South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Queen Elizabeth II’s style through the decades
Queen Elizabeth II just might have the hardest working wardrobe on the planet.
“Every outfit worn in public is carefully calibrated to inspire or remind, to signal gratitude or respect, to convey a sense of power or familiarity,” wrote The Mail in 2015. “Her Majesty neither sets trends nor follows them — but while she is deaf to the siren call of fashion, she has her own singular style.”
From her tiaras, hats and Hermes scarves to her Launer London handbags and even her umbrellas, the queen’s style has been hyperdocumented since her birth to now, more than 70 years into her reign, as she celebrates her Platinum Jubilee at age 96.
Her childhood
Cotton or wool?
The queen’s very birth prompted style debate, writes Bethan Holt, fashion editor of The Telegraph and author of this year’s “The Queen: 70 Years of Majestic Style.”
Her wardrobe from the get-go was a topic of national fascination with a layette sewn by her mother and grandmother, and a little help from underprivileged women throughout Britain. Declaring that babies in wool looked like “little gnomes,” Lilibet’s mum, then the Duchess of York, opted for frilly cotton.
When sister Margaret came along four years later, the princesses often twinned it, dressing alike into their teens.
The young heiress
With the tumultuous abdication of her uncle and the rise of her father to become King George VI, Princess Elizabeth became heiress presumptive.
Enter couturier Norman Hartnell, according to Holt. He was entrusted with dressing the family as they emerged on the world stage, including the two princesses at ages 11 and 6. Their “bow-adorned dresses and little cloaks signaled a return to the calm dependability of the monarchy,” Holt wrote.
During World War II, 18-year-old Elizabeth began to make more public appearances, training as a mechanic in early 1945. She routinely wore trousers (and boiler suits), according to Holt. The queen was, and remains, a practical dresser when necessary, but also glamorous when the moment beckoned.
“People want to see their royals looking like royals, but equally, they don’t want to think that taxpayers’ money is being blown away,” said Nick Bullen, editor in chief of True Royalty TV.
The wedding dress
Hartnell transformed the florals of Botticelli’s “Primavera” into a gown of white crystals and pearls. But it wasn’t easy. There were diplomatic questions in the aftermath of the war, Holt wrote. Customs impounded 10,000 seed pearls from the U.S., and journalists were assured that the origins of the silk produced in Kent and woven in Essex were worms from “nationalist” China, not “enemy” Japan.
Her hemlines
She settled years ago on skirts and dresses just below the knee, but her hemlines were sometimes an issue for senior members of her family. In 1952, the 25-year-old queen led her family in mourning at her father’s funeral in accordance to strict dress codes, according to Holt.
As Queen Mary curtsied to her granddaughter and kissed each cheek, she admonished: “Lilibet, your skirts are much too short for mourning,” Holt writes. The new queen’s dress hovered well above her ankles yet respectfully below the knee, while that of her grandmother reached the ground.
Finding a uniform
The queen we know today wears sensible block heels or brogues, usually handmade by Anello & Davide, a custom Launer perched on her arm and a brooch on one shoulder. But the queen of the early 1950s charmed the world in nipped-in waists, pencil silhouettes and some floaty, full experiments.
“In the early years of her reign, she really embraced Dior’s New Look aesthetic, and women looked to her outfits as a source of inspiration,” said Kristin Contino, style reporter for Page Six.
It was Margaret who was renowned as a fashion plate in Dior and other designers, and her influence on Elizabeth was tangible.
“Margaret was really in tune with fashion. She would have been the one reading Vogue. And so she would often go with the queen to appointments to help her inject that little bit of extra style into her looks,” Holt said.
Usually sticking to British designers, the queen has a long-held fondness for silk scarves by the French fashion house Hermes.
Matchy matchy
The queen loves to color coordinate, sticking to bright colors and pastels in coats and floral dresses today. That goes for her signature clear, bird-cage umbrellas as well. They’re made by Fulton Umbrellas and are attainable at $30 or less, though the queen’s are custom made. She owns about 100 in a rainbow of colors but contrary to reports, she doesn’t possess 200 of her favorite Launer bags, Holt said.
Launer extends the straps of her leather bags to make it easier for her to hang them on her arm, and they make them lighter for her to carry.
Irish designer Paul Costelloe, who dressed Princess Diana in the
1980s and ’90s, told The Associated Press of the queen’s style: “She’s a bit like a schoolteacher, a good schoolteacher. She never shocks. She gets it right.”