Platinum jubilee: Queen Elizabeth’s style, from a coat she ‘loathed’ as a child to her wedding dress of Chinese silk to today’s bright colours and pastels

The British monarch’s style has been hyper-documented from her birth to the present when, 70 years into her reign, she celebrates her platinum jubilee aged 96

Though most experts would agree she has not been known as a trendsetter, Queen Elizabeth’s style is very much her own and tremendously recognisable

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth’s signature clear, bird-cage umbrellas are made by Fulton Umbrellas. As the Platinum Jubilee draws closer, we take a look at Elizabeth’s style through the decades. Photo: AP

Published: 4:15pm, 2 Jun 2022

Queen Elizabeth just might have the hardest working wardrobe on the planet.

“Every outfit worn in public is carefully calibrated to inspire or remind, to signal gratitude or respect, to convey a sense of power or familiarity,” wrote British tabloid newspaper The Mail on Sunday in 2015.

“Her Majesty neither sets trends nor follows them – but while she is deaf to the siren call of fashion, she has her own singular style.”

From her tiaras, hats and Hermès scarves to her Launer London handbags and even her umbrellas, the queen’s style has been hyper-documented since her birth, through her days as a young princess, her ascent to the throne and now, in the 70th year of her reign, as she celebrates her platinum jubilee at age 96.

From left, Princess Margaret feeding a biscuit to a dog held by Princess Elizabeth in 1936, Elizabeth and Margaret in 1938, and the pair in 1939. Photo: AP

Her childhood

Cotton or wool? The queen’s very birth prompted style debate, writes Bethan Holt, fashion editor of British newspaper The Telegraph and author of this year’s The Queen: 70 Years of Majestic Style.

Elizabeth, right, with her sister Margaret before giving her first radio broadcast on October 13, 1940. Photo: AP