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Her Majesty’s Style: The Designers Who Shaped Queen Elizabeth II’s Fashion Legacy

Fashion has always been an iconic statement as for the Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the Queen, who is also the Queen ocolor-coordinated outfits.

Queen Elizabeth II tried out every shade more than one can imagine, from all sorts of yellows to all greens, fuchsia, to all shades of blue.

THE QUEEN’S STYLE

When you think about it, it will come to a thought whether you’re thinking if the style was in repetition or it just so happened that the style was a full blast of rainbow colors.

But to question, what is the significance of having such artistry? In monarch, the uniform-like dress code is the best and great way to create an image, it saves time from the foolishness of the fashion world. Dress is a serious business, it’s the Queen’s virtually unchanging image, a brand as distinctive with the work of many minds and many hands.

DESIGN THROUGHOUT TIME

Norman Hartnell was the designer who made the Queen’s wedding dress during her wedding when she married Prince Philip.

Hardy Armies was the official dressmaker of the monarch dating back from 1955 to 1990.

But in more recent years, her senior dresser and close confidante in the name of Angela Kelly, oversaw the Queen’s wardrobe on key occasions, including in her Diamond Jubilee year, a flurry of royal weddings, and even the schedule of Zoom engagements Her Majesty undertook while the nation was in lockdown.

During the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, Kelly even had to cut and style the queen’s hair, she recalled in an officially approved biography ‘The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe’.  Designing Queen Elizabeth’s outfits meant conforming to the royal dress code.

DESIGNER’S POINT OF VIEW

The designs evolve as she ages. In the earlier years, Hartnell had to make a dress that is silk-inspired completing with an emblem of the countries over which she ruled. There are also designs where based on sun, moon, sky, and the earth which were embroidered for people to have a historic impression of her.

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Amies, on the other hand, initially created crisp outfits for her foreign tours, before taking over domestic duties from Hartnell, and was behind the striking pink ensemble she wore on her silver jubilee in 1977 until it was passed down to Kelly.

“The task of making clothes for the Queen is not an easy one,” Hardy Amies said.

There was a practical side to the Queen’s dress code, even if it seemed as if she was keeping old traditions going, by wearing a hat and gloves in public.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STYLE

Though the sovereign has to remain politically impartial, she used her clothes to convey a message.

Over the past 70 years, Queen Elizabeth II’s wardrobe was concerned not with fashion but with dress. She treated her clothing as a tool of work, ensuring comfort and appropriateness, capturing visibility, propriety and immutability. She also deployed it not only to connect with her people but also as a strategic weapon on the battleground.

The power conveyed through dressing up and the visual message communicated through dress were translated by her chosen couturiers who were all British.

In succession between Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amies, Ian Thomas, Stewart Parvin, her trusted dressers, and the most recent being Angela Kelly—they thought that: At the end of the day, her team understood the rules of engagement. The Queen’s designers understood their assignments. 

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