princess Diana got creative with how she expressed her love for diamonds and made each moment her own.
Princess Diana wearing the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara, a pearl choker and pearl pendant earrings on her way to the State Opening of Parliament in 1981. (Getty Images)
It’s been nearly 30 years since Princess Diana passed away, and the “Diana effect” is still as strong as ever. Films like Spencer and series like The Crown have invited viewers to see her rise to fame and revisit the unforgettable occasions, the beauty, and the style that led to her rise as one of the most iconic 20th-century figures.
Like nearly every fairy tale princess, Princess Diana had a marked love for jewels: natural diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, and aquamarines. She chose to champion these gemstones in bold and beautiful pieces of jewelry.
But as the 1980s got into full swing, Princess Diana developed a penchant for refashioning them; she began to style chokers as headbands, transform brooches into statement necklaces, turn tiaras into necklaces and beyond. It was this kind of rule-breaking and trend-setting that ranks her among our favorite fashion icons to this day.
Meet the Experts
Beanie Major is a London-based engagement ring consultant. She founded the jewelry concierge In Detail, which specializes in matching clients with their perfect engagement ring.
Shaun Leane is credited with redefining the standard of British jewelry design for over 20 years. His namesake luxury jewelry house is rooted in boundary-pushing designs, with expertly crafted heirlooms, like Princess Beatrice’s engagement ring.
Lisa Levinson is the Head of the UK at the Natural Diamond Council, where she leads with a mission to inspire emotional connections to natural diamonds, while championing the values and social benefits that define the diamond industry. She is a certified Diamonds Graduate from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).
Princess Diana and the Art of Transforming Her Diamond Jewelry
Transforming jewelry is a well-established practice. Back in the early 1800s, Empress Joséphine, who made the tiara fashionable, had a suite of diamond-encrusted pieces that could convert it in a myriad of ways. However, Princess Diana did it in a way that was simply daring, effortlessly turning tiaras into necklaces or breaking them down into smaller pieces, such as pendants or clips.
Beanie Major, London-based engagement ring consultant, who specializes in helping clients to find or commission their perfect engagement ring, tells Only Natural Diamonds, “Diamonds are treasured, passed down through generations, given to loved ones. Bought and sold, lost and found, forgotten and rediscovered, re-set and redesigned.”
Major continues, “Design trends in jewelry change from generation to generation. I work with many clients who want to rework their engagement ring or an engagement ring they have inherited because it doesn’t feel like them. The design completely changes, but the constant is the diamond. It never ceases to amaze me how many different ways you could set the same diamond—there is so much value in that. It will be adored by every generation, no matter how they choose to set it.”
There is certainly a special type of joy connected with transforming diamonds. Shaun Leane, the jewelry designer who famously created Princess Beatrice’s engagement ring, says, “The longevity of a diamond is timeless; therefore, when I redesign family heirlooms using these beautiful materials for my bespoke collectors, it fills me with joy to know I am continuing the story and history of that precious stone.”
We feel the presence of Princess Diana, seeing her daughters-in-law wearing her diamonds. Her diamonds connect them in a way that warms our hearts.
Lisa Levinson, Head of Marketing and Communications UK at Natural Diamond Council, says, “Each diamond is valuable. Diamonds have a rich history as family treasures with powerful emotional value reaching across generations. Diamonds are heirlooms that are given from parents to children to grandchildren. We feel the presence of Princess Diana, seeing her daughters-in-law wearing her diamonds. Her diamonds connect them in a way that warms our hearts.”
Princess Diana’s Most Transformational Diamond Moments
Princess Diana Wore the Spencer Diamond Tiara on Her Wedding Day
On her wedding day, unlike more recent royal brides, Lady Diana did not wear one of the very many tiaras belonging to her new family; she wore her own family’s Spencer Tiara. Almost a century old, the all-diamond tiara is actually made up of other pieces of jewelry all gifted to Diana’s grandmother, Lady Cynthia Hamilton, who in 1937, called upon Garrard Jewelers to remount the pieces with new elements, resulting in the delicate floral diadem we see today. Diana wore this family heirloom throughout her life and unlike many of her jewels, after her passing, it was returned to her brother to remain in the Spencer family.
The Story Behind Princess Diana’s Sapphire and Diamond Engagement Ring
Up until her wedding day, the only major piece of jewelry we saw Lady Diana Spencer wearing was her enormous 12-carat sapphire engagement ring surrounded by 14 diamonds and set in 18 carat white gold. It is without doubt the most famous diamond and sapphire ring ever created, particularly now that Kate Middleton wears it as her own.
Princess Diana Styled Queen Mary’s Emerald Choker as a Headband
During a Royal tour of Australia in 1985, Diana improvised a tiara by wearing an exquisite Art Deco emerald and diamond choker as a forehead adornment, a style statement that caused quite a stir and made headlines all over the world. It was an early glimpse of the rule breaker in Diana.
The choker, once owned by Queen Mary, was created by Garrard in 1921 and is part of a bigger Cambridge Emerald Parure. It was inherited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, but since she didn’t wear chokers, it remained unworn for decades—until Diana brought it out into the light again in her own special way that defied convention. The last time Diana, Princess of Wales wore Queen Mary’s Art Deco Emerald choker was on her neck for her 36th birthday at the Tate Gallery in London in July 1997.
While Princess Diana may have made the piece famous decades ago, Kate Middleton took the Queen Mary emerald and diamond choker for a spin in 2022. While attending her husband’s Earthshot Awards in Boston, Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore a pair of diamond and emerald earrings that perfectly suited the century-old jewel – the earrings were pavé-set with diamonds set as halos around four emeralds.
Princess Diana’s Velvet Choker Was Made from Saudi Sapphire Gifts
Princess Diana once again caused another stir in 1989 when she styled a velvet choker as a head piece at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in 1986. Her bold style statement sent ripples of excitement across the globe. She had refashioned the choker from two pieces—a ring and a watch—gifted to her as a wedding present by the then Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
To complement Diana’s engagement ring, a suite of sapphires and diamonds was commissioned from Asprey by the Crown Prince. It consisted of a diamond and sapphire pendant suspended from a diamond necklace, a ring, earrings, a bracelet and a watch. The princess decided to transform the stones from the watch and ring to make four new pieces of jewelry, including the velvet choker, which she wore many times. The last known appearance of the choker was at an event in Cardiff in 1995.
Princess Diana Turned a Royal Brooch into a Pearl and Sapphire Choker
(Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
A favorite piece of jewelry worn by Princess Diana throughout her life was the mesmerizing seven-strand pearl, sapphire, and diamond choker. It started life as a large oval sapphire and diamond brooch, given to Diana by the Queen Mother as a wedding gift.
Diana decided to convert this rare and enormous stone into a magnificent necklace that she wore with style and grace throughout her life. One of the earliest famous appearances was in 1985, when she wore the choker to dance with John Travolta at the White House. She went on to wear it for her 1994 “Revenge Dress” moment as well as the Met Gala in 1996.
The Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara Was a Princess Diana Favorite
The Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara was commissioned by Queen Mary in 1913 and made by Garrard, the royal jewelers. Queen Mary wanted to create a tiara based on the design of one owned by her maternal grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse, the Duchess of Cambridge, so she sacrificed a tiara and other diamonds and pearls from her jewelry collection to make the piece, which has been worn beautifully in recent years by Kate Middleton.
Diana famously wore the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara in Hong Kong in November 1989 with her iconic Elvis dress by Catherine Walker and then again in the early 90s for the iconoclastic photoshoot which produced the famous black and white photo of the Princess wearing a strapless dress along with the tiara and a megawatt smile that captured her most vulnerable and truthful beauty.
