A royal dressmaker tells the story of how he was in the old nursery at Buckingham Palace fitting two bridesmaids’ dresses, when the Queen and her corgis suddenly appeared. As he bowed out in a dither, stumbling against the dog bowls, the Queen surveyed the sugar-spun fairy-tale creations and said: ‘Are they washable?’
This mixture of down-to-earth practicality and high grandeur has marked Queen Elizabeth II’s reign for over 70 years. Although she is unlikely to have posed a similar question about Norman Hartnell’s exquisitely embroidered Coronation gown in 1953, a streak of the sensible permeates her wardrobe.
Always correct and impeccable, the Queen developed her look in the days when she was Princess Elizabeth, when she followed her mother’s advice and dress code. And she has stuck with her style.
Now, at 95, the Queen is fond of saying: ‘I get more and more like granny,’ referring to the redoubtable Queen Mary. They certainly share the same wiry, wayward hair and a face that looks grim in repose but radiant when smiling. And sartorially they also have something in common: a resistance to the vagaries of fashion that sent Princess Margaret’s skirts climbing high in the 1960s and brought stockings decorated with a beetle pattern when the Beatles were all the rage.
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