Latest Breaking News Online News Portal
King Charles’s Coronation is now only weeks away, and this once-in-a-lifetime occasion has people reminiscing about Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation plus the beautiful and historic gown she wore for the celebration.
Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation took place almost 70 years ago on June 2 1953 when she was 26 years old.
Over 20 million people in Britain watched the ceremony on television, which outnumbered the number of people listening to the radio for the first time.
It was important that for such a visual event had an incredible dress to march the occasion, and so the dress took eight months of research, planning and design to create.
Queen Elizabeth appointed designer Norman Hartnell with the task of creating the dress in October 1952, as he had also designed her wedding dress five years before in 1947.
READ MORE: Will and Kate have ‘terrific rows’ that are ‘under control’ – claim
After creating nine different dress designs, Queen Elizabeth approved a final design which would feature flower emblems of the four different countries of Britain, which are an English rose, a Scottish thistle, a Northern Irish shamrock and a Welsh leek.
According to designer Mr Hartnell in his autobiography, Queen Elizabeth suggested that all the plant emblems of all the different Commonwealth countries be featured on the dress so all the countries Her Majesty was now monarch of were represented.
Mr Hartnell described Queen Elizabeth’s decision as “wise” and emblems such as the Canadian maple leaf, Indian lotus flower, and New Zealand silver fern were featured on the gown.
Queen Elizabeth also suggested more colour in her design as the original colour plan of white and silver might resemble a wedding gown too much.
Mr Hartnell wrote: “I mentioned that the gown of Queen Victoria was all white, but Her Majesty pointed out that, at the time of her Coronation in 1838, Queen Victoria was only 18 years old and unmarried, whereas she herself was older and a married woman.
“Therefore, the restrictions imposed upon the gown of Queen Victoria did not apply to her own”
The Royal Collection Trust has described her incredible Coronation dress as “one of the most important examples of twentieth-century design” and it is easy to see why.
The dress was made from materials all produced in Britain and was created using white satin from Lady Hart Dyke’s silk farm at Lullingstone Castle, Kent.
Lots of detail has gone into the embroidery, such as the English rose has been embroiled with pale pink silk, along with pearls, plus gold and silver bullion, while the New Zealand silver fern has been embroidered using green silk, silver thread and crystal.
The Royal School of Needlework was responsible for the embroidery, however the dress also took at least three dressmakers and six other embroideresses to create the beautiful gown.
Mr Hartnell has also revealed that he secretly added an embroidered four-leaf shamrock on the left side of the dress as an “omen of good fortune” where Queen Elizabeth’s hand would be resting by her side throughout the Coronation ceremony.
Queen Elizabeth arrived at Westminster Abbey for the ceremony wearing the George IV State Diadem, a crown made in 1820 which features 1,333 diamonds and is also decorated with roses, shamrocks and thistles.
She wore a necklace which were originally designed for Queen Victoria and was worn by her mother on her father King George VI on his coronation day in 1937.
The Monarch will wear a number of different garments as part of the crowning ceremony, but one important piece is the purple Robe of Estate, which is worn after the ceremony when the monarch has been officially crowned.
Queen Elizabeth’s robe was 6. 5 m in length and features embroidered olive branches and wheat in order to symbolise peace, and according to the Royal School of Needlework, it took over 3500 hours to complete with a team of 12 seamstresses who worked in shifts.
Follow our social media accounts here on facebook.com/ExpressUSNews and @expressusnews
