King Charles and Queen Camilla have made their way to a fashion exhibition at Buckingham Palace, celebrating the iconic style of Queen Elizabeth II. This event, titled “Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life In Style,” is being held at The King’s Gallery by the Royal Collection Trust. The exhibition showcases over 300 of the late Queen’s garments, many of which are being presented to the public for the first time. Described as the most extensive exhibition of the Queen’s fashion, it includes significant pieces like her christening robe, bridesmaid gown, and wedding dress.

Visitors will also find Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation dress, the outfit she wore to Princess Margaret’s wedding, and the costume she donned for her dramatic helicopter jump at the 2012 Olympics. The exhibition traces the evolution of the Queen’s style over her remarkable ten-decade life, commemorating Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. Curator Caroline de Guitaut remarked, “In the year she would have turned 100, this exhibition celebrates Queen Elizabeth’s distinctively British fashion and her lasting legacy.” Running from April 10 to October 18, the exhibition offers fresh insights into the Queen’s hands-on approach to her wardrobe, featuring several deeply personal items.

Among the highlights is a specially designed maternity evening gown from 1948, crafted to subtly conceal the future King Charles III. Also on display are a pair of check trousers for her private time at estates like Balmoral and Sandringham, and a striking see-through plastic coat from the 1960s, which remains unphotographed in her public appearances. The Royal Collection Trust team, led by de Guitaut, who is the Surveyor of the King’s Works of Art, had complete access to Queen Elizabeth’s extensive wardrobe of 4,500 pieces, meticulously preserved throughout her life. This exhibition, 18 months in the making, stands as the largest dedicated to the late Queen and her fashion.

The first few weeks of the exhibition ‘Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life In Style’ have been a sell-out. The late monarch, de Guitaut concedes, was not a woman obsessed with fashion, but after finding herself hailed a style icon became determined to make it work as a tool of her trade. ‘Queen Elizabeth took a deep and thoughtful interest in every aspect of her wardrobe, using fashion as diplomacy while consistently championing the UK’s fashion industry,’ she said. Among the exhibits are Elizabeth’s breathtaking wedding and coronations gowns, including, for the first time, the fan she used in 1953.

Her wedding gown is reunited, for the first time in more than 20 years, with the glittering Queen Mary’s Diamond Fringe tiara (although the arms of the dress have since been replaced as the material had sadly deteriorated). There are eye-catching items, too, such as the Queen’s ‘poodle skirt’ worn for a square dance in Canada, an extraordinary embroidered coat and matching slippers which she wore in Malaysia in 1989 and a purple dress that actually conceals, extraordinarily, a pair of culottes. A maternity evening dress made by Hartnell, dating from around 1948, is a rare example of its type. De Guitant says she was ‘very excited’ to have found it and that the tailoring is so clever that from the front you wouldn’t even have known she was pregnant. ‘It’s quite a rare survival,’ she says.

The display of evening gowns and day dresses for State Visits and banquets is almost overwhelming, many featuring specific colours or national symbols in honour of the countries she was visiting, as well as accessories from her many tours over the years including binoculars, sunglasses and suitcases. The Queen was apparently very much involved in the process of creating her outfits, examining sketches submitted to her and commenting back on the silhouette, or sleeve or skirt length. ‘The Queen would want to see the fabric samples too, she was absolutely insistent on having at her fingertips every single piece of information about how this finished garment might look,’ de Guitaut explained. ‘She became an active master at dressing in a very appropriate way, paying compliments to the host country, honouring the craftsmanship of the place she was visiting.

‘The wearing of this wonderful couture on the global stage was really the greatest possible advert for British production, design and manufacture. ‘She took diplomatic dressing to a whole other level of sophistication which no other monarch had really done to the same degree. She was a trailblazer.’ King Charles will address the nation tomorrow to mark his mother’s birthday. Charles has reportedly penned personal reflections on what he considers his mother’s greatest achievements. This will be accompanied by a touching video montage of poignant moments from her life played on screen. That is expected to include footage from her service during WW2 in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, memories from royal tours around the world and duties at home, and moments from her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022. Charles is said to have invested considerable time curating the list of invitees to the reception, prioritising representatives from organisations and charities with which his mother formed deep connections.