Category: Jewellery Stories

Why do European monarchs wear Russian ‘kokoshniks’? (PHOTOS)

At official functions, European royalty can often be seen wearing tiaras that resemble an old Russian headdress called the kokoshnik. In Russia, empresses and grand duchesses wore this kind of tiara beginning from Catherine the Great’s rule during the second half of the 18th century. Outside of Russia, the fashion for the tiare russe developed thanks to Queen Alexandra, the wife of King Edward VII and sister of the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Alexander III. Some of those tiaras still include the word “kokoshnik” in their official names, although they never actually belonged to any members of the Russian royal family

What happened to these priceless Romanov tiaras after 1917 Revolution?

Even Queen Elizabeth II has some old pieces of jewelry that once belonged to the Russian royal family.
The diamond, emerald and sapphire tiaras of the Romanov dynasty were remarkable for their beauty and opulence, and they were well known to other monarchies in Europe. This has to do with their unusual shape since most were reminiscent of the kokoshnik, an old type of Russian headdress. It was Catherine the Great who first brought the fashion for “Russian dress” to the court, and then in the middle of the 19th century under Nicholas I it was made mandatory. At official receptions, women began to wear diadems with a national flavor—“les tiares russes,” as they are called abroad.