About 200 pieces will be on display, including the late Queen’s bridesmaid dress worn when she was only eight, as well as her wedding and coronation dresses.
Royalty is synonymous to fashion. There’s the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and her seemingly endless catalogue of timeless ensembles. Then there’s the daughter-in-law she didn’t have the chance to meet, Catherine, also the Princess of Wales, who could have given her husband’s mum a run for her money.
While not exactly known for her fashion, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022, also had quite an impressive royal wardrobe. And her changing style through the years, especially the seven decades she served as the Queen, will take the spotlight in a major exhibition next year at the King’s Gallery of Buckingham Palace in London.
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In a statement on the official Royal Collection Trust’s website, the exhibit titled “Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style” will mark the late Queen’s birth centenary, and is set to be the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of her fashion ever mounted. Her fashion archive is one of the largest and most important surviving collections of 20th-century British fashion, which now forms part of the Royal Collection.
The collection is set to feature about 200 items, including dresses, jewelry, hats (the Queen loved her hats!), and shoes. It will be curated in such a way that guests will be able to chart the story of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch through clothing worn in the 96 years of her remarkable life: from birth to adulthood, from princess to queen, and from off-duty style to diplomatic dressing.
There will also be never-before-seen design sketches, fabric samples, and handwritten correspondence, shedding new light on Queen Elizabeth II’s close involvement in the creation and styling of her wardrobe.
Among the items to expect in “Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style” are her wedding dress, made in 1947 by designer Sir Norman Hartnell. As British couture gained popularity in the 1940s, the then Princess Elizabeth began working with Hartnell, who became her preferred designer over the next three decades. He also designed her coronation dress in 1953, which will also be on display.
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Other highlights include one of the earliest surviving pieces of couture from her childhood wardrobe: a silver lamé bridesmaid dress, designed by Edward Molyneux, which she wore when she was only a wee girl of eight for the 1934 wedding of her uncle, the Duke of Kent, to Princess Marina of Greece. The exhibit marks the first time this priceless fashion artifact will be on display.
Evening wear is always a huge part of the royal wardrobe, especially of the reigning monarch. Through the exhibit, visitors will see examples that reflect the evolution of fashion trends throughout her long reign. There are the the crinoline-skirted gowns of the 1950s by Hartnell and Hardy Amies, as well as flowy and vibrant printed dresses by Ian Thomas that capture the relaxed glamour of the 1970s. All these will be on show for the first time.
The exhibition will also highlight the Queen’s use of “diplomatically significant” emblems and colors in her wardrobe for her numerous overseas tours. Look out for Hartnell’s white gown worn by Queen Elizabeth II in a 1961 state banquet in Karachi, which incorporates Pakistan’s national colors through a stunning emerald-green pleat dramatically cascading down the back.
For those of us who became familiar with Queen Elizabeth II only in her later years, we would best remember her for her grandmotherly yet still regal off-duty style and classic British tailoring. Her couture gowns in this stage of her life, however, remained chic and elegant.
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Queen Elizabeth’s everyday, more practical sartorial choices will also be displayed, from impeccably cut riding jackets to tartan skirts and silk headscarves.
“In the year that she would have turned 100-years-old, this exhibition will be a celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s uniquely British style and her enduring fashion legacy,” said the exhibition’s curator, Caroline de Guitaut.
She said the display would use the pieces to “tell the story of a lifetime of thoughtful style choices —from her hands-on role and understanding of the soft power behind her clothing, to the exceptional craftsmanship behind each garment”.
Dates are still to be confirmed for “Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style,” but tickets will go on sale in November 2025. Sign up for updates here.
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