Royal fans are eagerly awaiting the new exhibition, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style, which opens at Buckingham Palace on 10 April. The largest and most comprehensive display of the late Queen's fashion ever presented will be held at The King's Gallery, the site of her christening before the chapel was destroyed in the Blitz.
Caroline de Guitaut, Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art at the Royal Collection Trust, told HELLO! that the monarch was 'elegant, restrained and appropriate' and 'absolutely followed fashion'. Elizabeth's outfits were meticulously selected, with pockets tailored to what she would carry that day.
'Pockets are finished in different ways, depending on what she put in them. The cotton-lined ones were more durable; the silk-lined ones might have been for riding gloves. There was a hierarchy of pockets,' de Guitaut said.
A notable pocket moment occurred in 2019, when the then-93-year-old monarch posed with her hands in the deep-set pockets of her dress, giving a more casual appearance. The exhibition also features two little-known bridesmaid dresses from the early 1930s, which de Guitaut described as 'so lovely and touching and so unknown'.
The late Queen's most iconic fashion moment was her wedding dress on 20 November 1947, a Chinese-silk gown with a 15ft star-patterned train. Designer Norman Hartnell whitewashed his salon windows to prevent any glimpse of the dress, and even prepared an alternative design in case the embargo was broken.
