Dressing the Queen: The Jubilee Wardrobe

Product Information

The dress was immortalized later that year when Australian artist William Dargie was commissioned to paint a portrait of the queen wearing it, which became known as the "wattle painting. Kelly, the straight-talking Liverpudlian daughter of a seamstress, was probably second only to the late Duke of Edinburgh when it came to offering an honest opinion on Her Majesty’s style choices. It took her and her amazing team two years to design, choose fabrics, and make the wardrobe a reality for both the Jubilee and the Olympics, where the eyes of the world would be on Queen Elizabeth. On May 3, 2000, Nelson Mandela, a close personal friend of the monarch, was the guest of honor at Buckingham Palace. Of the two, I’d probably recommend this one because it’s difficult to talk about fashion without photographs.

Equally surprising, since Queen Elizabeth is one of the most photographed people on Earth, is that she does her own makeup except once a year for her televised Christmas speech, when a professional is hired to do it. In 1963, Queen Elizabeth II appeared to adopt a glamorous evening uniform: bejewelled metallic Norman Hartnell gowns, white fur stoles, delicate evening purses with chain straps and clasp closures, and, of course, royal jewels. For the occasion, Elizabeth wore a royal blue A-line tulle ball gown from Hartnell, accessorizing with white gloves and diamond and sapphire jewelry (via Yahoo). This also reflects a unique phenomenon that was happening during the eighteenth century – previously, fashion trends were inspired by aristocrats and replicated by the masses, but the reverse started to occur. The essential task of keeping that careful balance rests in the hands of Angela Kelly, the official dresser, who for more than 25 years has been in charge of choosing Her Majesty’s outfits, generally months in advance according to her agenda.

Some women tend to find that they instinctively curtsey, whereas men tend to bow, but there is no golden rule, even for the most long-standing members of the Royal Household. All the dressers have their own diaries to record when things are worn (and where and who was there), duplication in case a journal is lost or damaged. Angela Kelly, personal dresser to The Queen since 1994, gives a fascinating insight on the intricate planning that goes into clothing one of the world's most famous women. The following May, Queen Elizabeth wore a fitted evening gown of silk tulle, "vermicelli embroidery," and beaded diamond shapes to a banquet with the king and queen of Belgium.

In 1999, Queen Elizabeth decided to go daring for the Royal Variety Performance at the Birmingham Hippodrome for the venue's 100th anniversary, per Elle. Ainsi, la couturière raconte comment, pour éviter tout inconfort, elle porte ses chaussures avant la reine afin qu'elle s'adapte à son pied.

Paul's Cathedral wearing a pink pleated dress and coat resembling a cape, each designed by Sir Hardy Amies. Britain was still reeling from the darkness of the previous years, but the royal wedding was, according to Time, "the first great celebration of the postwar era. Under grey skies, more than one million people gathered for the Thames River Pageant of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee. The outfit was later recreated for a wax figure of the queen, which lives at Madame Tussauds in London. The two exchanged words and even a few laughs while watching the models strut their stuff in bright floral ensembles.

Her Majesty wore several lavish outfits that year, such as the embellished gowns she wore for her official portrait and the state opening of New Zealand's Parliament in February, and she ended on a bright note. She wore a stunning Angela Kelly-designed white coat, dress, and hat, which glistened from its dozens of Swarovski crystals, as the Daily Mail noted. I admire Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth,a great deal and am also a fan of textiles and textile art so my interest in this book was quite natural. And astonishingly, with her pale-peach complexion, light blue eyes and silver set curls, she suited each and every one of them.Hartnell's eight months of hard work paid off, and the new queen was so pleased with the end result that she went on to wear the gown on six different occasions. According to the Los Angeles Times, the royals visited space shuttles and the Yosemite National Park and attended a ritzy dinner in Los Angeles with the likes of actor Michael Caine.

Fashion today is for everyone, and I really wanted to make sure we weren’t just telling a story of the elite,” she said. The newspaper described the queen's outfit as a white chiffon dress with a bodice embroidered with orange California poppies, California's state flower. Queen Elizabeth II often pulled out the most swanky stops for the State Opening of Parliament, and the 2019 opening was no exception. At the waist, the gown billowed out into a voluptuous skirt interrupted by a diagonal swath of pale blue fabric. She paired the crown with Queen Victoria's collet necklace, known as the coronation necklace, which has been worn to coronations since 1902, per the Royal Collection Trust.

Without divulging any political information about the queen’s positions or any personal gossip, the book is full of authoritative, respectful and complacent tidbits like the one about the queen’s participation of the famous skit alongside Daniel Craig's James Bond where she even delivers a line. Career [ edit ] A display of six of Queen Elizabeth II's outfits, five of which were designed by Kelly, at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland. An actor dressed as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Daniel Craig as James Bond are parachuted from . The effect was one of breathtaking beauty, and it struck just the right note with the rain-dampened crowd, reinforcing Britain as a noble maritime nation.