EXCLUSIVE Amazing wardrobe secrets of our fashion Queen
Following Her Majesty’s appearance at London Fashion Week, JANE WARREN reveals some of the Queen’s best-kept style secrets and why her choice of outfit is meticulously recorded
IT WAS a remarkable first for a 91-year-old monarch who has long been feted as a style icon, if mainly for her regal indifference to stylish fads. On Tuesday the Queen made her first ever appearance at London Fashion Week and took her place in the famous front row next to US Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, another legendary queen of fashion who chose not to remove her dark sunglasses throughout, despite the presence of royalty.
Undeterred the Queen viewed Richard Quinn’s collection avidly before presenting the Central Saint Martin’s fashion graduate with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design organised by her dresser Angela Kelly and the British Fashion Council.
Introducing her, chief executive of the BFC Caroline Rush paid tribute: “Your Majesty, I know you do not wish to be known as a fashion icon but for all of us in this room… we know you undoubtedly are.”
Here we present the style secrets of the Queen’s wardrobe.
GLOVES
She favours brushed cotton gloves 15cm in length which are supplied by Cornelia James Ltd. They are washable and she changes them several times a day. For evening she wears lighter nylon ones.
SKIRT LENGTH
Her hems fall below her knee and include tiny lead curtain weights sold by department stores in a bid to avoid any Marilyn moments.
NO WRINKLES
Her clothes have to be crease and breeze resistant to allow her to climb in and out of cars without a hitch. They must also be roomy enough for regular arm waving.
STORAGE
All clothes and accessories are kept for posterity at Buckingham Palace in boxes and cotton bags inside mahogany wardrobes with airtight doors. Everything is archived and some of her evening gowns from the last 60 years are periodically on display.
STANDING OUT IN A CROWD
The Queen is particularly keen to adopt “outrageous designs and bright colours”, according to Stewart Parvin who has designed evening wear for ROYAL STYLE: Her Majesty’s dresser Angela Kelly and dressmaker Stewart Parvin the Queen since 2000. She favours block colours which elongate her tiny frame (she is only 5ft 3in) and offer maximum visibility. “If I wore beige,” the Queen once said, “nobody would know who I am.”
If the Queen is planting a tree in a setting with a predominantly green background, for example, the colour is avoided in her clothing choices that day. Similarly the white, jewel-studded outfit worn for her Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in 2012 was chosen to contrast with the strong reds of the boat’s upholstery.
HER TRUSTED DRESSMAKER
Sir Norman Hartnell and Sir Hardy Amies designed for her in the past. Today many of her clothes are designed and made at the palace by senior dresser Angela Kelly and her team. Kelly, who was taken on as a dresser in 1993 after working as a housekeeper for a British diplomat, once explained: “The Queen loves clothes and is a real expert on fabrics. It’s not been a question of me teaching the Queen, it’s been the other way around.”
Kelly sketches at least four different designs for a particular piece of fabric, from which the Queen can choose. After initial discussions she produces a technical drawing from which the pattern is cut. Everything is cut and shaped to match a mannequin made to the Queen’s size, details which have always been kept top secret. A prototype, or toile, is then made from rough cotton allowing the design to be tweaked before the final fabric is cut. Fitting sessions typically last half a day. Four or five outfits are fitted at each session to make the best use of time. In her book Dressing The Queen published in 2012 Kelly revealed that an electric fan is sometimes used to test precisely how lightweight fabrics such as chiffon, organza or silk will move in a breeze.
She also explained that splits and pleats are always fitted into full-length designs to make stairs easy to negotiate.
Up to 12 people staff the Queen’s wardrobe department for big occasions, including three dressmakers, a milliner and four dressers whose job it is to help the Queen get dressed as well as keep her clothes in pristine condition.
BAGS OF STYLE
She owns more than 200 Launer bags and favours the Royale and the black patent Traviata, which has a longer handle to ease the process of handshaking.
ONCE WAS ENOUGH
The Queen has been photographed in public wearing trousers only once. During the royal tour of Canada in 1970 she wore a pair designed by young royal dressmaker Ian Thomas in a short-lived bid to modernise her look. They did not make a reappearance.
RECYCLING
The Queen tends to switch between new items and pieces she has worn before but the use of recycled items is staggered strategically throughout the year. Wearing the same colour again in close succession is also carefully managed.
To ensure that no outfit appears in public too many times, or in the same company, each is recorded on a spreadsheet with the time and date it was worn. For example, the turquoise and yellow flower ensemble that was the Queen’s choice on tour in India in 1997 made an appearance two years later during a visit to Seoul, South Korea, and was not seen again until the polo at Windsor Great Park in 2003.
IT’S YES TO THE DRESS
Her practical nature means she favours dresses rather than skirts. “When she gets out of a car she can’t pull her skirt up, tuck her shirt in, tighten her things. She gets out and she’s ready,” explains Stewart Parvin.
A SECRET SHOULDER PAD
As one of the Queen’s shoulders is higher than the other she always wears an extra shoulder pad.
HER MOST ROYAL ACCESSORY
The Queen opts for headscarves for sporting and outdoor events and seems to have one to match every outfit. She favours silk scarves by Hermés.
HEELS
Her heel height is always a practical 2¼ in and her shoes are re-heeled when necessary. Each of her black patent work shoes has an added insole for comfort.
FORGET BLISTERS
An assistant with the same-sized feet wears her shoes in for her first.
A PRACTICAL APPROACH
Her Majesty prefers threequarter length sleeves to ensure they cannot trail in soup.
Zips are used whenever possible as they enable her to make several changes in one day without disturbing her hair or risking make-up smudges.
HATS
Her hat brims must be small so the Queen can be easily seen and a hat’s crown must never be so tall that it creates problems exiting a vehicle.
Rachel Trevor-Morgan is the Queen’s favourite milliner. He once explained: “People say, ‘What does she do with all those hats?’ ‘Wear them out,’ I say. She’d possibly wear hats at least 10 times.”
BESPOKE BROLLIES
The Queen needs to be seen and commissions transparent £16 umbrellas from Fulton with a natty twist: the handles and edge-trim are cunningly colour matched to her clothes.