Crown.

I like Crowns. 

...Crowns are the tools of storytelling and escapism...

My hometown of Broken Hill, Australia, is not the most regal of places in the world...

...so as a child...

... my father would talk in endless detail about long-gone Prussian royal families and Austro-Hungarian dynastic disputes...

... and I would not understand what on earth he was banging on about...

But over time...

... I started to understand that royal families were rather an abstract and slightly untouchable concept ...

...and they seemed very distant and far removed from the dusty mining environment where I grew up...

The concept of Royalty...

... while disputably outdated...

...is rich in bizarre customs and seemingly indestructable conservatism...

With this in mind...

...it is with a great sigh and perhaps a false-smile that we salute the Queen of England's Diamond Jubilee this year...

...this woman has made it through 60 long years as the symbolic and constitutional head of the British Empire...

...how tired must she be?

In her honor...

Harrods decided to ask 31 international designers to reinterpret the famous St. Edward's Crown...

...which is the iconic crown that featured in her original coronation ceremony in 1953.

Here are a few pictures of the designs, that are currently featured on the UK Vogue site...;

Firstly...

Crown designed by De Beers;

Boucheron;

Mikimoto;

Paul Smith;

Mulberry;

Theo Fennell;

Valentino;

Lanvin;

Jo Malone;

Salvatore Ferragamo;

Roberto Cavalli;

The Crowns are now all on display in Harrods, London...

(Photo Source: www.vogue.co.uk)