Inside the largest Queen Elizabeth II fashion exhibition in history at Buckingham Palace

Dorothy Reddin
Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:12:25 +0000

The largest fashion exhibition centred around the late monarch, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style, officially opened today at the King's Gallery in Buckingham Palace, and remains accessible until October 18.

The exhibition takes royal fans through 96 years of the late Queen's fashion history, complete with around 300 pieces - half of which are being put on display for the first time.

GB News had the opportunity to attend a sneak peek of the exhibition on Thursday, where I exclusively spoke to the curator, Caroline de Guitaut, who also works as the Surveyor of the King's Works of Art.

She provided fabulous insight into Queen Elizabeth II's wardrobe and its use in national and international diplomacy.

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Royal fans would be stunned to discover just how involved Her Late Majesty was in the creation of her wardrobe.

For example, Ms De Guitaut revealed how the late Queen insisted the emblems of the dominion countries on her Coronation dress be stitched in bright colours so they could clearly be seen.

This marked a major change in tradition, as embroidery would typically be gold or silver in early 20th-century fashion.

Queen Elizabeth II was a huge champion of British fashion; in her nearly-100 years on this earth, she saw the demise of the court dressmaker, the rise of British couture, and the establishment of iconic British fashion houses.

This legacy carried through to the 21st-century generation of royals, when Catherine Middleton, later the Princess of Wales, chose to wear an Alexander McQueen dress to marry Prince William.

I gained unbelievable insight when viewing the late Queen's private correspondence with her couturiers and suppliers.

On her seven-month tour of the Commonwealth from 1953 to 1954, the late monarch wrote extensively to her designers, Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies, about her outfit preferences as a newly-crowned queen.

Ms De Guitaut told the People's Channel: "For Queen Elizabeth II, she spent a lot of time really carefully considering how her clothing could help her fulfil her role.

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"The combination of that with being such a widely travelled sovereign, travelling at the request of the Government overseas, and these extraordinary tours that she would go on. I mean, the first Commonwealth tour was seven months long."

In the 1940s, as a young princess, Elizabeth's fashion was directly rivalling Parisian fashion with her London couture, marking the beginning of her thoughtful style choices.

In 1947, Mr Hartnell designed her wedding gown to be embroidered with pearls, demonstrating a rebirth for Britain two years after the end of the Second World War.

This exhibition confirmed what I had always known as a royal journalist, that Queen Elizabeth II (and later other members of the Royal Family) use fashion as an art form when travelling abroad and performing royal engagements at home to convey certain messages.

For example, the late Queen requested that Mr Hartnell design a dress for her 1961 tour of Pakistan that featured green pleats cascading down the back as a nod to the country's flag.

Six years later, during a trip to Ottawa, Mr Hartnell incorporated embroidered maple leaves into Elizabeth's dress, the national emblem of Canada.

I also learned during the exhibition that Queen Elizabeth's hats were designed in a way so that her face would never be obscured.

In comparison to the late Queen Mother, who loved pastel colours, Elizabeth II favoured bright and bold colours so that she would always be visible to large crowds.

The fashion choices were very intentional and were, in a large way, decided by the late monarch herself.

The exhibition takes fans through the evolution of Queen Elizabeth's evening dresses, from the crinoline cuts of the 1950s to the softer silhouettes of the 1970s.

In 2018, the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design was launched in honour of the monarch's commitment to the British fashion industry.

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style has already sold out in its first few weeks, with thousands of tickets already snapped up, showing Britain's enduring fascination with Her Late Majesty.