Kate-Inspired Purchase Review: Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace Repli-Kate from AliExpress

Hello, everyone!
I'm finally back with my latest repli-kate review - I'm sorry this took a long time coming, but it's an incredibly busy time at work, and of course my real-life job has to take precedence.
First of all, this is as much a repli-kate purchase review as it is a repli-Queen (does the word even exist? I don't suppose it does!) review.
As most of you will probably be aware, the Nizam of Hyderabad necklace was, in fact, a wedding present for Princess Elizabeth in 1947 (more background on the necklace in my blog post here).

 

The Queen on the cover of Elizabeth - Reigning in Style by Jane Eastoe, in a 1951 photo by Dorothy Wilding.

 

The necklace was loaned to the Duchess of Cambridge for her appearance at the National Portrait Gallery's Portrait Gala on 11 February 2014.

 



Incidentally, I must say that Jenny Packham gown has been paired with some amazing jewellery so far! Anyway, back to the matter at hand, earlier this year, a link to this great AliExpress find was shared on Facebook (apologies, as now I can't remember where exactly the original link appeared).

As I had a fancy dress Mardi Gras party I planned to attend dressed up as the Queen, I ordered one straight away. The necklace was $10.50 (approximately €9.00 or £7.00), including registered shipping with China Post Air Mail. Other shipping options are available at an extra charge. Using China Post, the necklace took about 3 weeks to arrive.



 

 

 

I was absolutely bowled over with the overall quality of the necklace when I opened the parcel!

The crystal part is amazingly well done and the crystals very sparkly (the photos don't do them justice). The only major difference with the original necklace is that the real Cartier piece has a chain of 38 brilliant-cut diamonds, whereas the AliExpress repli-kate doesn't have a crystal chain, but a faux pearl one.

 



 

This is, in fact, the only part of the necklace that denotes its $10.50 price tag, as you can tell the pearls are of the cheap variety. This would have been an all-round amazing piece had they used the same crystals for the main body of the necklace and the chain, although if you are deft with a pair of round-nose pliers the pearl part looks like it can easily be removed and substitued with something more of your liking.

 

On the whole, this is a purchase I definitely recommend if you like the Nizam necklace.  Very well made (the crystal part can easlily look like a $$$ piece, instead of a $ one), good customer service, tracking was provided...really nothing to complain about! Not sure how much wear you can get out of it except in a fancy dress or summer evening type of occasion, but that really is down to personal preference in terms of style of jewellery etc.
The same AliExpress store I ordered from has a version with blue stones and one with red, and I'll be ordering the blue one to wear in the summer - for $10.50, you can hardly go wrong!

And finally, this is me in full on regalia dressed up as HM for my fancy dress party! :)

A New Outing for the Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace

Last night the Duchess of Cambridge attended the annual Portrait Gala at London's National Portrait Gallery. While the dress was no surprise for dedicated Kate-followers, as it was a repeat Jenny Packham piece, debuted only a few months ago to the 100 Women in Hedge Fund gala in October last year (and, frankly, even back then I found it a bit...well, meh, lacking that certain something for an evening function!), what really excited me this time was that she had accesorised it with a stunning necklace, on loan from the Queen: the Nizam of Hyderabad necklace.

 

 

It was the first time the Duchess had worn publicly this particular piece and, yes, it does make a welcome change from seeing her in costume jewelry! Although I, for one, am thrilled to be able to pop to my local Zara and buy the exact same necklace she wore, I'm equally chuffed to see her embracing a different side of her royal role by raiding the Palace jewel vaults, so to speak, and appear in public adorned with some serious, heavyweight bling!

 

The history of this piece dates back to the time of the Queen's (then Princess Elizabeth's) own wedding to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947. The Nizam of Hyderabad was the monarch of the historic Indian State of Hyderabad. The last Nizam, Osman Ali Khan, reigned from 1911 until the end of British colonial rule in 1948 (below, on the cover of TIME magazine, 22 February 1937).

 

 

Wishing to present Princess Elizabeth with a suitable gift on the occasion of her wedding, the Nizam left instructions with Cartier's London branch and the Princess choose a necklace and a tiara, whose design was (aptly) based on an English rose.

 

The tiara was later broken up: the three main rose motives were detachable and were kept and used as brooches by Her Majesty, while the rest of the stones were used to create what is known as the Queen's Burmese Ruby tiara.

 

 

The Queen attending the 2011 edition of the Chelsea Flower Show, wearing the largest rose brooch dismantled from the Nizam of Hyderabad tiara (photo Telegraph)...

 

 

...and in Australia, during the royal tour of 1954, wearing the two smaller twin brooches (photo Pinterest).

 

 

The Queen wearing the Nizam of Hyderabad tiara and another wedding present, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Bandeau necklace, part of the famous Mrs. Greville bequest (photo Pinterest).

 

 

The Queen wearing the Burmese Ruby tiara, created using diamonds from the broken up Nizam of Hyderabad necklace (via Mad Hattery!).

 

 

The Queen painted by Sir William Dargie in 1954, wearing the necklace and the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara (via Pinterest).

 

 

The necklace is made up of diamonds in a platinum setting and is currently 38.5 cm long (the chain, which was originally made up of 46 collet diamonds, was shortened at a later date to 38 to better suit the Queen).

 

 

Photo Royal Collection.



 

 

 

A stunning historic Cartier piece, which brings us nicely to my next post, about my recent visit to the Cartier exhibition currently on at the Grand Palais in Paris - stay tuned for updates!

 

(All photo of the Duchess are taken from the Daily Mail article you can read here).