THE PLATINUM JUBILEE

Image: The Platinum Jubilee, Her Majesty The Queen's Coronation Robe by Ede & Ravenscroft, 1953. Courtesy of The Royal Collection Trust

This week's blog posts will be written by a regular contributor to Selvedge, Sarah Jane Downing. In her own words, she introduces her week of textile reading:

I am proud to have been part of the Selvedge story from the beginning. I was fresh from university and making my first steps as a freelance when I met Polly who was the editor of Embroidery Magazine at the time. I was thrilled when she asked me to join her in her new project Selvedge, and for nearly two decades and 107 issues I have enjoyed contributing to every one.

I have also contributed to numerous newspapers and magazines and written five books: The English Pleasure Garden 1660-1860, ‘Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen’, ‘Beauty and Cosmetics 1550-1950’, ‘Fashion in the Time of William Shakespeare’ and published earlier this year ‘Pastimes and Pleasures in the Time of Jane Austen’.

I am delighted that Polly has asked me to take over as guest editor of the fabulous selvedge blog this week! As we begin the week with the Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, I intend to take a historical view to look at some interesting aspects of history as they relate to textiles and as they relate to my contributions to Selvedge and to my books.

The Platinum Jubilee
In 1559 despite spending £16,000 of her own money on her Coronation, Queen Elizabeth I wore the coronation robes worn by her sister Mary I just five years earlier. Almost four centuries later another 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth selected her Coronation Robes with care in promise of a new Elizabethan age of peace and prosperity.


Image: Feb. 02, 1953 - Coronation robe being made at the Royal School of Needlework

For her Coronation in 1953 the Queen employed the help of royal fashion designer Norman Hartnell to create her dress, offering only the instruction that she wanted white satin following the same lines as the wedding dress that Hartnell had designed for her five years earlier. He submitted eight designs that varied from a simple plain composition that echoed Queen Victoria’s coronation gown, through various degrees of elaboration involving ermine, silver lace, and pendant pearls to one which included the emblems of Great Britain. Queen Elizabeth liked the design with its subtle hints of colour, but insisted that all her dominions had to be well represented.


Image: Norman Hartnell’s sketch of the Coronation dress from the V&A

For the ninth design Hartnell proposed tiers of pale green leeks for Wales, mauve and amethyst thistles for Scotland, and the Irish shamrock in green. All hemmed by a lavish garland of pale pink Tudor roses for England intertwined with the Canadian maple leaf in green, the Australian wattle flower in mimosa yellow, the fern of New Zealand, the pink protea of South Africa, lotus flowers for India and Ceylon, and golden wheat, cotton, and jute for Pakistan.


Image: the Coronation portrait from the Royal Collection Trust

Since the loss of the Robes of State during the Interregnum, coronation robes have been made for each monarch anew. The robes for male monarchs have to suffice with borders of gold braid, but those of queens boast richly embroidered designs. Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation robe was embroidered with olive branches and ears of wheat to symbolise a new era of peace and prosperity by 12 embroideresses at the Royal School of Needlework between March and May 1953 and took 3,500 hours to complete the design in 18 types of gold thread.

The Coronation Dress and Robe of Estate worn by Queen Elizabeth II on her Coronation day are to be part of a special Platinum Jubilee exhibition at Windsor Castle from 7 July - 26 September.


Image: Her Majesty The Queen’s Coronation Dress, designed by Sir  Norman Hartnell, and Coronation Robe by Ede & Ravenscroft, 1953. Courtesy of The Royal Collection Trust

Read more about some of the amazing souvenirs of the coronation in Sarah Jane Downing's article about the symbolism of flowers, What’s in a Bloom (click on the link to read the full article), for issue 52. Read about how the coronation changed the face of British make up in my book Beauty and Cosmetics 1550-1950.