Queen Elizabeth II

[Thyra]

Oh I totally think The Queen rocks, she is an amazing woman and her clothes are fabulous.

I agree Harumi she had a bit of a bad patch in the 80s/90s but lately she's been looking great for an older woman.

 

[christina126]

^ yeah, I mean, just look at this pic. You cant get more glamorous than that!


getty

 

[eternitygoddess]

I love her jewelry.

I always thought she was really beautiful when she was young...like some movie-star.

She probably has thousands of dresses. I wonder if she re-wears them.

 

[Josephine]

i quite like her sister's style as well- margaret was a very beautiful woman too
(from born-today)

 

[tanii94]

Mike Tindall & Zara Phillips wedding:
Source: dailymail.co.uk

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

Her Majesty always steals the show.

 

[Mirik]

HELLO! magazine 07 November 2011 ebook30

 

[Mirik]

Point de Vue France N 3310 du 28 Decembre 2011 au 3 Janvier 2012 ebook30

Point de Vue N° 3311 du 4 au 10 Janvier 2012 Queen Elizabeth

 

[tigerrouge]

Country Life, 1 Feb 2012 (newsstand.co.uk

 

[tigerrouge]

Radio Times and TV Times, 4-10 Feb 2012 (newsstand.co.uk

 

[liberty33r1b]

The Queen braved the cold and snow to attend church today on the eve of her Diamond Jubilee anniversary. 5 Feb 2012

dailymail

 

[KemAlnagdy]

she looks amazing !

 

[liberty33r1b]

Attending Easter Sunday Church Service, April 8

dailymail

The Queen wore a lilac, green and white Stewart Parvin silk dress with a lilac crepe coat and matching hat

 

[tigerrouge]

Special edition of Country Life out today, I shall probably pick one up from the glamorous environs of my local Tesco's tomorrow (countrylife.co.uk

 

[Thefrenchy]

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

 

[Thefrenchy]

SECRETS OF A ROYAL STYLIST: How does the Queen always manage to look so majestic?

Fashion-wise Elizabeth II has reigned through it all. From A-line and empire-line to mini and maxi skirts. From Boho-chic and rock chick to punk, goth and grunge. Throughout it all the Queen has remained regally indifferent to stylish fads, choosing instead to remain loyal to a look that’s dictated by her role as monarch.

A countrywoman at heart, she would in other circumstances be dressed day-in-day-out in a tweed skirt, headscarf, cardigan and country jacket. Instead, she has to be endlessly attired as if for a wedding. Her clothes have to be crease and breeze resistant, allow her to climb in and out of cars without a hitch, and roomy enough for regular arm waving. Most crucially, they must be bright, to allow her to be spotted as a tiny speck across an Olympic stadium. ‘If I wore beige,’ the Queen once said, ‘nobody would know who I am.’

As a young woman she was happy to follow her mother’s advice and have Norman Hartnell design many of her clothes, including her wedding and Coronation dresses. Then from 1951 she began using Hardy Amies, who was her couturier until the 2002 Golden Jubilee, when he retired. He was less reverent than Hartnell, once saying of his client: ‘She is not a clothes person. She doesn’t care. She listens to our advice and then goes off and wears shabby shoes with an outfit because they are comfortable.’ With her aversion to conspicuous consumption and eye for a bargain, the Queen must be delighted that much of her wardrobe is these days made at the palace by her Senior Dresser and Personal Assistant Angela Kelly and her team. Angela, 59, a friendly Liverpudlian, has made laborious fittings enjoyable.

‘I love the Queen and everything about her,’ said Angela in 2007 in her only interview to date, adding, ‘I do worry about her and care about her. But we also have a lot of fun. The Queen has a wicked sense of humour and is a great mimic. She can do all accents – including mine.’ The appreciation is mutual, with the monarch saying, ‘I think we are a good team.’ Angela has also picked up tips from her boss. ‘The Queen loves clothes and is a real expert on fabrics. It’s not been a question of me teaching the Queen – it’s been the other way round.’

One lesson the Queen has taught her assistant is the power of symbols and emblems. The design for her Coronation dress included embroidered roses for England, thistles for Scotland, leeks for Wales and shamrocks for Ireland as well as the national flowers of the Dominions. Angela has used the same idea, most memorably on last year’s state visit to Ireland. This politically sensitive trip got off to a terrific start when the Queen arrived in a Stewart Parvin green coat matched with a hat by Rachel Trevor-Morgan. It was as near to emerald green as you could get, flattering the host nation. Later in the week at a State Banquet, she dazzled again in one of Angela’s own designs, a stunning white evening gown decorated with 2,091 hand-sewn shamrocks.
Angela is responsible for introducing new designers to the magic circle, most notably Stewart Parvin, who last year made Zara Phillips’s wedding gown.

He says, ‘One of the first dresses I designed for the Queen was in blue lace. It received huge publicity thanks to a power cut when the Queen was at a dinner in Jamaica. She ended up dining by the light of a car headlight – and the story and the dress made the front pages.’ He adds, ‘The Queen is youthful in opinions, in her attitude to life, and mixes easily with people half her age. I think it shows in the way she dresses. Her most successful outfits are the ones where she has gone for something different. She’s willing to step out of her comfort zone.’ Last month Stewart, 45, revealed the monarch’s skirts and dresses are weighted to keep them in place. He buys tiny lead curtain weights at £1.50 for four from the Chelsea store Peter Jones, and says, ‘It makes them hang beautifully.’

Another Angela discovery is milliner Rachel Trevor-Morgan, who was appointed after the retirement of the legendary Freddie Fox, who created more than 350 hats for the Queen over 34 years. Rachel has created 60 hats for Her Majesty, mostly with the same size brim. ‘It’s small because the Queen is small and must be seen.’

Rachel prepares the dyes in a saucepan. ‘I cook it up until I get exactly the right shade,’ she says. Hairdresser Ian Carmichael is another key member of the team. He travels once or twice a week to wherever the Queen is, and accompanies her overseas to maintain those distinctive curls. ‘We talk about everything under the sun, but never anything personal,’ says Ian. Angela also liaises with two designers who have been with the Queen for nearly 30 years. Karl-Ludwig Rehse’s break came in 1988 when he made the dress she wore for a Spanish state visit. King Juan Carlos remarked as he saw her in it, ‘Darling, you look wonderful.’ Karl-Ludwig says, ‘She’s very humorous, talkative, very human and very, very friendly. But you never forget she’s also of very, very high birth.’

He adds, ‘Comfort is the main thing to take into account when designing for her. Then climate if she’s abroad. We also make sure the skirt length is OK for sitting and the buttons can be noticed – if they are the same colour they won’t be seen in photos. We send fabric samples and sketches to the palace and after the Queen has looked at them we meet and she’ll ask our opinion about the fabric. The dress is then taken to the palace for a first fitting. Corrections are marked and if there’s time there is a second fitting. It’s all made a lot easier by the fact the Queen is a professional and knows what she wants.’

The other designer is Peter Enrione, 70, based in west London. He worked with Ian Thomas, Norman Hartnell’s assistant, and still creates outfits on a pre-war treadle Singer sewing machine – ‘I can’t stand the power ones,’ he says, ‘there’s more control with this.’ Gloves are supplied by Cornelia James, based in East Sussex. The company made special ones for the Queen’s wedding and Coronation and has supplied most of the royal gloves since. Cornelia’s daughter Genevieve, who runs the company, says, ‘The Queen’s gloves are brushed cotton for daytime. They help protect her hands when she’s shaking so many, and of course they’re washable. She’ll change them several times a day. For evening she has nylon ones; I think she finds them lighter.’

The Queen’s handbags are made by Launer. Director Gerald Bodmer says, ‘We supply the Queen with patent leather bags in black or white or beige for day use and gold or silver for evening. There’s usually no divide in the middle, unlike the normal design. Recently she’s opted for a smaller, more feminine design and we supplied six. She knows what she wants and I think she’s keen to update her look. But normally we’d only supply one or two a year as the Queen isn’t over the top about these things.’

Finally, the company of Rayne made the Queen’s shoes for more than half a century until they went into liquidation. The palace tracked down employee David Hyatt, who now works for Anello & Davide, and asked him to continue making designs for her, with the royal lasts they managed to get from the liquidators. David says, ‘Her court shoes are calf leather in black, beige or navy, with a 2¼in heel and the option of another ¼in on the sole for use on grass. There are three different designs for evening shoes – in satin, silver and gold. We supply one or two pairs a year and occasionally renew the tops and re-heel them. The Queen doesn’t waste money. She’s no Imelda Marcos.’

She does have one little indulgence, however – a variety of see-through umbrellas that have different coloured bands on the edge to match her outfits. They cost £16 each, and are made by Fulton, in London’s East End. All clothes and accessories are kept for posterity at Buckingham Palace in boxes and cotton bags, inside mahogany wardrobes with airtight doors.

Among her prize possessions are 30 fur coats and wraps which she no longer wears. Together, they form one of the most fabulous dress collections in the world and give an insight into the world of royal couture. The Queen may not have started with a passion for fashion but over 60 years she has perfected the art of dressing elegantly and appropriately for a life spent in the spotlight

- DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

 

[Thefrenchy]

Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations - June 03, 2012

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

 

[Thefrenchy]

Vintage Style | Queen Elizabeth II

“I do not dress the queen”, Sir Hardy Amies once said, “We supply her with clothes – there is a difference.” For half a century Hardy Amies was the Queen Elizabeth II’s official dressmaker, retiring only a year before his death aged 93. He was responsible for her sharp coats, tailored jackets and Elizabethan collars, after she was appointed Queen in 1953 at just 27 years of age. This long weekend celebrates her Diamond jubilee, and 60 years of immaculate style.

For her first Commonwealth tour in 1953, the Queen took more than 100 specially tailored outfits. These included pieces made by couturier Norman Hartnell, who would become her second loyal couturier. For the rest of his life, he would cinch in her legendary 23-inch waist with a variety of ball gowns, including the later named “magpie” dress, which was black with a white panel running down the front. He dressed the Queen for both her wedding and coronation in 1935.

Alongside Hartnell and Amies, The Queen also wore her mother’s outfits, as well as off-the-peg dresses. Stewart Parvin has been designing for the Queen since 2000, choosing block colours to elongate her petite 5”4 frame. Milliner Frederick Fox designed many of her hats, including a pink bell creation worn for her silver Jubilee.

The consistency in her clothing is remarkable, and strict rules govern her outfits: she always wears a two-inch heel, hemlines must be below the knee and her clothing is often weighted down to avoid any wardrobe malfunction. She has always had an acute awareness of what is required of her clothing, and outfits are recorded on a spreadsheet, documenting when and where they were worn. She has always followed Sir Hardy’s motto that, “A woman's day clothes must look equally good at Salisbury Station as the Ritz bar.”

Unlike her mother and many royals, The Queen has never made fashion her business. Governess Marion Crawford famously wrote in her book, The Little Princesses, “Lilibet never cared a fig. She wore what she was told without argument, apart from a long, drab Mackintosh which she loathed.” However, regardless of her intentions or interest in style, her look has inspired numerous fashion houses, including Vivienne Westwood and Dolce & Gabbana, who based their AW08 collection on her Royal Highness, channeling Balmoral floor-length skirts and headscarves. In the 1950s, her specially designed dresses would be replicated overnight to sell to the masses.

Her clothes are representative of an era. A time of couture and tailoring, geared by traditionalism and patriotism that she has carried through since the 1950s. A journey from full skirts in beadwork and tulle, to tailored suits and white gloves, she embodies a balance of authority and elegance.

- ANOTHERMAG.COM

 

[Thefrenchy]

Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee concert - June 04, 2012

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

 

[Wolkfolk]

She's working it in that gold dress