Happy Canada Day! We’re joining in the holiday celebrations today here at TCJ with another peek inside the big fashion exhibition at Buckingham Palace, this time with a decidedly Canadian twist.
Visitors to Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style at Buckingham Palace have the chance to enjoy fashion and style moments from all aspects of the late Queen’s life and reign, including plenty of pieces with Canadian connections. Perhaps the most Canadian thing on display is the Diamond Maple Leaf Brooch, which originally belonged to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The jewel was given to her by her husband, King George VI, to celebrate the Canadian royal tour of 1939, and later it was inherited by their daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
Elizabeth II wore the maple leaf brooch long before it was part of her own personal collection. The Queen Mother loaned it to Elizabeth, who was then still a princess, for her first Canadian tour. She wears it here during a ceremony in Quebec City on October 9, 1951. She went on to wear the jewel often over the decades that followed, including increasingly frequent appearances after she inherited the maple leaf in 2002. Today, it’s owned by King Charles III and worn by Queen Camilla.
Princess Elizabeth was treated to a whole range of Canadian hospitality moments during that first big tour. At her request, one of the events on the program was a North American square dance. In her luggage, she packed an ensemble specifically made for the dance: a wool and felt circle skirt, made by the American designer Juli Lynne Charlot, with a Romeo and Juliet-themed design. The skirt and the button-down shirt she wore with it are both included in the current exhibition.
Philip and Elizabeth square-danced the night away during a private party given for them by Viscount Alexander, the Governor General, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on October 12, 1951. “Photographs of the Princess show a gay, carefree girl swinging through the brisk strains of the square dance music,” wrote one Canadian Press reporter.
Only a few months after her return from Canada, Elizabeth’s father died, making her Queen Elizabeth II. She was crowned a little over a year later in London, wearing a gown that emphasized her role as monarch of numerous Commonwealth nations, including Canada.
The dress, designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, was festooned with embroidered and beaded symbols of the Commonwealth nations. Here’s a look at prototypes of the maple leaves included to represent Canada.
The people of Canada finally got a chance to see the coronation gown themselves when Elizabeth brought it to Canada when she wore it for the Opening of Parliament in Ottawa on October 15, 1957. She accessorized with Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik (a good stand-in for a crown), the Coronation Necklace, Queen Victoria’s Pearl Drop Earrings, and the Edinburgh Wedding Bracelet.
Two years later, Elizabeth and Philip returned to Canada for another visit. Among the garments made especially for that trip was this Hardy Amies evening gown. The companion book to Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style explains, “Of pale blue-grey silk tulle, it was embroidered by Amies’ embroidery suppliers, Hand & Lock, with mayflowers—the emblem of Nova Scotia—and apple blossom.”
Appropriately, Elizabeth wore the gown in Nova Scotia for the final event of the long tour. The occasion was a state dinner at the Nova Scotian Hotel in Halifax on August 1, 1959. The Queen, exhausted but still smiling, wore the dress with diamonds, including the Girls of Great Britain & Ireland Tiara, the Mackinnon Floret Earrings, and the Diamond Festoon Necklace. (My friend Patricia Treble wrote more about this Nova Scotia moment on her Substack recently—highly recommended.)
Not all of the Queen’s tour gowns were made especially for visits to Canada. In 1963, Norman Hartnell designed this dress for Elizabeth to wear for the Opening of Parliament in Wellington during a tour of New Zealand. The gown is made of duchesse satin and embellished with crystals, bugle beads, diamantés, and sequins, arranged in a lozenge design that recalls some of the decorations on her coronation gown from ten years earlier.
The Queen brought the dress along when she traveled to Canada in the autumn of 1964. She wore the gown for a reception Canada’s provincial premiers at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on October 12, with the Canadian Press pool reporter declaring that the dress was “more magnificent than anything worn previously on this tour.” Her jewels were equally impressive: Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik, paired with the necklace, earrings, and bracelet from the Delhi Durbar Parure.
Other gowns, though, were designed specifically with Canada’s most famous national symbol in mind. In 1957, Norman Hartnell made her a glamorous green and white maple leaf gown to wear on tour, which is now part of the collection of the Canadian Museum of History. Ten years later, in 1967, he made another maple leaf dress, this time in white and royal blue silk crêpe with crystal beaded maple leaves at the waist. The shape of the leaves recalls the designs embroidered on the Queen’s coronation dress.
The sparkling gown was made to mark a special milestone: the centennial celebrations of the Confederation of Canada. For celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on July 1, 1967, the Queen wore the dress with Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik, the Coronation Necklace and Earrings, and Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Brooch.
As the 1970s dawned, the Queen’s evening wear got more and more colorful. She wore a dress similar to this floaty chiffon creation during her tour of Canada in 1970, which included stops in the Northwest Territories. There, she was gifted this white suede fringe jacket with embroidered flowers.
The Queen wore the jacket over a blue chiffon gown for a reception at city hall in Yellowknife on July 9, 1970. She paired it with the Coronation Diamonds and the Aquamarine Ribbon Tiara—the only known occasion during which she was photographed wearing that particular tiara, which was most recently worn by Queen Camilla.
One more 1970s-era Canadian gown is also showcased in the exhibition: a yellow silk chiffon kaftan-style dress made by Hardy Amies for her 1977 Silver Jubilee visit to Canada. She later wore the dress during her 1979 visit to Saudi Arabia (when she also wore the blue ensemble placed beside it in the gallery).
Here’s a look at the Queen wearing the dress for the first time for a concert at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on October 15, 1977. She added sparkle with the Girls of Great Britain & Ireland Tiara, her Antique Girandole Earrings, and the Diamond Festoon Necklace.
The sparkle continues later this morning when my free Wednesday issue of Hidden Gems lands in your inboxes. We’ll be chatting about a rare pair of antique royal earrings that have found their way to America. Be sure to subscribe now so that you can join in the discussion later today!
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