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A member of the Royal Collection Trust staff looks towards hats, bags and shoes worn by Princess Elizabeth, on display at ‘Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style’ exhibition, to mark the centenary of the late queen’s birth, at The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n
A member of Royal Collection Trust staff looks towards day wear worn by Princess Elizabeth, on display at ‘Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style’ exhibition, to mark the centenary of the late queen’s birth, at The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n
Cecilia Oliver, Textile Conservator at Royal Collection Trust adjusts a gown worn by Queen Elizabeth II, on display at ‘Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style’ exhibition, to mark the centenary of the late queen’s birth, at The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n
Queen Elizabeth II’s Burmese Ruby Tiara on display at ‘Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style’ exhibition, to mark the centenary of the late queen’s birth, at The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n
Cecilia Oliver, Textile Conservator at Royal Collection Trust adjusts day wear worn by Queen Elizabeth II, on display at ‘Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style’ exhibition, to mark the centenary of the late queen’s birth, at The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n
LONDON (AP) \u2014 The late Queen Elizabeth II believed the monarch had to be seen to be believed. And she made sure that was true even when Britain\u2019s famously changeable weather intervened, pioneering the use of a clear plastic raincoat so that a stodgy black umbrella didn\u2019t obscure her from public view.<\/p>\n
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That raincoat is one of some 300 garments and other fashion artifacts that go on display Friday at the King\u2019s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in an exhibit that celebrates the late queen\u2019s life and reign as Britain prepares to mark the centenary of her birth. The most comprehensive exhibition of her style choices ever mounted, the show charts Elizabeth\u2019s story, and her impact on British fashion.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think she had a definite sense of what suited her,\u2019\u2019 exhibition curator Caroline de Guitaut said. \u201cShe absolutely knew how she wanted to appear.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Olympian moment<\/p>\n
Some of the items are easily recognizable since Elizabeth was one of the most photographed people ever. But the ball gowns, tweed suits and trademark headscarves are sometimes strange to see on museum mannequins instead of the queen herself.<\/p>\n
And then there are the items that are truly one-offs.<\/p>\n
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Like the dress, complete with bloomers, that Elizabeth\u2019s stunt double wore during the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics, when the then-86-year-old queen appeared to parachute into the stadium alongside Daniel Craig in his James Bond persona. To complete the illusion, the queen soon emerged in the stands identically attired.<\/p>\n
Both dresses, designed by Elizabeth\u2019s longtime dressmaker Angela Kelly, are displayed side by side, though the stunt double\u2019s version has large zipper in back to accommodate the parachute.<\/p>\n
Fashion connection to the public<\/p>\n
The exhibition, drawn from some 4,000 items once owned by the queen, explores how fashion became one of her most powerful tools of communication as she evolved from a young princess into Britain\u2019s longest-reigning monarch.<\/p>\n
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That could often be seen in her choice of color and decorative detail, as in the green and white Norman Hartnell gown she chose to wear for the state banquet during her 1961 visit to Pakistan, honoring her hosts by donning their national colors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe queen had an intimate understanding of how fashion could lend itself to diplomacy, a trait which, while its origins certainly lay in earlier reigns, the queen developed into nothing short of an art form,\u2019\u2019 de Guitaut said. \u201cColor or embellishment communicated messages of respect to her host nation before she had even uttered a word in her speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
Particularly as she got older, Elizabeth opted to wear bright or distinctive shades during large public events so she could be easily spotted, and visitors could say they had seen the queen.<\/p>\n
The exhibit also explores the queen\u2019s off-duty wardrobe. The tweed suits she wore at Balmoral Castle, the royal family\u2019s summer retreat in Scotland, are on display alongside clothes for riding, hiking and other outdoor pursuits. There\u2019s a thick woolen coat Kelly designed during Elizabeth\u2019s later years alongside items by Burberry and British designer Hardy Amies.<\/p>\n
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Big occasions, big statement gowns<\/p>\n
Clothes worn during the many milestones of the queen’s long life are also on display, from her christening robe, commissioned by Queen Victoria for the baptism of the future King Edward VII, to dresses she wore for her wedding and coronation.<\/p>\n
The exhibit also includes sketches and notes that show just how involved the queen was in designing her wardrobe.<\/p>\n
Naomi Pike, commissioning editor for Elle UK, said the collection finally recognizes Elizabeth\u2019s status as a fashion icon, even though other royals, including her younger sister, the late Princess Margaret, and her daughter-in-law, the late Princess Diana, stole the spotlight during her lifetime.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think we\u2019re very quick in this day and age to afford people icon status. \u2026 It\u2019s thrown around so easily,\u2019\u2019 Pike said. \u201cBut I think in the case of the queen, she was an icon and so much of that comes down to having a very strong sense of personal style.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
On fairy wings<\/p>\n
While the gowns may be the exhibit\u2019s biggest draw, the show also provides a few surprises. With the task of showing us \u2018\u2019what the monarch wore,\u2019\u2019 the curators conjured up a somewhat battered fairy outfit made from a tutu with wings on the back.<\/p>\n
The piece is a favorite of Cecilia Oliver, a textile conservator at the King\u2019s Gallery, who described it as the \u201ccutest thing in the world.”<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think what I love most about it is that it was bought for Elizabeth as a child, and to think of her as this tiny little girl that then grew up into this magnificent woman with all this weight of responsibility on her shoulders, it just feels very, sort of sentimental,\u2019\u2019 Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Oliver grew almost wistful as she described the months of work on the exhibit and the privilege of handling so many things connected to a person familiar to so many but truly known by so few.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a conservator, I have a really intimate knowledge of these pieces. I\u2019ve been able to touch them. I\u2019ve been able to smell them. I\u2019ve been able to understand them,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cAnd through that, I felt really close to her.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style runs until Oct. 18 at the King\u2019s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A member of the Royal Collection Trust staff looks towards hats, bags and shoes worn by Princess Elizabeth,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[75424,76498,76733,75547,76732,4043,76731,9,24,17480,63,833,834,38762,38761,829,2337,76734,2338,76730,122,124,123,9360,5878],"class_list":{"0":"post-191857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-angela-kelly","9":"tag-caroline-de-guitaut","10":"tag-cecilia-oliver","11":"tag-daniel-craig","12":"tag-elle-uk","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-naomi-pike","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-norman-hartnell","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","20":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","21":"tag-package-100923-member-choice-lifestyles-option","22":"tag-product-30594-lifestyles-formerly-weekly-features","23":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","24":"tag-product-31388-premium-entertainment","25":"tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","26":"tag-product-33328-ap-premium-entertainment-other","27":"tag-queen-elizabeth-ii-style-fashion-exhibit-museum","28":"tag-queens","29":"tag-queens-headlines","30":"tag-queens-news","31":"tag-scotland","32":"tag-united-kingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}