Queen finds time for retail therapy on town centre tour
HER COAT of arms is often seen above the door, by Royal appointment, but the Queen is rarely seen browsing the merchandise inside.
Yesterday, however, she hovered in the ladies’ hats department at the department store Fenwick, as she toured a £240m makeover of the town centre in the Berkshire new town of Bracknell, which has seen post-war buildings demolished and a social, shopping and cultural destination created.
Angela Basten, the store’s “occasion hat buyer”, showed the Royal visitor an unusual £895 hat by the milliner Rachel TrevorMorgan, who had also created the headpiece the Queen was wearing, and another by Vivien Sheriff, made from partridge and goose feathers which was on sale for £995 and appeared to be a snug fit.
Ms Basten said: “We showed her the Rachel Trevor-Morgan hat and she commented on its unusual teardrop shape and said she’d never worn that shape.”
The Queen told her it would have been a good choice for last week’s wedding of her granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, at Windsor. It had been a windy day, she noted and it would have stayed on her head.
Ironically, her local branch of Fenwick, in the centre of Windsor, closed last year in a modernisation drive. The firm also has a branch in York.
Her guide through the store was Hugo Fenwick, the fifth generation of the family to be involved with the business.
She stopped at the stand of the skincare company, Clarins, which holds a royal warrant and is rumoured to supply her with lipstick and hand cream.
“We know she’s a huge fan,” said skincare specialist, Danielle Wing. “I don’t think she was tempted to buy, but I’m sure she gets it sent straight to where she wants it to go.”
Mr Fenwick said after the visit: “What Bracknell has lacked for so long since it became a new town in the 50s is a sense of the country coming into the town.”