Spain’s National Day on 12 October is one of the busiest dates in the royal calendar, and this year Queen Letizia used it to make a quiet point about re-wearing and inherited jewellery. Alongside King Felipe VI, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, she watched the military parade along Madrid’s Paseo del Prado before the traditional reception at the Royal Palace.
A dress seen once before
The Queen chose a powder-pink midi dress by the Spanish label The 2nd Skin Co., with three-quarter sleeves, a fitted waist and a softly flared skirt. She first wore it in November 2025 on her state visit to China, when it stayed largely hidden under a floral Carolina Herrera coat. In Madrid it was finally on show, and as Vanity Fair Italia and La Vanguardia both note, it made a clean backdrop for something far older.
Infanta Sofía also repeated a favourite: a red Tommy Hilfiger suit with a double-breasted jacket and wide-leg trousers, first worn at last year’s Princess of Asturias Awards events. Princess Leonor, who has now completed her military training, wore the Army’s gala uniform, while the King appeared in Air Force uniform.
A brooch that passes from queen to queen
The star of the look was a brooch from the so-called joyas de pasar, the pieces Queen Victoria Eugenie, wife of Alfonso XIII, left in her will to be handed down from one queen of Spain to the next. Her will describes it as a large pale grey pearl surrounded by diamonds, with a pear-shaped pearl hanging below. It had belonged to Infanta Isabel before Victoria Eugenie, and Queen Sofía wore it often. Spanish reports recall a memorable moment at a past Pascua Militar, when the brooch fell to the floor and the King picked it up for her. Letizia paired it with matching pearl drop earrings topped with diamonds.
Rings shared between mother and daughters
Royal watchers always look at the hands, and this time there was news. Next to the Coreterno ring she rarely takes off, Letizia wore a square ring of diamonds and rubies that, according to Vogue España, is a Gold&Roses design belonging to Princess Leonor. Vanity Fair Italia adds that Leonor first wore it in 2024 to mark ten years of her father’s reign. Meanwhile, Karen Hallam’s sculptural ring, now known as the Anillo La Reina, was back on Infanta Sofía’s finger after the Queen wore it herself in Mallorca last summer.
It is a lovely reminder that jewellery is meant to be shared and worn again. If a deep red stone has caught your eye, take a look at our ruby rings, or browse our pendant necklaces for a piece you might one day pass on.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia, Giorgia Olivieri, “Letizia di Spagna, alle celebrazioni per la festa nazionale la complicità con le figlie passa anche dallo scambio degli anelli” (12 October 2026); Vogue España; La Vanguardia; Vanitatis (El Confidencial); El Español; Infobae.
