The Countess of Wessex will explore the fashion of royal women – including herself – when she visits Bath on February 26. She will tour the Fashion Museum’s Royal Women exhibition, including dresses from Queen Alexandra, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret.
The Countess of Wessex also will come face-to-face with her own outfit in the exhibition, the Jane Taylor hat and Bruce Oldfield silk jacket and skirt she wore to the 2011 wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton.
The Countess of Wessex’s 2011 royal wedding ensemble. Photo: The Fashion Museum
In a statement sent to Royal Central, the museum said: “The Fashion Museum is honoured that HRH The Countess of Wessex especially selected the ensemble that she wore to the wedding of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011 to lend to the museum for display in the Royal Women exhibition. The Fashion Museum looks forward to welcoming Her Royal Highness to see the exhibition when she visits Somerset later this month.”
One of the highlights of Royal Women is the wedding dress worn by Princess Alexandra when she married Albert Edward, the Princes of Wales in 1863. On loan from Her Majesty The Queen and The Royal Collection, the silk gown features Honiton bobbin lace patterned with designs of roses, shamrocks and thistles to represent England, Ireland, and Scotland.
Queen Alexandra’s wedding dress. Photo courtesy of Jessica Storoschuk/An Historian About Town
Other standout ensembles include the gold and pale green velvet outfit worn by Queen Mary to the 1947 royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, and a grey satin ball gown worn by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1954.
The upcoming museum visit fits with the countess’s interest in fashion and design. Sophie became the first-ever patron of the London College of Fashion in 2013 and works with their Better Lives campaign to use fashion to drive change, including the Fashion Education in Prison project.
The Fashion Museum was founded in 1963 and is housed in Bath’s historic Assembly Rooms, one of the city’s finest Georgian buildings. Royal Women runs through 28 April 2019.
