LONDON — For hundreds of years, members of Britain’s royal family have been telegraphing messages, subtle and not, with their clothing, from the little anchors on the buttons of a red Catherine Walker suit to the delicate mauve brushstrokes on a long “half mourning” gown and the zipper fly on a pair of tartan trousers.
Members of the royal family have also set trends with their clothing, from the soft tailoring adopted by the Duke of Windsor after World War I to the bodice of a cotton Liberty dress that was expanded as the young Princess Elizabeth grew from a child into a teenager, to the Indian-inspired embroidery on a cape that belonged to Queen Victoria.
That meaningful clothing — and so much more — is on display in a new show at Kensington Palace called “Dress Codes,” which opens Thursday and runs until Nov. 30.
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The 34 pieces in the show were drawn from an archive of more than 10,000 items in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, which is housed at Hampton Court Palace. They may be few, but those pieces speak volumes about history, psychology and semantics, and are a testament to soft power dressing.
“One of the key things about royal dressing is that while it may look glamorous, it’s clothing that’s doing a job. It isn’t like normal dressing,” said Matthew Storey, curator at Historic Royal Palaces, who put the show together.
“Members of the royal family have events and duties and they represent Britain abroad,” he added, pointing to the long, red beaded Bruce Oldfield dress that Princess Diana wore for a royal tour to Saudi Arabia in 1986.
“This design would have been carefully considered, taking into account the country’s climate and culture, and occasion for wearing it,” said Storey, who — cleverly — displayed the sparkling dress next to a weathered Harris Tweed jacket from the ’70s that Diana would have worn for countryside pursuits when she was younger.
The worn-in jacket has the name “Althorp,” the name of Diana’s family’s ancestral home, stitched into the inside, giving the jacket an aristocratic allure and the sort of luxury label that money can’t buy. Shown together, the red dress and olive coat telegraph sophistication, respect — and absolute privilege.
Other codes are more subtle. The anchor-embossed buttons of the Catherine Walker suit are so small that only those standing close to Diana would have noticed them. Yet they signaled a sense of duty and respect for the occasion, Diana’s inauguration of the P&O Cruise Liner, Royal Princess, in 1984.
Some of the clothing sparked a trend.
The show also highlights the desire of the Duke of Windsor (the short-lived King Edward VIII) to cast off more formal attire and “dress soft” after World War I, adding a zipper to a pair of formal tartan trousers, and having other trousers made in America because he liked the fit better.
“He deliberately breaks away from the more formal and uncomfortable clothing of the older generation with a philosophy he calls ‘dress soft.’ He loved soft, country fabrics like the beautiful tweed suit from 1932 that’s in the exhibition, which is the epitome of his style. It has this lovely, soft English drape,” Storey said.
“He pushed the boundaries with clothing that was absolutely according to his personal taste, and he does have a profound effect on taste,” said Storey, adding the duke also popularized “country” fabrics and Fair Isle sweaters.
The show looks beyond the royals to the way the courtiers, staff and members of the public dress when they are engaging with, or honoring, the royals.
On display is the black dress, cape and hat that Vivienne Westwood wore for her investiture as a dame at Buckingham Palace. The look takes in military tradition, Queen Victoria’s penchant for black, and Westwood’s inner — and outer — punk in the form of two small silver horns she wore on her head.
Other clothing includes the sweet cotton dresses worn by ordinary women and girls to mark Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. A toddler’s crisp cotton dress is covered with little toy soldiers, drums and crowns, while the woman’s outfit has a repeating micro-print that reads “Elizabeth Regina 1953.”
“I didn’t want just to show the clothing worn by royals or courtiers,” said Storey, adding that he was also interested in decoding the outfits of ordinary people and the messages they were sending — of respect, patriotism and honor.
Storey didn’t work alone. He put the show together with help from the youth groups that regularly work with Kensington Palace. They helped him to shortlist the looks that made it into the exhibition.
“I really wanted to know what the next generation considered interesting in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection,” Storey said. Those youths, aged 14 to 17, also chose the music for the exhibition, and worked with Storey and his team to create new designs that riffed on the clothing in the show.
Those designs are on display as part of the exhibition and include draped tartan trousers with punk flair in the spirit of Westwood; a snappy Chanel-meets-Queen Victoria black and white gown with camellia details, and a green velvet gown with a gold turban that riffs on the Catherine Walker design on display, all proof that the soft power dressing never dies.
