Tickets have officially gone on sale for next year’s major fashion exhibition at Buckingham Palace, and we’ve got even more sparkling previews of the gorgeous ensembles that will go on display in April!
On Friday, April 10, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style will officially open at the King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Press materials from the Royal Collection Trust note, “The exhibition will be the largest display of Queen Elizabeth II’s fashion ever mounted, featuring approximately 200 items–around half on display for the first time–and charting the late Queen’s clothing worn in all ten decades of her life. From couture eveningwear to impeccably tailored off-duty clothing, visitors will discover the full breadth of the late Queen’s wardrobe, one of the largest and most important British fashion collections of the 20th century.” We expect to see a significant number of royal jewels displayed in the exhibition as well, plus shoes, hats, handbags, and other accessories.
When the exhibition was announced back in July, we learned that garments from each decade of the late Queen’s life would be displayed, including a bridesmaid dress that she wore at the Duke and Duchess of Kent’s 1934 royal wedding, her own royal wedding dress from 1947, and her 1953 coronation gown.
Now, we’re getting even more sneak peeks inside the exhibition, including this show-stopping photograph of a Norman Hartnell gown, taken by Paul Bulley in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle.
The RCT press materials describe the dress as “a magnificent, apple-green gown worn for a state banquet given for President Eisenhower at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1957.” Close, but not quite: Elizabeth wore the gown for a special dinner for the Commonwealth ambassadors in Washington, held at the Australian Embassy on October 20, 1957. Above, the Queen is pictured with Mamie Eisenhower at the dinner. (Elizabeth and Philip did give a dinner for the Eisenhowers at the British Embassy during the visit, but she wore an oyster-white sheath dress made by Hardy Amies for that event.)
For the 1957 Commonwealth dinner in Washington, the Queen wore her diamond festoon necklace and a pair of Indian bangles from Queen Mary’s collection with the dress. Here’s another excellent look at the gown, which was described the following day in the Telegraph: “The Queen’s dress was of lime green lace, embroidered all over with gold, pale green, diamonds and emeralds. It had a full skirt and the chiffon centre panel was repeated in the swathed bodice, which was held by a halter garland of green lace leaves.”
Another important Hartnell design from the same period will also be included in the exhibition: the blue dress and jacket that he made for the Queen to wear at the wedding of her sister, Princess Margaret, at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 1960.
Here’s a gorgeous photo of the ensemble from the exhibition press materials. The Royal Collection Trust notes that this dress was the last of its kind: ” the last time full-length dress was worn for a royal wedding in England” by a member of the royal family who wasn’t the bride. The Queen’s jewelry accessories for the occasion included the Hanoverian Pearls and Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Brooch.
The charming hat that the Queen wore for Margaret’s wedding is also included in the exhibition. The Claude St Cyr creation features a trio of large silk roses, which the RCT notes may have been “a nod to the bride’s name, Margaret Rose.”
Also included in the exhibition are some fascinating sketches by the Queen’s go-to designers. This drawing, done by Norman Hartnell, highlights “the design and proposed fabric of a silver lamé dress designed for a State Visit to France in 1972.”
And here’s a look at the dress itself, which will be displayed alongside the sketch in the exhibition. Note that the fabric is a match for the samples attached to the sketch, which has never been displayed in public before.
The Queen did indeed wear the dress for the return dinner at the British Embassy in Paris during her state visit to France in 1972. She’s pictured here wearing the dress as she arrives for the dinner with Prince Philip and President and Mrs. Pompidou. Her jewels for the occasion included Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara (also depicted in Hartnell’s drawing), the Baring Ruby Necklace, and Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Brooch.
The Royal Collection Trust points out that there’s an annotation on the designer’s drawing: the words “Opening Parliament Canberra” in the late Queen’s own handwriting. They note that the late monarch “would annotate sketches to record which ensemble had been worn where and for what occasion.” Indeed, she wore the dress again for the opening of parliament in Canberra during her 1974 visit to Australia. On that occasion, she again wore the kokoshnik tiara, but paired with the diamond festoon necklace and her antique girandole earrings.
Maybe my favorite new highlight, though, is the groovy plastic raincoat made for Elizabeth by Hardy Amies. The exhibition pairs it with an Amies day dress from the 1970s in shades of yellow and green.
We also get this glimpse of the raincoat on its own. It didn’t have a long tenure in the Queen’s public wardrobe, but the idea eventually evolved into the clear plastic umbrellas that she carried for the rest of her life. You’ll still see Queen Camilla bringing out those umbrellas occasionally today.
We learned this week that the exhibition will officially run from Friday, April 10, 2026 to Sunday, October 18, 2026. Tickets are on sale now through the Royal Collection Trust. This one’s on my must-see list, and I know many of you will be lining up for tickets, too!
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