She is Britain’s ultimate fashion icon — utterly majestic from the crown of her hat to the tips of her patent shoes.
In the 63 years and 219 days the Queen has reigned, she hasn’t put a foot wrong when it comes to her wardrobe, which is impressive, considering she changes outfits up to five times a day.
Some have claimed the Queen doesn’t care about fashion. But a closer look reveals the opposite. As Angela Kelly, her dresser for 21 years, says: ‘The Queen loves clothes and is a real expert on fabrics. It’s not been me teaching the Queen — it’s the other way round.’ In her youth, Her Majesty often wore eye-catching designs, from turbans and opulent furs to short-sleeved dresses cinched at the waist.
You will spot not a hair out of place, a wrinkle in the fabric of her outfit; no dropped hemlines, visible hat pins or scuffs on her heels.
What you will see is a kaleidoscope of colour. At 5ft 4in, she needs to wear bright hues to stand out. As she once said: ‘If I wore beige, nobody would know who I am.’ We bring you the ultimate guide to our ‘reign-bow’ Queen…
New hats per year: 70
Average brim: 5.5in
Cost: At least £300
The Queen wears her favourite hats up to 20 times, allowing several months in between.
The felt hats, made by royal milliner Philip Somerville until his death in 2014 and since by Rachel Trevor-Morgan, cost upwards of £300, with extravagant designs exceeding £1,000.
For state occasions, the Queen owns 11 tiaras, the most precious of which is the Imperial State Crown, which contains 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and five rubies. Her trademark curls are fixed in position with transparent gel, dubbed ‘liquid concrete’ by mischievous Palace staff.
Size: 4 — the small-footed Queen has an allocated staff member (dubbed ‘Cinders’) to wear in her shoes for a week before she tries them.
Heel height: 2.25in (minus the quarter-inch if she’s on uneven surfaces).
Brand: London-based shoemaker Anello & Davide, replacing royal go-to Rayne in the Nineties.
Style: Courts with a brass buckle and low heel. She has both plain and patent designs, in black, navy and white for day; satin, silver and gold for night.
upkeep: She gets two new pairs a year and has older ones re-heeled. ‘The Queen doesn’t waste money,’ says David Hyatt, of Anello & Davide. ‘She’s no Imelda Marcos.’
When you see the Queen wearing an open coat with what looks like her dress visible underneath, it’s not as it seems. Angela Kelly inserts fabric identical to the dress across the front of the coat to give the illusion of it sitting open without exposing her to a gust of wind.
The heads of her hatpins are covered in the same fabric as the hat, to make them almost invisible. Every outfit — apart from evening gowns — is fitted with pleats, so the skirt doesn’t rise when she sits or walks up stairs. Knife pleats (straight lines), kick pleats (fanned) and box pleats (wide folds) are used, as well as zips at the back so clothes can be changed quickly.
£18 - The cost of her secret indulgence — an £18 ‘birdcage’ umbrella from London firm Fulton, made from transparent plastic.
9 - The number of publicly available photographs of the Queen wearing trousers.
1 - The number of shoulder pads she wears to balance out one shoulder that is higher than the other (her left is thought to be the higher one).
100 - The number of different outfits she took on her first Commonwealth tour in 1953.
1,028 - The number of diamonds on the Queen’s favourite tiara, the ‘Girls of Great Britain and Ireland’, which she wears in her portrait on banknotes.
£1.50 - The cost of a pack of four John Lewis lead curtain weights, sewn into the seams of the Queen’s dresses to stop them blowing in the wind.
2,091 - The number of hand-sewn shamrocks on the white gown she wore in Ireland in 2011.
1982 - The year she began to wear reading glasses. In 1993, she asked the Duke of Edinburgh to give an address on her behalf as she had forgotten to bring them.
£217,600 - The value of the yellow gold Jaeger LeCoultre 101 wristwatch Her Majesty wore on her Coronation Day in 1953.
Tights: Never bare-legged, the Queen wore sheer stockings (complete with trendy back seam) in her youth and these days dons 60 denier nude tights to keep her calves and ankles warm. Her ladies-in-waiting carry a spare pair in case she gets a ladder while out and about.
Underwear: June Kenton, former owner of the upmarket lingerie brand Rigby & Peller, has been fitting the Queen’s bras for 33 years, but is famously tight-lipped about the royal bust size.
I love Her Majesty's sense of style. Can I have her wardrobe
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