JUBILEE FASHION FUN

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The Queen at her coronation by Cecil Beaton (image from the V&A)

If by any chance you hadn't noticed, this weekend Britain will be in party mood to celebrate the Queen's sixty years on the throne. The streets are already bedecked with union jack flags and shops crammed with cupcake cases and celebratory tablecloths. We're loving the ways our fashion friends are getting in on the action with limited edition t-shirts and special exhibitions. So today we thought we'd bring you news of our three favourite royal related projects to get you even more excited about the weekend's festivities...

ASOS DIY CROWNS

Feeling a bit jealous about the major lack of precious jewels and tiaras in your possession?  ASOS are coming to the rescue with some very fun crowns designed by House of Holland, Preen, Julie Verhoeven and Danielle Scutt. The perfect headgear for street parties, fetes or river pageant watching over the Jubilee weekend. And ASOS want us all to get involved. You can download your preferred style here and then email the most imaginative portrait of yourself possible to irule@asos.com or tweet it with the hashtag #irule. ASOS will show the world the best pictures they get. Eat your heart out, your Majesty...

Me (looking a little sun drowsy) in my Preen crown

HARRODS DO JUBILEE BIG TIME

If anyone was going to go Jubilee mad, it had to be Harrods didn't it?  There's hardly a department left untouched by the occasion. True to form, everything has been done in a very tasteful yet properly patriotic way. The store kicked off their festivities by gathering the entire staff- thousands of them- to sing the national anthem and wave flags as they were showered in confetti as the store opened one morning back in the middle of May.



As well as the constant national anthem playing which will dominate this weekend, Harrods have a very special ball gowns display which is running in conjunction with the V&A's Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 exhibition. A huge window is taken up with the gowns by designers including Erdem, Alessandra Rich and Valentino- all very stunning. Looking into the display conjures visions of debutante balls and state banquets.

In similarly regal fashion, Harrods have also commissioned a collection of 32 crowns from a huge variety of brands such as Jo Malone, Prada and Faberge- definitely one for every taste. The crowns and ball gowns are available to buy in very limited quantities I hear. Should you be interested, Harrods' personal shopping people are the ones to contact.

Lanvin's jubilee crown

And Valentino's... This is almost nicer than the Imperial crown itself, dare I say it. 

The fashion projects have linked up with the patisserie where William Curley has made special 'couture cakes' to complement gowns from the V&A's exhibition. They look far too good to eat, don't they?

And if you were wondering about the party bit of the occasion, then Harrods asked their Pinterest followers to make pin boards depicting the perfect Jubilee tea party. The winner, Fay Martin, now has her own window bringing the pin board she compiled to life... I think what I'm trying to say is that if you're not feeling the Jubilee happy vibes then you need to get yourself to Harrods pronto.

THE QUEEN'S JEWELS

The Sovereign's sceptre and the Imperial Stae Crown which have the largest cuts from the Cullinan diamond (image from dailymail.co.uk)

If you thought it couldn't get much grander than ball gowns and designers crowns then you obviously haven't heard about the mega diamond display which Buckingham Palace is putting on this Summer. I love that any jubilee comedowns can be cured come 30th June when a lots of the Queen's personal collection of jewels will go on show. One of the highlights is set to be seven pieces all cut from the same diamond- the Cullinan. It's the biggest ever found and was so huge that at first it was cast aside as nobody believed it could possibly be a real gem- we're talking major rock age here people. There are 9 pieces in the world made from the the Cullinan and the 7 on show will mean the biggest reunion to date. I still can't get Elizabeth Taylor's collection out of my mind but I have a funny feeling the palace's diamond exhibition could become my next obsession.

The Queen wearing the Imperial State crown early in her reign (image from dailymail.co.uk)

WHAT TO WEAR TO MEET THE QUEEN

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The Queen's diamond jubilee year is well and truly under way and we are just 13 sleeps away from the pinnacle event in the celebrations; the river pageant. Here at FEAL, we'll be bringing you a few special royal posts in the next week or two to celebrate Her Majesty's 60 years on the throne. For today, Melanie has allowed me to indulge my love of all things Hello! worthy. This year, Elizabeth II is out in force, meeting her citizens which means plenty of people are facing the dilemma of what to wear to meet the Queen.  We have carefully examined the tricks employed by other members of the world's royal community to style themselves at the sovereign's lunch in Windsor on Friday and so we bring you the rules which we think got some of the most notable attendees through the day...

#1: IMITATE THE QUEEN HERSELF

Over her sixty years on the throne, the Queen has honed her personal style into a highly recognisable formula: matchy matchy bright colours, sensible courts and a small, boxy handbag. So it was a fail safe combination for Princess Charlene of Monaco to adopt on one of her first visits to the UK as Prince Albert of Monaco's new(ish) bride. Charlene went for head-to-toe duck egg blue , sensible heels and a bag just a perspex handle away from a very Queen-like shape. Charlene even had her hair cut short in time for her jubilee visit, perhaps to mirror Her Majesty's own practical perm.

#2: TAKE YOUR USUAL LOOK, AND REV IT UP

Although our very own Duchess Kate has worn her fair share of designer attire, she is better known for her love of a high street bargain. Last year, she chose a Reiss dress to meet the Obamas. So she could so easily have gone for another low budget statement. Instead, she brought in the big guns and splashed out on an Emilia Wickstead dress. It still ties in seamlessly with the Kate look we've become so used to- pretty, safe and very lady- but perhaps the knowledge that there was a bit more structure and design care to what she was wearing helped Kate hold her own amongst the royal guests.

#3: GET OUT THE GLUE GUN

Sometimes you just can't find what you're looking for and if you have something specific in mind, it could just be easier to do it yourself. That's exactly what I reckon Inkhosikati LaMbikiza, the third wife of King Mswati III of Swaziland did. I hugely admire the King's favourite wife for rocking a look so totally her own. It looks quite safe until your eyes meet the knees, at which point the eruption of a feather hem and jewelled, sequin heels let's us know that Inkhosikati is setting her own style agenda entirely for the event. This is definitely the attitude to follow if you're worried that you may not have much to talk about with the Queen- the shoes are a winning conversation starter.

#4: COVER-UP

If the whole thing feels like far too much of a bother, not to mention the worry about the Human Rights protesters who are campaigning against your invitation due to your husband's questionable policies, then do like the Princess of Bahrain and cover up in a full on black get-up. Of course, the Hijab is her go-to garment but Sabeeka could have jazzed it up a bit for Her Majesty I'm sure. Instead, she's the poster girl for keeping it as low-key as possible.

All images from www.dailymail.co.uk

THE QUEEN BY CECIL BEATON AT THE V&A

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne. For me, and for most of you reading, we've always known her as the head of the Royal Family and a stalwart of British life. I can't quite imagine life without her. But as a 24 year-old, I only know a few 'versions' of Her Majesty. Growing up in the 90s, she was just 'The Queen'- a distant, almost unreal figure. Later, I started reading my Mum's Hello! magazines and she became a matriarch, quietly looking over the dramas which were playing out in the lives of her children and grandchildren. Of course, the Queen is a real person with a real family, but hers is a unique situation because millions of people feel a kind of claim over her. This means that the Royals have to develop a way of communicating who they are, or who they should be, to the nation. Official photographs are a pretty key way of doing that, and tomorrow the Victoria and Albert Museum in London celebrates the Jubilee by opening the doors on Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton. 

The Official Photo released yesterday to mark the Diamond
 jubilee, by John Swanell (image from thediamondjubilee.org)

The image above is the 2012 way of doing an official portrait, but in the early years, Cecil Beaton was one of the family's favourites for that job.

Cecil Beaton by Curtis Moffat, 1930

The shows curator Susanna Brown splits the 100-image exhibit into several sections, and in so doing demonstrates how Beaton adapted his imagery from fantastical, fairytale portrayals of the young Princess to relatable, intimate images of the Queen as a Mother. These are yet more 'versions' of the Queen for us to compute. 

Brown pointed out that Beaton's images served a very particular purpose as 'great PR images' for the Royals. These are not simple photos like those that you and I might take to record the birth of a child or a special family occasion. No, these were published in papers to be be lapped up by a public who, in a pre-internet age, were made to get their fix from a few carefully selected portraits. There were no pap shots as there are now of Duchess Kate shopping on the King's Road or Harry on the lash. The Royal family had a great deal more control over how they came across. Although, the exhibition notes do mention that the press would often break the embargoes which they were given, such was the demand for a new picture of the Queen and her family. 

A proper Princess- The Queen at Buckingham
Palace, 1945, by Cecil Beaton (image courtesy of the V&A)

Beaton's talent as a photographer  was to 'rise to the occasion', as Brown puts it, knowing the appropriate mood for the sitting. Indeed, perhaps he knew what the public wanted from their royal family a little better than the family themselves. A letter from Queen  Elizabeth, The Queen Mother suggests that they were quite aware of that fact, 'as a family we must be deeply grateful to you for producing us, as really quite nice and real people'. I got the impression that the Queen Mother might have been the real driving force behind the Royal Family's relationship with Cecil Beaton. On the day of the coronation, Beaton wrote in his diary 'All at once and because of her, I was enjoying my work’. She was also the one who initially recruited him.

Beaton's cuttings book

In fashion, things move fast. Working with Vogue and Vanity Fair meant that Beaton was acutely aware of that. The exhibit describes how Beaton befriended David Bailey in the early 60s. That could be quite surprising given that by then, Beaton had a well-established style which now so beautifully recalls the fantasia and escapism of the post war period. The decadence and sweetness of his floral backdrops (put together with cuttings from his own garden) and demurely posed women in the most ostentatious of ball gowns became the antidote to real-life rationing and austerity. But Bailey called Beaton 'Rip Van With-it' because of his willingness to try a new way of doing things once the 60s ushered in a less stylised approach.

The Queen's coronation, June 1953, buy Cecil Beaton (image courtesy of the V&A)

Vogue's coronation special is on display at the exhibition

After the grandeur and obvious royal-ness of Beaton's portraits up to the coronation,  the images of Her Majesty with her two younger children, Edward and Andrew, highlight how Beaton responded to a new hunger for seeing the royals as real. They are more simple, allowing the emotion of the subjects to take centre stage rather than the paraphernalia of props and costumes.

The Queen with Prince Andrew in 1960 by Cecil Beaton (image courtesy of V&A)

Despite Beaton's apparent ability to move with the times, his relationship with the Queen seems to have come to an abrupt end. Before he took the iconic portrait of the Queen in the admiral's boat cloak in 1968, he wrote in his diary, ‘the difficulties are great. Our points of view, our tastes are so different. The result is a compromise between two people and the fates play a large part’. It seems like a sad end to a partnership which produced so many images which will become some of the most enduring of the 20th century.

Cecil Beaton's last portrait of the Queen, in 1968 (image courtesy of the V&A)

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton is on at the V&A from tomorrow, 8th February until 22nd April. It will also be touring to Leeds, Newcastle, Norwich and Dundee. Another 'version' of the exhibition is going to Australia and Canada