96 Years of Royal Fashion

By Emma Hatherell

My personal top 5 favourite looks the queen has sported throughout the years.

Since the passing of the late Queen of England, Elizabeth the second, people have been admiring her various colourful outfits from several occasions over her life. These outfits were curated most recently by a group of 5 dressers, led by senior dresser Angela Kelly.

Worn in 1957, this look is one of my favourites. The delicate embroidery placed over the stunning sky-blue gown was worn to meet the French president. I especially admire how her bag compliments the yellow details in the neckline and needlework. The skirt is a similar style to the ‘poodle skirt’ trend in the 1950s as it has an underskirt to add volume and a coloured top skirt.

This look matches the time period of 1970 perfectly. The skirt ends just above the knee, a similar style to the mini skirt which gained popularity in 1964 by designer Mary Quaint. The colour coordination is also admirable and makes the monarch appear chic and sophisticated.

This dress is definitely one of the more interesting styles the Queen was seen in. Worn in 1983 to meet Nancy and Ronald Raegan, the classic styles of the pearly white gown matched with the funky statement sleeves make an overall impressive fashion statement. Similar ‘ruffle’ style dresses were popular in the 80s so the Queen’s dresser may have been inspired by it

Never a stranger to a pattern, the Queen wore this colourful getup in 1988. The mixture of textures and patterns -which were very popular in the time period- paired with the cohesive colours makes the look give off an ‘organised chaos’ style. I especially love the embellishment on the hat to match the spots on her clothes.

Contradictory to her famous quote ‘I can never wear beige because nobody will know who I am’ in this picture she is captured wearing a classy fawn coloured jacket with a matching hat in 2009. The neutral colour paired with the fur embellishments makes her look very high class and I love this look. In this time period there was a great focus on skin tight clothing in various colours mostly featured on young models however probably due to her age, the Queen’s dressers diverted this trend.