She has toured Australia 16 times so it’s not surprising the Queen has had some serious style moments in our fair country.
Here are five of her most iconic Australian fashion highlights, extracted from The Royals in Australia, the fascinating new book by Juliet Rieden, The Weekly’s Deputy Editor and Royal Correspondent.
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The Queen in Melbourne in 1954.
HARDY AMIES’ WHITE LACE WOW
The Queen wore this stunning tailored white lace dress by one of her favourite couturiers, Hardy Amies, with matching gloves, tightly furled umbrella and stylish black-crinoline brimmed hat trimmed with red and green ostrich feathers in 1954 at a garden party at Government House in Sydney. She teamed the outfit with white peep-toe sandals and pearls. It was an immediate fashion sensation and has been referenced ever since as an example of Her Majesty’s style cred.
RACING CHIC
Mimosa yellow was again the couleur du jour at Randwick Racecourse in 1970, when Her Majesty wore this very of-its-time sleeveless dress and matching coat designed by Norman Hartnell in fine wool crepe with contrasting cream trim. The Queen accessorised with a yellow straw hat covered in yellow silk and topped off with woven white silk ribbons designed by Simone Mirman. Her Majesty’s trademark white handbag and low-heeled white shoes completed the look.
NORMAN HARTNELL’S WATTLE WORK OF ART
Couturier Norman Hartnell reintroduced the crinoline, a stiff petticoat popular in Victorian times, to give a full skirt shape and body in his now famous wattle dress. The magnificent gown, made from mimosa gold tulle and embellished with twinkling sprays of golden wattle, was worn by the Queen for a state banquet on the first evening engagement of the 1954 royal tour in Sydney, and again to her last evening function in Perth.
THE WATTLE BROOCH
In 1954, Her Majesty was given a very special gift by the Government and people of Australia, which she immediately wore to the races at Flemington, Melbourne, and on many subsequent visits to Australia. The brooch, a spray of diamonds, was made by William Drummond & Co. of Melbourne. It featured rare yellow diamonds representing the wattle, blue–white diamonds representing mimosa leaves, and a large central white diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds depicting the blossom of the tea-tree.
GLITTERING CROWN JEWELS
At an official dinner at Parliament House in Canberra in March 2006, at 79 years old, Her Majesty dazzled again in a white beaded evening gown. While the dress was a statement in royal style, it was the Queen’s jewels which drew gasps. She wore the ‘Girls of Great Britain and Ireland’ tiara, a wedding gift to Queen Mary who duly passed it on to her granddaughter on her wedding day. The four-stranded pearl watch stands out on Her Majesty’s white gloves.
Royals attend the Spectre premiere
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