Buckingham Palace's The King’s Gallery hosts the exhibition 'Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style,' surveying the late monarch's deep involvement with her wardrobe. Vogue’s Hamish Bowles and Caroline de Guitaut previewed rare clothing pieces, sketches, and documents. The display highlights her communication through attire across decades.
The exhibition at The King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace showcases Queen Elizabeth II’s lifelong relationship with fashion. It features clothing, rare documentation, correspondence, and fashion sketches that reveal her hands-on role in garment production. “The great takeaway is that she was deeply, deeply involved in the production of her clothing,” says Caroline de Guitaut, surveyor of the King’s works of arts. Numerous dresses by her favored designer Norman Hartnell are on display, including the iconic yellow silk tulle Wattle Dress from her 1954 royal tour of Australia, adorned with white and yellow wattle blossom motifs to honor the host nation. “She always wanted her designers to incorporate something for the host nation, and this is a remarkable example of that,” explains Hamish Bowles, Vogue’s global editor at large. Other highlights span her life, from floral cotton lawn dresses she shared with Princess Margaret in childhood, crafted in Liberty London florals, to her coronation dress that “was greeted with rapture” by the post-war public. Walking through the rooms underscores her use of clothing for nonverbal communication. “That sense of communication with audiences was so important to her even without needing to speak,” de Guitaut notes. “The clothes did so much of the talking.”