Secrets Behind The Queen’s Wardrobe
The Queen’s turn as a Bond girl during the Olympic Games opening ceremony was one of the best received acting debuts of a generation. But few would have realized how much effort had gone into the design of her outfit behind the scenes to ensure that the apparently death-defying leap from a helicopter into the Olympic Stadium remained shrouded in the utmost secrecy. Angela Kelly, a dressmaker to the Queen for almost 20 years, has disclosed that even the Buckingham Palace dressmakers had no idea why two identical dresses were being made for the occasion. Kelly gives the dish on the Olympics as well as dressing the Queen in general in a new book. The Queen’s team of dressers spent almost two years preparing her Diamond Jubilee outfits and tried to keep costs down by sourcing fabrics from the Palace stockroom, many of which date back to 1961. Why? Because, Kelly says, the Queen is “frugal and very aware of costs.” As in, “No, no, I don’t require a three-carat diamond for that new ring. Two will be sufficient.”
