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Queen Elizabeth’s sense of style was iconic and instantly recognisable, from her love of bright colours to her floral hats. British fashion designer Stewart Parvin was responsible for some of her most memorable looks in the later decades of her reign.
As those who were in Her Majesty’s orbit celebrate what would’ve been her 100th year, Stewart has offered new insight into working with the Queen. Speaking to The Telegraph he recalled her love for “outrageous” fashion and her awareness of the power of clothes.
According to Stewart, it was Jackie Kennedy Onassis who was cited as an inspiration when searching for new designers to reinvent the Queen’s style in the 2000s.
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He recalled being approached by Angela Kelly, the Queen’s personal dresser for nearly 30 years, and before she’d actually told Stewart who her mysterious client was, she revealed she was after a “Jackie O look”.
“That was Angela’s terminology, which threw me off, because they were reported not to have got on, but whether that’s just The Crown, I’m not sure,” the designer said.
He is, of course, referring to the Netflix series’ fictionalised account of their famous first meeting back in 1961, which was shown in the second season. The pair did meet for the first time at a dinner hosted at Buckingham Palace in June that year, and while some sources suggest Jackie later referred to it as “heavy going”, there’s no official record it was as awkward as depicted.
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Regardless of the Jackie O of it all, Stewart jumped at the chance to design for the Queen, and got to witness first hand her appreciation for the power of clothing. He said, “It’s only my opinion, but I thought she was very interested in clothes on different levels, because one, it is how she’s perceived, two, they’re an intimate thing. If you go out in your favourite thing, you feel better and that’s very important.”
“She was somebody who had clothes made for her all her life; she was brought up with that, and so she understood it in a way that people who haven’t done that don’t understand,” Steward continued.
Stewart, along with Angela Kelly and input from Her Majesty, helped shape what has become known as the definitive “Queen Elizabeth II style” of bright, bold colours.
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It’s been often stated that the Queen chose such colourful ensembles so that everyone would have a chance to spot her, even in huge crowds. And Stewart’s fascinating insight reveals that the Queen would actually revel in “outrageous” style choices.
Of his designs, he said, “There would be the ‘queen’ ones, and there’d be the more ‘fashion’ ones. Often she would choose the fashion ones, the choice would be much bolder than the choice you’d think. It might be tweaked for Her Majesty, but she was very definitely open. I mean, some of the embroideries we did were, quite frankly, outrageous.”
Some of his designs include the neon green ensemble worn at the 2016 Trooping the Colour, the lime and purple look she wore for Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding and, poignantly, the emerald green dress she wore for her final Buckingham Palace balcony appearance in 2022.