Fashion Rules - Restyled
With the Queen’s 90th birthday coming up in this Spring, Kensington palace showcases an in-depth look at recent decades of dresses through the wardrobes of three royal women: Her Majesty The Queen, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales.
For me, it was a delightful experience full of glamour, elegance and remarks so many proud moments of british fashion history.
The magnificent entrance of Fashion Rules – Restyled started off with a beautiful ball gown in cream with golden and pearl details in abundance (above) celebrates the rule: High Impact.
This dress, worn by her Majesty the Queen on first night of her royal tour of France in 1957 was designed by Norman Hartnell is known as the “Flowers of the Fields of France”. It has the most delightful embroidery and one of the embroiders has spent three years working on the gown.
All the high impact dresses were elaborately designed and so visually significant, there by helped to distinguish the members of the royal family.
This peach pink silk evening dress (above) is a great example where the details are so carefully crafted with breaded embroidery by Catherine Walker in 1993 and gracefully worn by Princess Diana.
The royal dress collection was no short of ball gowns and every single piece that was displayed had a story behind it, and each represented elegance and confidence in women.
These dresses were made to stand out and symbolise the great sense of fashion and the very endearing craft behind it.
Bold accessories was also a part of royal dressing. Princess Margaret was especially admired by women around the world for her bold sense of accessories.
For evenings on town, Princess Margaret covered up with this very luxurious 1950s fur wrap by Norman Rogul with her monogram is a classic example of how glamour shone through bold accessories.
In royal dressing, colour has played a significant part and the royal ladies has not shied away from bright and bold colours. It has been used as a method of communication to express different emotions and specific ideas.
While light and more unusual tones are quite popular among royal dress collections, there has definitely been more standing out colours as well.
In to more Diplomatic dressing, there has been great many pieces royal ladies wore to diplomatic events throughout the history. As the designer Normal Hartnell once described, “The task for the designer of a wardrobe for a state visit is indeed a responsible one”. It is challenging to ensure all the clothes are suited for varied climates and local customs of different locations, considering national colours yet maintaining elegant modesty.
This evening silk dress with taffeta skirt was worn by Diana, Princess of Wales in Balmoral and to the National Gallery in Scotland in 1990s is a classic remake of the Diplomatic dressing.
Overtime, royal ladies have also managed to stay On Trend. Queen Victoria told her eldest son that he should “never wear anything extravagant or slang“, this has maintained the good taste of fashion in royal wardrobes.
While they stand apart from Fashion in some sense by avoiding the mainstream and extreme trends, they also in some ways are trend setters by subtly adopting the trends and personalising them to suit their own individualities.
During the 1950s Princess Margaret was famous for embracing the “new look” of Christian Dior’s full skirt and nipped in waists in the latest fashion which then became the “The Margaret Look” !
Fashion Rules – Restyled is proud moment for the British Fashion Designers to celebrate the much loved craft, adored by the great ladies throughout the history.
Looking back on these regal moments always remind us of the great talents of the fashion designers and the true class, elegance and the confidence these ladies carried each one of these designs.