Taking my lovely mum to see Her Life in Style

In the centenary year of her birth, this fascinating exhibition exploring the clothes worn by the late Queen reveals just how much this iconic woman was involved in not just the choices about the clothes she wore, but every stage of the design and creation process, and how astutely attuned she was to the impact and messaging of her outfit choices.

It’s also a rare opportunity to see some of the thousands of items she wore over her long life up close and be able to fully appreciate the astonishing craftsmanship and skill of the people who made them for her.

Perhaps her appreciation of embroidery - so often a significant feature of so many of her outfits - was imbued in the Queen as a baby when she was dressed in the magnificent christening robe commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1841 and made by the ‘embroiderer to the Queen’, Janet Sutherland, from the same silk and lace as her employers wedding dress.

Princess Elizabeth’s christening robe, worn by royal babies for 130 years

Certainly her understanding of the need for outfits suitable for royal ceremonial occasions must have been cemented during the process of having the silk satin and Chantilly lace dress, trimmed with gold lame bows and child-size coronation robe was being created for her father’s coronation in 1937. Her ensemble that day was completed with a gilt metal coronet commissioned by the King.

The outfit worn byPrincess Elizabeth to her father’s coronation as King in 1937

Elizabeth’s clothes choices as a young woman very much reflected the fashion of the time, like this shirt and skirt she wore to a square-dancing party given by the Govenor-General of Canada during her tour there in 1951, and which, like so many of the pieces on show is displayed accompanied with a picture of her in the clothes, something which really helps brings them to life. (Can we also take a moment to note how tiny her waist was then.)

The Queen photographed wearing the shirt and full skirt displayed in the exhibition at a square-dancing party

The foundations for many of the long relationships the Queen had with certain couture houses and designers were laid down in her younger years. In 1935 Norman Hartnell designed a bridesmaid dress for the nine-year old princess and it was in his skilled hands she entrusted the two most important dresses of her personal and public life, and the two stunning centerpieces of the exhibition - her 1947 wedding dress and the glittering dress she wore for her coronation in 1953.

The Normal Hartnell designed dress Princess Elizabeth wore for her wedding to Prince Philip

With clothes rationing still in force, Hartnell struggled to find the seed pearls needed for the complex embroidery he designed for the duchess satin dress and its dramatic 13-foot train, which incorporated wheat ears for prosperity, garlands of York roses, star flowers Jasmin ad orange blossom . As a child Elizabeth had worn ballet shoes from the firm of Rayne, and they were not only responsible for the the silk-satin heels she wore on her wedding day but all her footwear for dozens of decades.

Elizabeth’s silk satin wedding shoes made by designers Rayne

At the Queen’s request, her coronation dress was based on Hartnell’s design for her wedding. He submitted eight designs for her consideration and she chose the final one, with the specification that it broke with traditional by enhancing the gold and silver embroidery with coloured silks.

The Queen’s coronation dress designed by Normal Hartnell. You can see his finished sketch hanging on the right.

Seeing it up close, you can appreciate the skill of everyone involved in making this historical dress, arguably none more so than the remarkable talents of the team of embroiderers who created the intricate pearl, crystal, bugle bead, sequin and gold and coloured silk thread designs, arranged over the three scalloped, graduating tiers of this astonishing gown.

Of course the Queen wore many many gorgeous gowns and evening dresses over her long rein, and there’s a room in the exhibition where a handful of them are displayed,

Some of the beautiful evening gowns worn by Queen Elizabeth during her lifetime

often accompanied with the designers sketches - which she marked ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to - and always by informative captions and pictures of her wearing each one.

Designer sketches for gowns worn by Queen Elizabeth

The captions especially reveal just how carefully the Queen considered the, often diplomatically significant, message her clothes conveyed. Like this duchess satin even dress by Hartnell which was worn at a state banquet at the residence of the President of Pakistan in 1961 and made in the colours of the Pakistan flag.

A Normal Hartnell evening dress designed in the colours of the Pakistan flag

The gowns also show her evolving shape and style over the decades.

Of course, as much as the Queen could pile on the glitz and glamour, the majority of her wardrobe was compiled of everyday clothes, which varied from the formal, to the official (as the first female sovereign in four generations, new uniforms had to be created for her roles, for example, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Sovereign of the Orders of Chivalry), to the relaxed countryside pieces she wore when she was off-duty with her family and beloved dogs and horses.

All of those are on display in the exhibition, with the formal outfits demonstrating how consistently and cleverly she used block colour especially, but colour in general, to make her relatively diminutive size (she was 5’ 4”) stand out in and for the crowds.

Formal daytime outfits worn by the Queen showing her love and use of colour to make herself stand out in the crowds

As there are the accessories for which she was famous. The bags, the shoes and, of course, her infamous, memorably varied hats.

Some of the Queen’s vast collection of hats

Described by renowned hat maker Stephen Jones as ‘the patron saint of millinery’, the Queen wore hats throughout her entire life, long after they had disappeared from mainstream wear. Always striking, but also always carefully designed to ensure her face could be clearly seen by the crowds who accompanied her every appearance.

Naturally Elizabeth presided over decades of significant occasions, events and anniversaries during her record-breaking reign. The outfits she wore for her Silver, Diamond and Platinum Jubilees - by which time she only had two designers working for her, Angela Kelly and Start Parvin - are on display alongside a dress that could arguably have been the one seen by more people around the world than any other in the exhibition.

It’s the one she wore for the opening of the 2012 London Olympic Games in the wildly unexpected and entertaining James Bond introduction to her appearance which appeared to suggest she had arrived at the stadium having jumped out of a helicopter. In recognition of her lifelong sense of fun (who can forget her having tea with Paddington Bear?), the dress, designed by Angela Kelly, is displayed alongside the identical one worn by her stunt double which reveals the modifications necessary to ensure the parachute could be attached to it.

The dress worn by the Queen to the opening of the 2012 London Olympics alongside the one made for her stunt double

There’s so much to see, learn, revel in and be surprised by in this fascinating exhibition. Not just the clothes themselves but the stories and people behind them, and of course, the world famous woman who wore them all.

I have my favourite pieces and items as I’m sure you will if you visit Her Life in Style at the Kings Gallery before it closes in October. You can find out what some of them are THIS Heydays newsletter on Substack. Where you can also read about an unexpected encounter I had whilst I was at the exhibition which made the morning I was there even more memorable.

For ticket and booking information click HERE.