The Mirror of Royal Personality

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23061, 11 June 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Mirror of Royal Personality

QUEEN ELIZABETH AS ARBITER OF FASHION

TT is only natural that the British people should be particularly interested in everything connected with the Royal Family, and this, applies to tho choice of their clothes as much as to anything else. Hence the choice of Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe is eagerly watched by women not only in England, but in many parts of the world. Tho Queen is conservative in her taste, and her appearance is a product of wonderful harmony, self-confident ease and well-bred reticence. As clothes usually do reveal the man or woman, so is lier appearance a faithful mirror of her personality. Ordering New Clothes Although her wardrobe always follows the fashion of the day, she will have nothing to do with the extremely exaggerated "novelty" details which the fashion barons foist on a gullible public every season. Like the late Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary, with whom she is on particularly friendly terms, sho remains true to a definite line of tasto. Everything striking, bright colours or unusual effects,, she avoids. She has a definite preference for delicate pastel colours, particularly blue.

Her Majesty's procedure when orderinn clothes is very different from that followed by her subjects. Her dress-

By a London Correspondent

maker is summoned to tho Palace with a selection of fashion plates—coloured drawings complete in every detail — from which the Queen, with unfailing instinct, chooses designs to suit her figure, her appearance, and tho occasion for which they must serve. Her artistic understanding appeared this last season with dresses in the style of 1840, as shown by Winterhalter and other famous painters in pictures of the Queen of tho Belgians, of Marie Caroline Auguste of Bourbon and other Royal ladies, in the museum at Versailles. They illustrate the taste of the period, expressed in dresses of red velvet with beautiful old, cream

lace, black lace on rose-coloured silk, with pale pink roses on the corsage, and a white chiffon crinoline with blue hem and sash and a large diamond clasp at the cross-over draped bodice. Many of Queen Elizabeth's gowns worn during the winter season were designed after the illustrations of these old masters.

Keeping up Tradition

For day wear the Queen favours twopiece ensembles, with three-quarter length coats and three-quarter length sleeves, trimmed with fox or sable. To match them she chooses small closefitting hats, often set off with a small tuft of ospreys, or a spray of curling ostrich plumes. Flowers are preferred as the finishing touch rather than jewels, although nowhere in the world is so much fine jewellery worn as in England. The same taste is revealed in Her Majesty's choice of gowns for official functions,, Following the fashion of the long cloak, she wears magnificent specimens of ermine, white and silver fox. They are not ordinary ermine cloaks, such as a fairy story queen is supposed to wear, but things of great beauty, brilliantly tailored by the furrier's art. When last summer it was discussed whether the traditional long gowns should be maintained for Ascot, Queen Elizabeth was all for keeping up the old tradition, and she had ner way. Although she is usually insistent on modern and practical clothes, she shows a highly developed sense of respect for the old and typically British traditions and customs?" Setting Fashions for Little Folk

Queen Elizabeth's taste in dress is exactly mirrored in the clothes of her two little daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret llose. As an exemplary mother, she supervises every detail of the making herself. Delicate shades are chosen for their dresses and coats, and when the Princesses wear hats these are carefully harmonised with their ensembles. For Sundays and other festivals they often wear white or very light colours, most of their frocks having neat collars and cuffs of laced ruching. At the birthday party of their father, King George VI., they wore white silk dresses with red sashes and red shoes.

The two little Princesses inevitably lead the world in children's fashions. They are mostly dressed alike, the

colour and material of their frocks being exactly the same, with just asmall difference in the style. Of course, they are tho ideal of every little British girl, to be copied and looked up to, just as the Duke of Windsor, when Prince of Wales, was looked upon as the figurehead in men's • fashions. What they wear when riding, for play, in the garden, at lessons or at parties, immediately becomes acknowledged as the latest note for_ children, spreading out from the British Royal Family all over the world, a model of culture and discretion, practical and equal to all the demands of life. Tho instinctive correctness of the British Royal Family springs very largely from tho ideal family life they lead. Queeu Elizabeth personally attends to everything to do with tho house and home, and is very insistent on having everything right for these tasks. Even the overall, a typical item of every British housewife's wardrobe, finds its rightful place in the equipment of the Queen and the Princesses, a young artist suggesting colours and designs for embroidery for these practical garments. The Princesses wear their little overalls with great pride and do exactly as Mummie does in their own little home, a gift of the Welsh people, now installed in the gardens at Buckingham Palace. Here they do the housework, look after their own garden, brush their dogs and are mistresses in their very own little home.