For Queen Elizabeth, royal fashion was never about keeping up with the latest trends. As someone who was more at home in riding gear and a headscarf (even it was from Hermès), she wasn't chasing down runway looks. But there was one aspect of fashion that the late Queen understood more than most: the art of communication. Over the course of her 70-year reign, every color, cut and accessory was carefully considered to send a message, whether it was to comfort a nation, represent the Commonwealth or acknowledge a cultural moment.
Now, a new play dives into five decades of Queen Elizabeth's life, as told through her dresses and hats that quietly spoke volumes. Writing for the Times, author and Victoria screenwriter Daisy Goodwin—who penned the play, By Royal Appointment—shared how the late monarch used the soft power of fashion to speak when she wasn't able to give her own views.
"In 2017, when announcing the Brexit bill at the state opening of parliament, she chose to wear a blue coat topped with a blue hat with yellow rosettes," Goodwin wrote, noting the outfit's "unmistakable" resemblance to the EU's flag. "As one courtier remarked to a journalist who rang up to find out if the resemblance was deliberate: 'Nothing is left to chance,'" she added.
"A hat is more than a piece of straw—on The Queen’s head it is a skillful piece of PR," Goodwin noted, adding that the "EU" hat and coat are featured in By Royal Appointment. The playwright continued that the late monarch used color skillfully in various situations—and not just when she needed to be spotted in a crowd.
"When Prince Edward got married she wore lilac instead of the blue that she had worn to the weddings of her three older children, whose marriages had all ended in divorce," Goodwin wrote.
Although younger members of the Royal Family show a penchant for wearing the latest designers, the author wrote that "Unlike both the recent princesses of Wales, Elizabeth was emphatically not interested in fashion." However, this didn't mean that she didn't consider the impact her clothing made.
Whether it was wearing a symbolic brooch during a state visit or the color of a country's flag, each look showed the care and attention the late Queen took when planning her working wardrobe.
"In the play Queen Elizabeth says that 'my clothes speak for me, when I can’t.' There is nothing at all frivolous about royal fashion," Goodwin wrote.
