Royal history is a rich field. (Pun intended…) There are any number of areas to focus on. Many historians choose to focus on the political side of royal life, or the romantic and/or personal side of royal life. (Henry VIII and his ministers? Or Henry VIII and his wives? Or Elizabeth I’s potential suitors?) However, I have always been fascinated by their fashion choices. Fashion can play a role in politics, in the economy, in personal lives. It isn’t the frivolous choice that many people assume. And so I’ve brought all of my royal fashion history posts together for you!
Court Dress
Court dress is one of my favourite areas of royal fashion history. It appears that court dress is usually discussed as a separate topic, but given that they are royal courts, I would include it. The trends at court were often set by the monarch, their spouse/mistresses, and other favourites. One had to dress the part to be allowed at court, and gave monarchs control over their courtier’s closets. Luckily for historians, a fair number of court garments (and records) survive.
Exploring Court Dress Garments– This post explores different English court dress garments from the early modern and modern periods. Court dress evolved over the centuries in England/Britain, and we see quite a difference in the span.
Russian Splendor: Russian Court Dress– Russian court dress is quite different from the rest of Europe in that it was codified in the mid-nineteenth century. Because of that, there was little change, and it is easily identifiable. But do you know what actually constitutes Russian court dress? I also review Russian Splendor, a fantastic book exploring all aspects of Russian court fashion.
Royal Specific Fashion
I’ve been lucky to see several different royal fashion exhibitions on my travels. Royal wardrobes tend to tell us a lot about the royal in question, and their garments often have a better chance of surviving. (Although they recycled clothing, too, so much of it is gone.) These are some of my favourite exhibitions, and all have been incredibly well done.
Princess Charlotte’s Russian Style Dress– Although this is a history bite, it is one of my favourite pieces included in the Romanov exhibition! There weren’t many textiles included, but this dress is incredible.
Royal Women, Part I– The Royal Women exhibition at the Fashion Museum in Bath was amazing. Although it is a smaller museum, they have a treasure chest of pieces in their 100,000 strong collection. And that includes several different royal pieces. In this post, I look at Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary’s fashion, and how they each made their own lasting impact on fashion.
Royal Women, Part II– The second part of this exhibition focuses on Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. (With a hint from the Countess of Wessex!) You will notice that all four of these women are around the crown but do not sit on the throne. They all used fashion in very specific ways, and it shows just how important it is.
Diana: Her Fashion Story– With the new season of The Crown almost upon us, and Diana, Princess of Wales finally appearing, I expect her fashion will be even more popular again. This exhibition at Kensington Palace was wonderful. It covered clothing from her entire royal life, and also captured much of her personality and emotion behind it.
Princess Margaret: Royal Fashion Icon– Princess Margaret is a fascinating royal figure. She is written off a lot for her personal life, but I don’t believe the historian’s role is to personally judge people in the past. Margaret played a crucial role in British fashion in the twentieth century, and I think she deserves far more attention. I look at some of my favourite looks in this post!
Royal Fashion History Books
There are many different books covering royal fashion history. (I mean, there could be more but there are many to choose from.) I would recommend looking through my posts on my favourite fashion history books, as many of them as royal-centric. You can find my favourite pop fashion history books here, including one of my favourite books from HRP. And my favourite academic fashion history books here, including one on Queen Alexandra.
Are you interested in royal fashion history?
Cheers,
The Historian
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Bloglovin’
