{"id":280761,"date":"2026-06-28T23:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280761\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T23:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:31:09","slug":"the-queens-maple-leaf-style-the-utilitarian-tweed-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280761\/","title":{"rendered":"The Queen\u2019s Maple Leaf Style: The \u2018utilitarian\u2019 tweed suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a9 Write Royalty Inc. \/ No reproduction without the written permission of Write Royalty Inc.<\/p>\n

The slimline two-piece suit was a favoured daytime silhouette for Queen Elizabeth II during the late 1950s and 1960s. There are a number of those outfits in the Her Life in Style<\/a> exhibition at the King\u2019s Gallery in London, including a red wool version by Norman Hartnell that features a rounded black astrakhan collar.<\/p>\n

Another is a yellow tweed Hardy Amies outfit that she wore on June 20, 1959 during stops in Newfoundland and Quebec. She was just two days into a massive six-week tour that would take her and Prince Philip to every province and territory in Canada. Yet, the fashion press wasn\u2019t thrilled by her sartorial selections. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cQueen Bats .500 Against Weather\u201d was the headline of a fashion analysis in the Toronto Star on June 22, 1959<\/a> [subscription required to access]. Looking at the monarch\u2019s outfits at the start of the tour, staff writer Jeannine Locke doesn\u2019t hide her disappointment at some of the choices, which were decidedly hit-or-miss for the early summer weather in eastern Canada.<\/p>\n

In particular, Locke was decidedly not impressed with the yellow tweed ensemble, which then included a coat (which hasn\u2019t survived):<\/p>\n

On Saturday, starting at Stephenville on the windy west coast of Newfoundland, the Queen looked pale and cold in a three-piece, yellow-colored [sic] tweed suit. Her drab beige cloche hat, matching gloves and black accessories did nothing to correct the impression of a utilitarian outfit designed for catching double decker buses in bad weather.<\/p>\n

In the exhibition, the fabric is described as a \u201cyellow woolen tweed, flecked with grey.\u201d The top, which has three-quarter-length sleeves, has three centred buttons then two buttons in an off-centre waist detail. The skirt is plain and slim. That detail at the bottom of the top reminds me of the off-centre interior button or hook fastenings of quality pairs of trousers. According to the exhibition\u2019s companion book, \u201cA very similar model is seen in Amies\u2019 seasonal collection for 1959, in what appears to be an identical fabric, indicating that the model was adapted for the Queen\u2019s use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Details of the lemon tweed suit worn in Newfoundland and Quebec on June 20, 1959 in the companion book to the exhibition<\/p>\n

The lemon tweed outfit can be seen at the far left of the top row of day outfits at the exhibition in the King\u2019s Gallery. It is far more neutral in tone compared to the other outfits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a9 Write Royalty Inc. \/ No reproduction without the written permission of Write Royalty Inc. The slimline two-piece…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-280761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280761","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=280761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}