QUEEN WEARS DRESSES MORE THAN ONCE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29370, 24 November 1960, Page 2

QUEEN WEARS DRESSES MORE THAN ONCE

[From the London Correspondent of “The Press”)

A gold lace dress worn by the Queen on Gold Cup Day, at Ascot, 1958, made a reappearance the next year when the Queen wore the same ensemble, with different accessories, on the opening day of the Ascot meeting. It was a thing most women would not dream of doing at Ascot’s Royal Enclosure^—the most fashion-conscious strip of lawn In the world.

In fact, most of the women who have a coveted Royal enclosure pass prepare for the four-day racing season with four different new outfits—six sometimes if the weather threatens to be changeable. A trim mustard-coloured suit was worn by the Queen when she attended Sunday Service at Uckfield Parish Church recently. It was the same suit, minus the jacket, that, she wore to the Badminton horse trials earlier this year. *

There are many “twin” pictures of the Queen which could be used to answer last week-end’s criticism of the Queen’s alleged fashion extravagance by the Vatican magazine, “La Palestra de Clero.” The publication, which gives advice to. the Roman Catholic clergy, has drawn up “Ten Commandments of Fashion” purporting to help women avoid becoming fashion slaves. Actresses’ “Bad Taste” > It condemns Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Martine Carol and other actresses for “waste luxury and bad taste in flaunting their wardrobes of hundreds of shoes and dresses. "However, they are in good company,” the magazine says. “Because even the Queen of England is not immune to this form of vanity, having admitted that she never wears the same dress in public more than once.” ■(rhe fact is the Queen often wears the same clothes again and again. One strikingly patterned silk dress with matching head-hugging hat made its first appearance in Scotland in 1958. It was still being worn at Balmoral this year. Evening, gowns, too—always the most expensive items in the wardrobe of women as rich and as often in the public eye as the Queen —do solid service in the Royal household. White Silk Gown The white silk satin gown she wore at the Covent Garden gala performance for President de Gaulle in April reappeared less than a month later when she entertained the Commonwealth Prime Ministers at Windsor. And as a Buckingham Palace spokesman said this week the dress the Queen wore for the opening of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland recently was the one she wore for Princess Margaret’s wedding earlier this year—both very public, and very much photographed occasions.

The Queen does spend a great deal of money on clothes. But, as Queen of England, and leading advertisement for British fashion, she is expected to. She buys all her clothes from her privy purse allowance. The cost, generally £lO,OOO a year, can in the event of state visits abroad, be increased by £2ooo—the amount paid for her outfits when she visited Paris in 1957. There are. of course, many clothes that do not make a second public appearance. Private Life But the Queen’s private life, although not subjected to newspaper publicity, does require constant dressing up. Not for the Queen are those informal outfits other women can wear at an informal dinner party. ’ Barely a day goes by at Buck-

ingham Palace without spme important guest being entertained to luncheon or dinner.

And, just as anyone to be presented to the Queen would wear his or her best and newest outfit, so too the Queen must return the compliment. New outfits are as essential to the Queen when receiving foreign monarchs and heads of State as when she is making a state visit abroad.

The Italian people would have considered it discourteous if the Queen had greeted the visiting Italian President and Madame Gronchi last year in an outfit designed for an earlier social occasion.

The Ten Commandments drawn up by the magazine are:—

Do not let fashion become your idol, robbing you of your liberty or own good taste.

Do not try to please by being vain. Sanctify not only your person but the clothes you wear. Honour body as well as soul so that the one mirrors the other. Do not envy those who dress more elegantly than yourself. Do not dress in a way that disconcerts your neighbour. Do not waste money on clothes, give what you save to the poor and hungry. Do not spend more than you can afford on dress merely to fool yourself, and your neighbours. Do not seek luxury or the admiration of others by risking poverty and spiritual degradation.

Do not desire always to be fashionable ( at the cost of emphasising’ the misery of others. •