Coronation gown of Elizabeth II

Coronation gown of Elizabeth II
ArtistNorman Hartnell
Year1953 (1953)

Queen Elizabeth II's coronation took place on 2 June 1953. Ordered in October 1952, her gown took eight months of research, design, workmanship, and intricate embroidery to complete. It featured the floral emblems of the countries of the United Kingdom and those of the other states within the Commonwealth of Nations, including the English Tudor rose, Scots thistle, Welsh leek, Irish shamrock, Canadian maple leaf, Australian wattle, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, Indian lotus flower for India, the Lotus flower of Ceylon, and Pakistan's wheat, cotton, and jute.[1][2]

The gown, like Elizabeth's wedding dress and other notable royal dresses of this period, was designed by Norman Hartnell.[3][4] It was Elizabeth's wish that the coronation dress should be made of satin, like her wedding dress, with accentuation of regal elegance, but with no undue emphasis on shape.[5] The gown now forms part of the Royal Collection.[6]

After the coronation, the Queen wore the dress on several occasions such as when she opened the parliaments in New Zealand (1954), Australia (1954), Ceylon (1954), and Canada (1957).[7]

  1. ^ Garden Club of America (1958). Bulletin of the Garden Club of America. The Club. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  2. ^ Cotton, Belinda; Ramsey, Ron, By appointment: Norman Hartnell's sample for the Coronation dress of Queen Elizabeth II, National Gallery of Australia, archived from the original on 30 May 2012, retrieved 30 April 2011
  3. ^ Denney, Colleen (April 2005). Representing Diana, Princess of Wales: cultural memory and fairy tales revisited. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-8386-4023-4. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  4. ^ Steele, Valerie (9 November 2010). The Berg Companion to Fashion. Berg Publishers. p. 392. ISBN 978-1-84788-592-0. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  5. ^ "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Gown". Fashion Era. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  6. ^ "The Coronation Dress of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1953". Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  7. ^ "50 facts about The Queen's Coronation". The official website of the British monarchy. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.