The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
1990s to now
THE ENDURING MUSE
In her 90s, the Queen’s unique and enduring style has charmed the world just as it did at the start of her reign; her looks go viral on social media, designers create collections with her as their muse, and if there’s a best-dressed list, she’s on it.
It’s Angela Kelly, her dresser and right-hand woman, who can be credited for crafting Her Majesty’s hit nonagenarian look. ‘I could not help thinking that the Queen’s style needed to change quickly, before she was made to look older than she was,’ Kelly wrote of the determined campaign she launched to tweak Her Majesty’s wardrobe when she began working at Buckingham Palace in the late 1990s. Slowly but surely, Kelly has introduced sleeker, more flattering silhouettes and perfected a distinctive formula which is familiar yet impactful. But the designers who work with her now confirm that the sovereign still has her own ideas about how she wants to dress.
‘For somebody of her age to still be considering what she wears in such a careful way shows that she’s so aware of the importance of it,’ confirms Stewart Parvin, the only designer she now wears aside from Kelly. ‘She’s got a very definite sense of her own style, what works for her and what she likes,’ adds milliner Rachel Trevor Morgan.
Into her 80s and 90s, the Queen has retained the power to influence what the rest of us wear. When she carried one of her beloved Launer handbags to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, sales shot up by over 60 per cent and Selfridges sold out. And when she wore lime green for her 90th birthday celebrations in 2016, she sparked a rise in sales of neon-coloured clothing.
‘The Queen is the ne plus ultra of authentic British style,’ says Ian Griffiths, Max Mara’s creative director. ‘She looks completely at ease in what she’s wearing, unselfconscious and nonchalant.’ Even the acerbic Karl Lagerfeld had only praise for her: ‘[She] is never ridiculous, she is flawless. For this job, in our day, she is perfect.’