Meghan Markle Pays Homage to Princess Diana With Accessory During Clothing Launch

On Thursday, Meghan Markle attended her first official royal engagement after her maternity leave, launching her clothing collaboration with one of her royal patronages, Smart Works.

For the event, the Duchess of Sussex wore a white button-down shirt by Misha Nonoo and slim black pants from Jigsaw, both from the Smart Set Capsule Collection, along with a brown belt with gold hardware and brown suede heels.

She accessorized with a stack of gold bracelets, one of which was a cuff bracelet with diamonds and blue stones that belonged to Princess Diana. Markle also wore a pair of the late royal’s earrings, which she had previously worn along with the bracelet in October 2018 during a trip to Australia. While those were harder to spot, as Markle’s hair was down, fans caught a glimpse of the gold butterfly studs when the new mom tucked her hair behind her ear.

Diana wore the earrings in May 1986 when she visited British Columbia with Prince Charles and the bracelet to a banquet in July 1989 as well as other events.

The five-item Smart Set Capsule Collection was created by Markle with Marks & Spencer, John Lewis & Partners, Jigsaw and her good friend designer Mischa Nonoo, and for every item purchased, the same item will be donated to Smart Works. The pieces are currently available on the designers’ websites and range in price from $24 to $245. Each retailer carries its own pieces from the collection and not the full set, and the items will be available in stores and online for two weeks.

Smart Works helps unemployed women gain the skills they need to return to the workforce, including one-on-one interview preparation and a new outfit. They also receive an additional five pieces of clothing after securing a new job. Markle was announced as patron of the organization in January and decided to create the collection after noticing that clothing donations that came in were not always the right choice for the women’s goals.

“To be able to have one small project that has such big impact is something I’m really connected to,” Markle said at the event, via PEOPLE. “This is the kind of work that I’ve been doing for a really long time and to be able to do it here in my new home of the U.K. means quite a bit to me. It’s also the same vein of work that my husband and I will continue doing, really strong community-based projects. And this is something we’ll be excited to share more about next year when we launch our foundation, Sussex Royal, in 2020.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Max Mumby/Indigo