Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Dress
When Queen Elizabeth the 2nd ascended to the throne on the 6th February 1952, she began the countdown to her coronation that would eventually take place on 2nd June 1953. The young 27-year-old queen needed to look the part on one of the most important days of her life, and with the designs of Norman Hartnell, an iconic dress was born. One which has stood the test of time.
Norman Hartnell (1901-1979) was a British fashion designer, who often worked closely with members of the Royal family to design beautiful gowns, including the wedding dress that the then Princess Elizabeth wore to marry Prince Phillip in 1947. The dress, made of Chinese silk, with a high neckline and long sleeves was also used as a sort of inspiration for the Queen’s coronation gown. The dress needed to be regal to befit the status of the Queen and be able to match the extravagant setting of Westminster Abbey where the coronation would take place. Hartnell submitted nine design choices to the Queen, with Her Majesty choosing the eighth design. A stunning silk gown covered in intricate embroidery, arranged in three scalloped tiers bordered with diamantes and pearls.
The dress had to be ordered eight months in advance of the actual coronation due to the ample workload to create the gown. The silk was produced at Lady Hart Dyke’s silk farm at Lullingstone Castle in Kent and was then woven by Warner & Sons in Essex. At least three dressmakers and six embroideresses and the Royal School of Needlework were used to bring the gown to life. They spent hours upon hours completing the complex embroideries on the gown. This included the floral emblems of the countries of the United Kingdom and those of the Commonwealth Nations, including the English Tudor rose, Scottish thistle, the Welsh leek, Irish shamrock, Canadian maple leaf, Australian wattle, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, Indian lotus flower, the lotus flower of Ceylon and Pakistan’s wheat, cotton and jute.
Royal Collection Trust. Hartnell sketch.
However, the coronation gown of the Queen was not the only dress that Hartnell designed for the day, he also had to create gowns for the six maids of honour to the Queen. The maids of honour, Lady Moyra Hamilton, Lady Anne Coke, Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Lady Mary Baillie-Hamilton, Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby and Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill were there to attend to the Queen throughout the ceremony and carry the train of her robes. Their gowns, which had to compliment the Queen’s, were made of silk and featured beautiful embroidery, much like the Queen’s gown. The Lady Anne Glenconner (Coke at the time of the coronation) said of the gowns in an interview with InStyle: “After the war, because we had no clothes during the war, it was the most thrilling thing. The only thing about the dresses were they weren't lined, so they were very prickly. They were very tight. We did look lovely. We had very nice wreaths in our hair made of corn and pearl roses and little crystal flowers.”
The coronation of the Queen was the first to be televised, not only bringing the monarchy closer to the people but also making Hartnell and the dresses he designed a household topic of discussion. The Queen’s dress is now held as part of the Royal Collection, alongside hundreds of other items of clothing worn by Her Majesty throughout her 65-year reign. I was lucky enough to see it on display at Buckingham Palace for an exhibition to commemorate the Queen’s 90th birthday, and it took my breath away. It was truly remarkable and if it had such an impact on me, just imagine how the people felt who were lucky enough to see the Queen wearing it on that historic day.
