From the coronation dress to the raincoat/ Five of Queen Elizabeth II's most iconic outfits

2025-12-27 14:32:00, Lifestyle CNA

From the coronation dress to the raincoat/ Five of Queen Elizabeth II's

She was arguably the most famous woman of her time, and Queen Elizabeth II's style, while restrained and often conservative, was instantly recognizable.

Her clothes were carefully designed, with practicality in mind, and often conveyed messages of power, diplomacy, and stability.

A new exhibition in the King's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, showcasing items from 10 decades of Queen Elizabeth's life and marking the 100th anniversary of her birth, sheds light on how Britain changed during her reign.

Of the 200 outfits to be featured, including dresses, jewellery, hats, shoes and accessories, the BBC has selected five of the Queen's most iconic outfits.

Wool jacket and Balmoral skirt

Designed by her tailor Norman Hartnell, the Queen first wore her Harris Tweed wool jacket and Balmoral Tartan skirt in the 1950s. The ensemble, which became a staple of the Queen's off-duty look over the decades, was practical due to her love of nature and modest in appearance.

Coronation Dress

Also designed by Hartnell, the Queen's 1953 coronation dress was made from Kent silk and features gold beads, diamonds and pearls in intricately designed embroidery. But while it has all the hallmarks of the great British craftsmanship that Elizabeth II supported, it is the symbolism for which her style became known that makes the dress special.

The dress features the floral emblems of the four nations of the United Kingdom, and after seeing Hartnell's eighth design for the dress, the Queen also requested that the emblems of other states within the Commonwealth be included.

Eisenhower's dress

In 1957, Elizabeth II wore a sheer sleeveless green gown, also designed by Hartnell, for a state banquet hosted for US President Dwight Eisenhower at the British Embassy in Washington DC.

Blue dress and bolero jacket

The blue dress and bolero jacket that the Queen wore for the wedding of her sister, Princess Margaret, in 1960, has an incredibly timeless quality.

With lace details, the dress mirrored the silhouette of the bride's gown and was worn with a blue hat adorned with three blue silk roses, thought to have been a memento of her younger sister's full name, Margaret Rose.

Transparent raincoat

Unlike many of the other items on display, there is a transparent plastic raincoat from the 1960s. It was designed by another of the Queen's stylists, Hardy Amies, who later created space-age clothing for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film A Space Odyssey.

Like the transparent plastic umbrellas that later became her trademark on official engagements, this raincoat allowed people to see the Queen's brightly colored dresses, regardless of the weather conditions. /CNA