Over the 20th century the relationship between the British royal family and London’s great couture houses grew stronger and tighter. Individual royals, including Queen Mary, The Queen Mother and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II acted as informal patrons of British design by wearing British clothes in public.
This support had started much earlier; Queen Victoria (1837-1901) steadfastly wore British made garments for public engagements. However, in the 20th century individual designers became more important. Royal women went to London court dressmakers and couturiers, such as Madame Handley-Seymour, Reville, Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies, to build their extensive wardrobes. For the designers, these royal commissions validated their creative talents and helped to expand their businesses nationally and internationally.
In the 1930s, Norman Hartnell used his experience as a costume designer for the theatre to create dramatic gowns for Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. During a visit to Buckingham Palace in 1937 he saw a group of portraits by 19th-century artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter. These beautiful images of Queen Victoria’s family inspired his collection of embroidered satin and tulle. A year later his connection with the royal family was secured with the success of the Queen Mother’s ‘White Wardrobe’ on her state visit to France, which she wore as a sign of mourning for her mother who had died just before her departure. The outfits were a great success and transformed Her Majesty’s post-war image.
Throughout his career, Hartnell went for several visits to Buckingham Palace. He would present drawings to The Queen Mother as they discussed details of her sartorial requirements for important public events and royal tours. He would show The Queen Mother ‘special designs’ as well as his current seasonal collections. If any dress had been ordered by another client in the meantime, Hartnell would let The Queen Mother know. Once confirmed, the royal dresser would then make the order, and only after delivering the finished items would Hartnell send the bill.
The designer also created hundreds of dresses for young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, including their wedding dresses in 1947 and 1960, respectively. He was responsible for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation dress (1953), her daywear, evening gowns for formal events and numerous ensembles for the many royal tours during the first decades of her reign.
Another great couturier was Hardy Amies, who also supplied Her Majesty The Queen with many dresses. Amies was first commissioned in 1950, when the then Princess Elizabeth went for her first state visit to Canada. Like Hartnell, he later received a knighthood for his services. Hartnell continued to design for The Queen until his death in 1979; Hardy Amies until his retirement in 1989.
Unlike other royal women, Princess Margaret was far more relaxed about sticking to purely British designers. The young Princess was an early adopter of Dior’s New Look, and throughout the 1950s wore many of the French designer’s couture dresses, including the ball gown for her 21st birthday.
Before starting on its design, Dior asked Princess Margaret, ‘does Your Highness feel like a gold person or a silver one?’ to which she replied ‘a gold person’. The dress is a triumph of white organza and golden embroidery. The Princess ordered garments while visiting his fashion house in Paris in 1949, 1951 and 1959 and she attended his fashion shows at Blenheim Palace in 1952, 1954 and 1958.
When Diana, Princess of Wales, first came to public eye as an 18-year-old aristocratic girl, she had very few clothes of her own, and was far from the style icon she would become. Her first appearance was in Vogue in 1981, as one of the ‘Upcoming Beauties’ photographed by Lord Snowdon. For the shoot, Diana chose a pale pink blouse with a ruffled ‘pie-crust’ collar, by the young husband and wife team Emanuel. Diana loved the blouse so much she asked the designers to create her wedding dress.
Following her engagement, the Princess-to-be set about building a royal wardrobe with designers she liked. Many of them became her loyal friends. Like other working royal women, Diana usually commissioned bespoke garments especially conceived for her royal engagements. Once briefed with details of the occasion in which the garment would be worn, the designers would prepare sketches for her to review.
Diana really enjoyed the creative process and together they would finalise the look. David Sassoon, one of her favourite designers, remembers sitting on the floor with the Princess, going through fabrics and images. Through his fashion house, Bellville Sassoon, David created many iconic looks, including her going-away suit. In this sketch for a maternity evening gown, we can see Diana handwritten annotation saying ‘Yes please!’ She wore the dress to the Barbican Centre in March 1982.
From the late 1980s onwards, Diana began a very successful partnership with London-based designer Catherine Walker. Unlike other designers, Walker did not work according to the fashion industry’s seasonal calendar, and so was able to devote much of her time working exclusively for the Princess. Together they perfected Diana’s image, developing what Walker called her ‘royal uniform’. Her creations favoured streamlined and tailored silhouettes, which she knew would flatter the Princess’s tall and slender figure.
Today, the Duchess of Cambridge follows the well-established tradition of supporting the British fashion industry by wearing British designs. Like her late mother-in-law, she has a handful of trusted designers, including Sarah Burton of the fashion house Alexander McQueen. Burton is responsible for many of the outfits the Duchess has worn for major public events, most memorably her glorious wedding dress.
Fashion of a Queen
Queen Elizabeth II is the longest reigning British monarch and has been on the throne since 1952. Throughout that time her clothes have reflected her own personal style and the wider fashion trends in society.
Conserving and displaying royal fashion
at Hampton Court Palace in the Textile Conservation Studio they look after the royal ceremonial dress collection, which is a collection of nearly 10,000 dress items that relate to royalty. if something is going to go on exhibition, they look at the object and see whether it will withstand the exhibition and mount the object for display. But there's another way that we do it. once you've got the object and you've assessed it according to the scale of need for conservation, the next step is to really carefully document the object. So for example, a jacket that belonged to Queen Victoria and it dates from about 1860. And it was a gift to her from an Ottoman sultan. So it's quite unusual in its style. So the first thing that we would do is to really look at the object and try and pick out the fragility in the object and the condition issues of the object. So this object is silk and silver, so they're quite different. So the silver embroidered onto the silk might cause the silk to begin to split.
colour fading is a problem due to light. if there's areas of loss, we will introduce support fabric. So obviously with different colours, they have to dye different shades of fabric. for the lighter area, they will dye a lighter fabric. that is also what they do with the threads that they use. they use a very thin nearly invisible thread to hold splits together. And hopefully, the stitching is invisible.
Fashion or clothing exhibitions are often based around one person and can give us an insight into that person’s life and personal style. The ‘Victoria: Woman and Crown’ exhibition, which is currently running at Kensington Palace, is just one example of how royal fashion can be used in this way.
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