Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Fashion
Last month I managed a rare day away from the studio to visit Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Fashion at the King’s Gallery within Buckingham Palace.
It’s an extremely impressive exhibition which I suspect has been a monumental curating task, given the vast volume of garments, accessories and outfits Her Majesty will have accumulated during her 96 years spent mostly in public life. To whittle such an archive down to around the 300 items on display must have been something of an achievement.
The exhibition is mostly in chronological order with rooms dedicated to her childhood and life as a young Princess, items including uniforms and even the Utility Clothing worn by everyone, including our future Queen, during the war years.
There were also outfits from the early overseas tours in the years before, and closely after, she became Queen.
Rooms dedicated to her non-public life – Scottish tweeds and practical brogues, although one could say that as Queen, this was a woman who was seldom in private.
The wedding (pictured earlier) and coronation (pictured right) gowns were both magnificent. The intricacy and details are breathtaking.
To receive commissions which were so weighted with symbolism and history must have been a tremendous undertaking for Sir Norman Hartnell, who designed both dresses. Apparently, he cancelled a prestigious appearance in the United States to undertake, at short notice, Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown, at a detriment to his career Stateside.
Obviously, a trend setter in her younger years as both Princess and Queen, it must have been a gift for British and especially London fashion houses, to have such a striking ambassador as HM Queen Elizabeth circumventing the globe.
Whilst the exhibition is entitled Her Life in Fashion, I feel it documents Queen Elizabeth's journey through style. Clearly influenced by her mother’s somewhat fussy style as a child (in those days children didn’t appear to have an opinion on what they wore), she matured to find her own style (indeed her hourglass figure as a young woman in the 1950’s and 1960’s was perfect for the fashions of the time), through to her later years.
Whilst as a child she was dressed by both British and French fashion houses. Once she became Queen, her focus was most certainly British.
Obviously, my favourite room was the one dedicated to gowns for state functions (it probably has another name but that’s how I remember it), many of which included the original sketches alongside the actual gowns. Fascinating.
The exhibition was extremely busy – and one of the rooms was so jam-packed and moving at such a ridiculously glacial pace, it was quite frustrating and at times I was unable to see everything (and coupled with the first day of our May “heatwave” the temperature didn’t help). I felt it was impossible to take everything in.
However, for me, there was clear journey. A woman being introduced to fashion, experimenting with fashion, trailblazing fashion, and I personally felt losing her way in the 1980s (perhaps even a Queen has those awkward mid-life self doubt moments) only to re-emerge in the 1990s with her own unique style.
Love or loathe her style, in later years she knew what she liked, what suited and ensured her mantra:
“I have to be seen to be believed” Queen Elizabeth II
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