Royal Insight Forum

Royal Style in the Making | Kensington Palace | Historic Royal Palaces (https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/whats-on/royal-style-in-the-making/?fbclid=IwAR1Ne__HhvegQSbSFkp2FyNdB88ClvC6rlel03ruCTukeb-pmoSXGsNYfNc#gs.0wn3ko)

Opening at Kensington Palace this summer in the newly-conserved historic Orangery, this new temporary exhibition explores the intimate relationship between fashion designer and royal client, revealing the process behind the creation of a number of the most important couture commissions in royal history.

On display will be the wedding dress of Diana, Princess of Wales, on show for the first time at Kensington Palace in 25 years, in addition to a rare, surviving toile for the 1937 coronation gown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; consort of King George VI.

The display also features never-before-seen items from the archives of some of the most celebrated royal couturiers of the 20th century, set alongside examples of the glittering gowns and stylish tailoring created for three generations of royal women. There will be some surprises for fashion fans.

(http://hrp.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fhistoricroyalpalaces.picturepark.com%2FGo%2F8FpJxY9R%2FV%2F51228%2F29?auto=format&s=0dc4ced809c45a04562ef2af79dab83d)

A bit of Scottish eye candy

HOME : STORIES OF HIGHLAND FASHION THROUGH HISTORY - Highland Threads (https://highlandthreads.co.uk/)

(http://highlandthreads.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Museums/Glencoe/021220JD_GlenC_07.jpg)

(http://highlandthreads.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/110321JD_Dornoch_21.jpg)

(https://highlandthreads.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Museums/Inverness/IMAG-0000.167-waistcoat-and-0000.168-coat-V1.jpg)

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King Louis XIV of France was interested in fashion.         
The History of France?s love affair with fashion - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwDhYy9Wr3s)

King Richard II of England is credited with "having invented the handkerchief; 'little pieces  [of cloth] for the lord King to wipe and clean his nose,' appear in the Household Rolls (accounts), which is the first documentation of their use.   
European Men?s fashion in 1300?1400 ? HiSoUR ? Hi So You Are (http://www.hisour.com/1300-1400-european-mens-fashion-32327)

King Edward VII of England left the bottom button undone on a waistcoat.

I'm surprised that he didn't need to leave more than one button undone.  :teehee:

Yes, probably his tailor added on another 6 inches of material for every fitting. It?s odd that Edward VII was such a gourmand (read that as hog in his case) while his grandson Edward VIII was almost anorexic, certainly a watcher of his weight at all times.

Quote from: Curryong on November 27, 2021, 11:58:11 PM
Yes, probably his tailor added on another 6 inches of material for every fitting. It?s odd that Edward VII was such a gourmand (read that as hog in his case) while his grandson Edward VIII was almost anorexic, certainly a watcher of his weight at all times.

That was because of the family tendnecy to put on weight.  Q Vic had gotten fat, so had Edward VII - and so Ed VIII was worired about his weight.

Quote from: Curryong on November 27, 2021, 11:58:11 PM
Yes, probably his tailor added on another 6 inches of material for every fitting. It?s odd that Edward VII was such a gourmand (read that as hog in his case) while his grandson Edward VIII was almost anorexic, certainly a watcher of his weight at all times.

Interesting that Edward VII's wife Alexandra was very conscious of her own figure and from what I recall from photos, the couple's children appear to have stayed slim, active and fit throughout their lifetimes. Their daughter Maud later Queen of Norway definitely stayed very active and picked up cross country skiing. The ladies of course had corsets to assist but the Edwardian era dresses were certainly form fitting and had slimmer skirt designs which would have made any extra weight harder to conceal.
King George V and his wife Queen Mary seemed to have wanted to avoid their respective parents' tendency to gain weight and also stayed slimmer for much of their adulthood. Their children with perhaps the exception of their son Henry tended to follow their example IMO.

Queen Alexandra's fashions where there's a noticeable change between the Victorian styles from her youth later the Edwardian one.

Queen Alexandra ? the Fashion Icon | The Enchanted Manor (https://theenchantedmanor.com/tag/queen-alexandra-the-fashion-icon/)

Queen Maud features mostly her Edwardian era wardrobe.
Gods and Foolish Grandeur: Queen Maud's dresses (http://godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.com/2013/10/queen-maudes-dresses.html)

Queen Mary's wedding dress with color photos! Also Mary actually looks like she's ready to smile in some of the pictures. :vday2:

Queen Mary's wedding dress | Jessica Jewett (http://jessicajewettonline.com/queen-marys-wedding-dress)

King George IV introduced a number of styles to England. Instead of knee breeches, he took up wearing looser trousers.   
He popularized dark colors. Dark colors were suppose to make him look slimmer.

The Bustle: Princess Dagmar of Denmark who became Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia   
Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia | Maria feodorovna, Victorian photography, Maria (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/84301824265151885)

Hello!

I didn't want to open a new topic, I hope you might be able to help me. I am looking for a certain court(dress).
The problem is, I don't know where I got it from, reading or a documentary... maybe I dreamt it :wacko: but a queen was mentioned who demanded very restricting clothing (I believe it was full court dress) for all the ladies to wear at court all the time.
The goal was to keep the court virtuous through the difficulty of the removal of these dresses that couldn't be quickly discarded and put back on. I believe it was a 18th century affair +/- a few decades but I really don't remember. I need this info for a project so  :random44:
I've been trying to google it for some time... you are my last hope.  :notworthy:

I don?t know that I can help much. However, I do know that William IV?s consort Queen Adelaide, did insist on very modest Court dresses for her ladies during her husband?s reign (1830 to 1837.)

This was due to the fact that in the previous reign the louche George IV (formerly the Prince Regent) had more or less allowed (perhaps encouraged) very low cleavages in Court dress during his reign of 1820 to 1830. From about 1800 to 1830 bodices of gowns were fashionably low anyway, but at King George?s Court the tops of garments just about skimmed the lower breasts of some women and there were complaints from observers about Society ladies being virtually indecently half-undressed.

Queen Adelaide wasn?t having any of this and court dress (and fashion) gradually became more modest and deep cleavage was rarely seen. King George of course had been estranged from his wife and she died at the beginning of his reign. Gowns had been earlier very simple and almost uncorseted. They would have been easily slipped off and the morality of George?s Court was not highly regarded. You see these sorts of dresses in Jane Austen films. Anyway, Adelaide is the only one I can think of in respect of your question.

It?s rather difficult to see what I?ve been writing about with the prints below, but the article does mention that in George 1V reign hoops were no long worn and ladies very much wore French fashions, even after the Napoleonic Wars. He admired French fashions and manners.

Court Dresses, Overview - CandiceHern.com (https://candicehern.com/regencyworld/court-dresses-overview/)

The sight of King Edward VII of England on a German railway station in a green cap, pink tie, white gloves, and a brown overcoat induced Tailor and Cutter to express the fervent hope that King Edward had not brought this outfit home to England.

King Edward VII of England and his grandson, King Edward VIII each had an influence in The Prince of Wales Check.     
Prince of Wales check | Grey Fox (http://www.greyfoxblog.com/2012/12/prince-of-wales-check.html)

Quote from: Curryong on February 05, 2022, 11:46:58 AM
.

It?s rather difficult to see what I?ve been writing about with the prints below, but the article does mention that in George 1V reign hoops were no long worn and ladies very much wore French fashions, even after the Napoleonic Wars. He admired French fashions and manners.

Court Dresses, Overview - CandiceHern.com (https://candicehern.com/regencyworld/court-dresses-overview/)

so it was in the reign of George IV that court dress changed?  As far as I remember, in the Regency era, although ordinary gowns for ladies were the simple dresses with a small bodice and a high waistline and narrow skirt, court dress was still very grand with hoops?  so a court dress for a lady was more expensive.

Queen Charlotte seems to have been the one who insisted on the ridiculous hoop/Regency combination for Court dress early in the 19th century, so round about the Regency period or just before. She was a very rigid old lady in many ways and seems to have insisted on this manner of dress until her death in 1816. Of course she was QC so I suppose what she said went.

However after her death things changed?

From the link below.

In the last decade of the 18th century, the fashion for wide skirts began to evolve into the slim, vertical line associated with Regency dress. Queen Charlotte, however, held firm on the rules of Court Dress, and ladies were forced to adapt those rules to the current style, which produced a very odd-looking garment with the high-waist under the bosom and a full hoped skirt.

Charlotte died in 1818, just 2 years before George IV became King, so Im guessing that it was in his reign that the court dress became similar to ordinary dress, just more elaborate and richer materials?   ie from 1819 or 20 onwards?
I had thought that a court dress would have been similar to an ordinary dress for a lady in the mid 18th c, with a normal waist line, and a full skirt over hoops and fancy petticoats etc.  Not a high waisted frock with hoops going up to the bosom almost?
Of course in the middle 19th C hoops and full skirted gowns came back iwth teh crinoline.. so women had to learn to manage a big enormous frock and a whale bone or wire crinoline underneath it.

Yes I think Queen Charlotte disapproved of the rather scandalous Regency dress with its low bosom and thin materials clinging to the lower limbs with just one or two thin petticoats, giving that ?half undressed? look that older people sometimes found beyond the pale. She probably yearned for the court dress that was around when she was first married, with as you say, hoops, thick embroidered satins, etc.

It was a style that mainly suited the young and slim, and made anyone who was a bit plump look pregnant...

Quote from: Amabel2 on January 20, 2023, 09:25:46 AM
It was a style that mainly suited the young and slim, and made anyone who was a bit plump look pregnant...

Yes, judging by the illustrations of the period that?s very true. However, like the victorians and Edwardians who admired hour glass figures, the males seemed to prefer a well nourished female rather than a willowy sylph-like one. 

however many commentators were shocked at the light clinging fabric which outlined a woman's shape and said that women used to conceal thier pregnancies while these dresses made a woman look pregnant even if she wasnt and that was scandalous.

In this photograph Prince Edward (King Edward VIII) and Prince Albert (King George VI) are dressed exactly alike.   
23 Rarely Seen Photos of the British Royal Family Through the Years | British royal family, Royal family, British royals (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/310326230576698502)

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on June 13, 2023, 09:41:13 PM
In this photograph Prince Edward (King Edward VIII) and Prince Albert (King George VI) are dressed exactly alike.   
23 Rarely Seen Photos of the British Royal Family Through the Years | British royal family, Royal family, British royals (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/310326230576698502)

Yes they are, except that Albert is wearing an Eton collar and Edward another style (as an older boy) as Eton collars were fashionable for schoolboys. Collars and cuffs were often detachable in those days (kept in place by studs.)

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on August 20, 2023, 10:35:38 PM

Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany had numerous uniforms, batons and medals.   
Inside the Kaiser's Closet - Uniforms, Batons & Medals - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZQScvT6geo)

Kaiser Bill was even more in love with uniforms than his Uncle Bertie, (king Edward VII.) The two men loathed each other but wearing uniforms of different regiments, both foreign and their own country?s, and then swanning around in them was a favourite hobby of both. The Kaiser had an advantage of course because male German aristos and royals spent most of their days wearing uniforms in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it not being the custom to be in civvies unless you were on hunting expeditions or (sometimes) when attending church. Of course the Kaiser?s disabilities, his useless and withered left arm and sloping left shoulder were disguised by expert military tailor?s putting an extra long cuff on the left sleeve of his uniforms, wearing capes over it all, etc.