Something has happened to the Queen recently. Or, to be more precise, something has happened to the Queen’s official wardrobe. Something rather marvellous. Something just a little bit incredible.
Last Sunday, Her Maj went to church, as she has done nearly every Sunday for most of her long and dutiful life.
Outside the church of St Peter and St Paul in Sandringham, she accepted flowers from well-wishers and smiled in the winter morning, even though the weather was cold and bitter. So far, so very routine.
Yet it was what the Queen was wearing that was so special. In short, she looked completely fantastic.
Her coat was of a lovely honey and oatmeal tweed, with gold frogging at the cuffs and elbows.
Her matching hat had a whiff of Beefeater about it: a shape and style that somehow managed to be cosy yet regal, contemporary but traditional, all at the same time. It was a bonnet of understated brilliance, a total attack of hat.
Elsewhere, a discreet fur collar was tied around her neck, a gold and diamond brooch glittered near her left shoulder. To complete the outfit she had pale gloves, perfect pearl earrings, a boxy, chocolate leather handbag and a matching pair of excellent knee-high boots. She looked stylish, classic, appropriate and warm: pretty damn fab all round.
The Duchess of Cambridge may be the royal currently showered with all the fashion plaudits and compliments, but in her own quiet way, the Queen is a style force to be reckoned with. And at 85, I don’t think she has ever looked so cool.
Intriguingly, she just gets better and better. On an official visit to King’s Lynn earlier this week, the Queen was back in well-cut tweed, only this time in a mix of powdery blue hues, topped off with a zinging turquoise hat which appeared to have a brace of white arrows fired into its brim.
It was a statement hat that a fashion-forward young woman might balk at wearing, but not our doughty monarch. Perched on top of her immutable grey shampoo and set, it shone through the watery winter light as a beacon of good cheer amid the Norfolk gloom. Which is exactly what it was supposed to do.
At church again in January, with the recently hospitalised Prince Philip looking frail at her side, she was in an eye-socking fuchsia wool coat that seemed to bathe those around her in a reflective rosy glow. Please note that the matching pink hat had a scarlet brim — a daring colour combo that few would dare attempt.
However, these days, the Queen seems to have daring to spare. For an official visit to a medical centre in Windsor a few weeks ago, she turned out in rich purples with a dashing Robin Hood hat.
Visiting Liverpool in December, HM stepped off the train at Lime Street Station in the most dramatic blood-red coat, complete with matching hat topped off with a saucer-sized rose.
Of course, the Queen has always been totes smart — but what we are seeing now seems to be something of a discreet but powerful royal style quake.
Over the past few years, soft shapes, pleats, meringue hats and tiny, spriggy patterns have been ditched in favour of the structured, the bold and the beautiful. And all to enormous effect.
At a time of life when the allure and attraction of confident fashion statements loses its appeal for many women, the Queen seems to have found a new lease of life.
Not to mention a silhouette and a style which suits her — right down to her non-negotiable buckled shoes. And she has stuck to the formula with great success.
Much of the credit for this must be given to the two most important people in her inner fashion chamber — her beloved dresser, Angela Kelly, and royal couturier Stewart Parvin.
Behind the scenes at royal residences, 58-year-old Miss Kelly wields huge power. A Liverpool crane driver’s daughter, she has risen up the royal hierarchy from humble housemaid to curator of the Queen’s dresses and personal assistant to Her Majesty. She makes some of HM’s clothes and recycles others into new outfits. The Queen is said to be incredibly fond of her.
Ascot-born couturier Stewart Parvin is a genius, a designer who cuts clothes to flatter women whatever their shape or age. Somehow, he imbues even the most traditional of the Queen’s clothes with an artful freshness.
He has also encouraged her into some tremendous hats, including some quite avant garde shapes with audacious trims which suit her and balance out her proportions.
From his London boutique, Parvin designs two couture collections a year and in 2007 was awarded the Royal Warrant after designing for the Queen for a number of years.
He also designed Zara Phillips’ wedding dress last year, while Miss Kelly made the gown in which Prince Edward’s son, Viscount Severn, was christened four years ago.
Behind the scenes, it might be thimbles at dawn between the Queen’s two most trusted clothes pegs, but what they have achieved for her is amazing.
Consider the evidence. She is an incredibly difficult person to dress. I don’t mean that in a treasonable way, rather more that she is, if anyone needs reminding, a Queen. Also, she is small and a little bit boxy, and a grandmother. She is 85 years old, for heaven’s sakes!
She needs to be comfortable for the rigours of long days of formalities; she needs to be seen from the back row of a flag-waving crowd. As reported in my colleague Robert Hardman’s best-selling biography, Our Queen, she once pointed out: ‘I can’t wear beige because people won’t know who I am.’
In addition, what she wears must never offend or affront. Her clothes must be flattering but somehow above fashion. For her, clothes are a means to an end, the props that get her through the daily theatrical production of being Queen.
No other public figure, with the exception of Big Bird, could wear yellow with such aplomb. In any given year, you will find her in lemon checks at Epsom, eggy patterned silks at Ascot, outside St George’s Chapel in Windsor in sunflower shades, prowling through the Kew Gardens undergrowth in a buttery jacket and hat, complete with location-appropriate netting and fronds.
It was the also the colour she chose for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, all razor hems and sharp tailoring.
Her hats are incredible, crafty works of art. When French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy came to London in 2008, the Queen wore a plumed and feathered creation that added inches to her height — always welcome when weathering the diplomatic ordeal known as Standing Next To Carla.
Yet, whether in Singapore or Slough, her hems never droop, her skirts never crease, and in her 60 years on the throne she has never, not once, had a wardrobe malfunction.
It is just not going to happen. Decade after decade, she represents this country, negotiating a tightrope of etiquette and diplomatic pitfalls into which she never falls or falters. Others in royal circles get it wrong over and over again, but the rock-steady Queen does not.
And how incredible that she now has people around her who have somehow conspired to make this rather ordinary-looking woman appear dramatic and vivid on the world stage — a powerful thing to have done.
For her own part, the Queen always knows the right thing to do, and then she does it. She always knows the right thing to wear, and then she puts it on.
Last Sunday, Her Maj went to church, as she has done nearly every Sunday for most of her long and dutiful life.
Outside the church of St Peter and St Paul in Sandringham, she accepted flowers from well-wishers and smiled in the winter morning, even though the weather was cold and bitter. So far, so very routine.
Hat trick: Next to Carla Bruni- Sarkozy in 2008
Her coat was of a lovely honey and oatmeal tweed, with gold frogging at the cuffs and elbows.
Her matching hat had a whiff of Beefeater about it: a shape and style that somehow managed to be cosy yet regal, contemporary but traditional, all at the same time. It was a bonnet of understated brilliance, a total attack of hat.
Elsewhere, a discreet fur collar was tied around her neck, a gold and diamond brooch glittered near her left shoulder. To complete the outfit she had pale gloves, perfect pearl earrings, a boxy, chocolate leather handbag and a matching pair of excellent knee-high boots. She looked stylish, classic, appropriate and warm: pretty damn fab all round.
The Duchess of Cambridge may be the royal currently showered with all the fashion plaudits and compliments, but in her own quiet way, the Queen is a style force to be reckoned with. And at 85, I don’t think she has ever looked so cool.
The Queen glows in oatmeal and honey tweed, left, and right, in a strikingly bold coat and hat in Melbourne
It was a statement hat that a fashion-forward young woman might balk at wearing, but not our doughty monarch. Perched on top of her immutable grey shampoo and set, it shone through the watery winter light as a beacon of good cheer amid the Norfolk gloom. Which is exactly what it was supposed to do.
At church again in January, with the recently hospitalised Prince Philip looking frail at her side, she was in an eye-socking fuchsia wool coat that seemed to bathe those around her in a reflective rosy glow. Please note that the matching pink hat had a scarlet brim — a daring colour combo that few would dare attempt.
However, these days, the Queen seems to have daring to spare. For an official visit to a medical centre in Windsor a few weeks ago, she turned out in rich purples with a dashing Robin Hood hat.
Visiting Liverpool in December, HM stepped off the train at Lime Street Station in the most dramatic blood-red coat, complete with matching hat topped off with a saucer-sized rose.
Of course, the Queen has always been totes smart — but what we are seeing now seems to be something of a discreet but powerful royal style quake.
Powdery hues and an arrow hat score, right, and left, at the VE Day celebrations in London in 2005
At a time of life when the allure and attraction of confident fashion statements loses its appeal for many women, the Queen seems to have found a new lease of life.
Not to mention a silhouette and a style which suits her — right down to her non-negotiable buckled shoes. And she has stuck to the formula with great success.
Much of the credit for this must be given to the two most important people in her inner fashion chamber — her beloved dresser, Angela Kelly, and royal couturier Stewart Parvin.
Behind the scenes at royal residences, 58-year-old Miss Kelly wields huge power. A Liverpool crane driver’s daughter, she has risen up the royal hierarchy from humble housemaid to curator of the Queen’s dresses and personal assistant to Her Majesty. She makes some of HM’s clothes and recycles others into new outfits. The Queen is said to be incredibly fond of her.
Ascot-born couturier Stewart Parvin is a genius, a designer who cuts clothes to flatter women whatever their shape or age. Somehow, he imbues even the most traditional of the Queen’s clothes with an artful freshness.
He has also encouraged her into some tremendous hats, including some quite avant garde shapes with audacious trims which suit her and balance out her proportions.
From his London boutique, Parvin designs two couture collections a year and in 2007 was awarded the Royal Warrant after designing for the Queen for a number of years.
Sunny delight: In glorious yellow for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
Behind the scenes, it might be thimbles at dawn between the Queen’s two most trusted clothes pegs, but what they have achieved for her is amazing.
Consider the evidence. She is an incredibly difficult person to dress. I don’t mean that in a treasonable way, rather more that she is, if anyone needs reminding, a Queen. Also, she is small and a little bit boxy, and a grandmother. She is 85 years old, for heaven’s sakes!
She needs to be comfortable for the rigours of long days of formalities; she needs to be seen from the back row of a flag-waving crowd. As reported in my colleague Robert Hardman’s best-selling biography, Our Queen, she once pointed out: ‘I can’t wear beige because people won’t know who I am.’
In addition, what she wears must never offend or affront. Her clothes must be flattering but somehow above fashion. For her, clothes are a means to an end, the props that get her through the daily theatrical production of being Queen.
No other public figure, with the exception of Big Bird, could wear yellow with such aplomb. In any given year, you will find her in lemon checks at Epsom, eggy patterned silks at Ascot, outside St George’s Chapel in Windsor in sunflower shades, prowling through the Kew Gardens undergrowth in a buttery jacket and hat, complete with location-appropriate netting and fronds.
It was the also the colour she chose for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, all razor hems and sharp tailoring.
Her hats are incredible, crafty works of art. When French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy came to London in 2008, the Queen wore a plumed and feathered creation that added inches to her height — always welcome when weathering the diplomatic ordeal known as Standing Next To Carla.
Yet, whether in Singapore or Slough, her hems never droop, her skirts never crease, and in her 60 years on the throne she has never, not once, had a wardrobe malfunction.
It is just not going to happen. Decade after decade, she represents this country, negotiating a tightrope of etiquette and diplomatic pitfalls into which she never falls or falters. Others in royal circles get it wrong over and over again, but the rock-steady Queen does not.
And how incredible that she now has people around her who have somehow conspired to make this rather ordinary-looking woman appear dramatic and vivid on the world stage — a powerful thing to have done.
For her own part, the Queen always knows the right thing to do, and then she does it. She always knows the right thing to wear, and then she puts it on.
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