Queen X London Fashion Week (The Veil)

It’s impossible to write about September’s London Fashion Week, without talking about the death of Queen Elizabeth II. London Fashion Week had it’s schedule thrown up in the air by the sudden death of the Queen of England. The Queen died on 8th September, London Fashion Week was booked and planned to run from 16th-20th September. The Queen’s Funeral took place on 19th September 2022. You can see that the time frame of our Queen’s passing and her State Funeral clashed badly with London’s Fashion events. I’ve been struggling to choose what to cover in my final Visual Diary for Fida. I wanted to cover the International shows, but it seemed appropriate to finish this body of work for Fida by focusing on London, where I was born and now live. I know that the Royals are not for everyone, but I like them. I think the British Royal family are great for our economy, and for keeping history relevant.

As a visual person, interested in fashion, it’s important to note what I think the passing of the Queen means. I found a picture of the Queen with the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret at their father’s funeral in 1952. All 3 women are veiled in black to the hip. They are all carrying small, structured handbags and wearing matching black court shoes.The Dior look is strong, pinched waists, midi skirts and dress coats were worn by all three women. The passing of the Queen represents the passing of a style silhouette. The Queen was a living record of a time when glamorous people wore these looks in real-time. Queen Elizabeth made designer looks relevant to thousands of women as they saved up to buy the St Michael interpretation of her style on the British highstreet. I think the death of Queen Elizabeth II is the closing of a British style chapter. In Britain we had all come to love the Queen’s carefully curated wardrobe. The outfits were conservative in style, but often cheerfully bright, and always showcasing British design talent.

As a mother-of-three, I see all of the Queen’s life as the work of a mother. The Queen knew what she was passing on to her children & grandchildren, in particular Charles and William. I believe that the Queen did her job so diligently because she knew she was handing it down to her own children, and that they would have to pick up her work. It was not for her royal heirs to choose the career that they want, they must do the Queen’s work. I honestly think she was trying to lay down the best path to being a reigning monarch, for her son. The Queen knew that if we loved her, it would increase the chances of us loving her son. And we all know that first impressions count. The Queen greeted everyone in high-impact formal dress, she won us over with her strong moral high-ground and regal wardrobe. We’ll be grieving those things in Britain for a while.

It’s well documented how much Richard Quinn owes to the Queen, in terms of his rise through the fashion ranks. The Queen famously attended Quinn’s 2018 LFW show and awarded him her first Elizabeth II Award for Design. It was Quinn’s show that closed September LFW. Quinn re-worked the entire first half of his show, in the Queen’s honour; making a brave collection of black tribute-looks worthy of a full front-row salute. Quinn’s use of the veil was the most striking part of his show, for me. His team managed to create 22 all-black looks in 10 days, each with a nod to vintage styles that the Queen loved to wear when she was young. 21 of the ‘mourning dresses’ wore a veil, the remaining one was topped by a neat black crown. The veil was a key accessory for mourning clothes until the early part of the 20th Century. It was seen as a way to shield the mourner and conceal her grief in public. There is something about the veil that isolates the wearer therefore, it socially distances them. Quinn said when the Queen died, he wanted to highlight ‘the beauty of Royalty’ which is such a sumptuous idea. It was Look 3, a beaded black duchess-satin dress, with a deep plunging neckline and tiny waist, that pulled together Queen and Quinn perfectly for me. Everyone will connect with each look differently, but this dress, worn with a huge black silk corsage and ‘point d’esprit’ net veil expresses the beauty of modern royalty perfectly. There is reference to Queen Victoria too, in the hairstyle beneath the veil. The whole look is just enough Quinn: the black lurex full-length gloves and exaggerated cleavage, and just enough Queen: the heavy beading, rich cloth and mid-length full skirt. I have tried to capture the atmosphere and the look in my printed illustration. The catwalk space was blacked out, so the look is very much black-on-black, heavy in mood and metaphor.