The Royal Collection Trust is staging three different exhibitions in honour of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, with several tiaras and gowns going on display at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and the Palace of Holyrood. The exhibition at Windsor Castle is focused on The Queen’s Coronation in 1953. There are several different items of note in this exhibition, including The Queen’s Norman Hartnell coronation dress. Arguably one of the most famous gowns in modern history, it is simply stunning. But why is The Queen’s coronation dress so special? For Style File Friday, we are diving a little deeper…
Norman Hartnell- Court Designer
Norman Hartnell’s rise to favoured court dressmaker happened incredibly quickly. He designed Lady Alice Montagu’s wedding gown when she married the Duke of Gloucester in 1935 and by 1938 was the Queen’s favoured designer. He had designed her entire wardrobe when she and the King were scheduled for a state visit to Paris in 1938, and then redesigned the wardrobe in a matter of weeks, as she went into mourning after the death of her mother. (White being the colour of mourning for French queens, it was not without precedent.)
Hartnell had designed the bridesmaids’ dresses for the 1935 royal wedding, including Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Elizabeth and Margaret both turned to Hartnell to design their own wedding gowns, and Hartnell remained one of Elizabeth’s most trusted designers until his death in 1979.
Want the full story on Hartnell? Head to my History of Norman Hartnell post here!
The Queen’s Coronation Gown
Hartnell was the obvious choice to design Elizabeth’s coronation dress, and he got to work immediately. He provided her with nine different designs, and she chose the eighth. According to the Royal Collection Trust, “the dress was created in the finest white duchesse satin, richly embroidered in a lattice-work effect with an iconographic scheme of national and Commonwealth floral emblems in gold and silver thread and pastel-coloured silks, encrusted with seed pearls, sequins and crystals.”
Interestingly, The Queen re-wore her coronation gown several times after, including when she opened Parliament in Canada in 1959. Although she is most commonly referred to as the “Queen of England”- although she is the “Queen of Great Britain”, she is also “Queen of Canada” and several other nations. This gown perfectly incorporates all of those nations!
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I suspect that the dress may potentially go on display again next year, as that will mark the 70 year anniversary of the coronation, but if it is a must-see for you, I would head to Windsor now! If you are interested, the exhibition at Windsor is open through 26 September.
Have you seen The Queen’s coronation gown?
Cheers,
The Historian
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