The Queen’s reign has been marked by major style moments, and in the lead-up to her Platinum Jubilee, we’re looking at some of the most popular and revered outfits throughout her record-breaking reign.
For the wedding of her son and heir, The Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, The Queen kept it blue and breezy for the state occasion. Dressed by Ian Thomas, one of her many dressmakers, The Queen wore a turquoise chiffon and silk crepe dress with short sleeves and a belted waist under a pleated overcoat. The sides and back of the dress were accessorised with silk chiffon flowers.
Thomas also design The Queen’s turban-style turquoise hat, which was lined with silk chiffon flowers. She wore her customary pearl necklace and the Williamson Pink Diamond Brooch.
The brooch, designed by Cartier, features the world’s largest pink diamond, which was discovered by Canadian geologist Dr. John Williamson in Tanzania. Dr. Williamson gifted the diamond to then-Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present and in 1952, she had Cartier design the floral-inspired setting. The pink diamond, which had been cut down, features as the centre of the flower, and 203 white diamonds were added to the brooch to complete the design.
Ian Thomas became dressmaker to The Queen in the middle decades of her reign, creating outfits for her that helped to define her style in the 1970s and 1980s. Thomas got his start with the British Royal Family when he helped Norman Hartnell—The Queen’s principal dressmaker—to design her 1953 coronation gown and continued his design career within that royal sphere.
The Queen reportedly gifted him with a horse and a corgi—though he returned the corgi because their personalities clashed—and held him in high regard. After working as an assistant to Hartnell, he eventually opened his own label and earned a Royal Warrant from The Queen in 1973. Thomas died in 1992.
The Queen would wear shades of blue or purple to all of her children’s wedding, ranging from dark blue to the wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in 1973; to turquoise at Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales’s; to periwinkle at Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York’s; and lavender to the Earl and Countess of Wessex’s.
The Queen’s various wedding ensembles went on display with the Royal Collection Trust in 2016 as part of her 90th birthday celebrations.
