You’re going to find this a post of contrasts today. I want to start by talking about an exhibition of Queen Elizabeth’s style that I previewed recently and end with distinctly less regal everyday life in Newcastle. Right now I’m in Croatia, tomorrow we’re due to head off for a few days of sailing around the islands and I’m praying that the weather forecast will improve. If you want to see if it does (or whether we spend our days in a wet, windy squall), you’ll find my updates on Instagram Stories. For now though let’s talk about the Queen and I – elegance followed by real life!
The surprising Queen Elizabeth II exhibition
A few weeks ago I was invited to an early morning preview of the Queen Elizabeth II, Her Life In Style exhibition in the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. The event has been timed to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday and as I was invited on what would have been my grandmother’s 125th birthday, it felt as if I was meant to go.
I confess that I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the royal family but I’m always interested in seeing what the women choose to wear in their high profile roles. So I entered this exhibition very much from an intellectual perspective – but I left feeling quite moved by it which I didn’t expect at all.
Only a small group had been invited and it wasn’t the usual midlife crowd so it felt like an honour to be chosen. We were guided around by the curator herself, Caroline de Guitaut, whose full title is Surveyor of the King’s Works of Art (what an amazing job). It was fascinating spending an hour with her, listening to why she’d picked out the pieces she had and the style significance behind each one.
The exhibition starts at the very beginning of the Queen’s life, baby and childhood outfits with matching wardrobes for her dolls. Here are the coordinated party dresses that she and Margaret wore – apparently the young Elizabeth loved this one so much that she insisted on it being lengthened as she grew, you can see the alteration quite clearly at the hem.
There are her military and wartime service uniforms
You see moments of her really throwing herself into fashion – look at this rock and roll ‘poodle’ skirt that was all the rage at the time.
There are the regal full silhouettes of the late 40s…
…and 50s…
…which make way for the slimmed down 60s. The black lace dress here with the lace mantilla was for her visit to the Pope – non-Catholics must wear black in his presence. I particularly loved seeing the designs by Hardy Amies because back in my Selfridges era I once found myself seated next to him at a British Fashion Council dinner. It was one of those moments when you curl up inside, wondering how you’re going to get through the evening but he was the loveliest man, utterly charming – despite my low profile he put me completely at ease and we chatted away very happily all night.
I loved the crazy flamboyance of the 70s
…and then in the 80s (when the Queen was in her 60s), it felt to me as if things changed – and as a midlifer that was particularly interesting.
Instead of following the prevailing fashions she developed an iconic midlife look of her own that got stronger as she grew older. You’ll be familiar with it – simple shapes and lots of solid bright colours. We were told that she began to insist on brights because she wanted to give the crowds the feeling that they’d seen her, even if they couldn’t get up close.
However I think that like a lot of older women she also grew in colour confidence. When you look back at the previous decades everything was quite subdued but then she burst into a rainbow. I asked Caroline if there was a colour that she avoided but she said she’s looked carefully and can’t find a single colour that the Queen didn’t wear.
So I feel as if she, like many midlife women suddenly knew who she was, what she stood for and how she wanted to present herself. Instead of outsourcing everything to big fashion designers, as her relationship with Angela Kelly (the down to earth dresser from Liverpool) grew she began to trust her more and more until Kelly was designing most of her wardrobe.
And I found that fascinating – for me it encapsulated the confidence that you can have when finally, as an older woman, you can look past the trends to really understand what suits you. Of course you could see her changing shape as she hit midlife too and the way that the cuts were adapted to flatter her fuller figure. There are some particularly poignant outfits on display – the dress that she wore for the brilliant James Bond 2012 Olympics stunt set-up shown next to the one that the stunt artist wore and you can see the alteration at the back of the larger one for the parachute,
And then there’s the final outfit worn for her very last public appearance – on the palace balcony for her Platinum Jubilee. Standing so close to that felt very powerful, I believe clothes carry presence and I could sense it.
I hadn’t realised until now how very involved she was with everything she wore and that she really enjoyed style. You can’t touch the dresses but it’s great that a lot of them aren’t behind glass screens; you can stand close enough to see the detail and get a metaphorical feel for them. I left feeling a sense of intimacy – you know what it’s like when you’re given the chance to rifle through a friend’s wardrobe and you can somehow sense their hopes and dreams from the way that they choose to present themselves? Well that sense of a woman comes through very strongly from this exhibition, it feels very personal and that’s what moved me.
I have to say it left me questioning the current stance of the Princess of Wales. There was a generosity about the Queen’s approach to the way she dressed as well as she possibly could for the people’s pleasure… and to support British fashion. She stood out and yet she was still taken seriously. I’d like to see Catherine step away from the endless brown trouser suits and do the same.
That’s my opinion, others will differ but whether you’re a royalist or not, this is a display of a particular time in British style history that’s really worth seeing. It’s less esoteric than the usual fashion exhibition, these are real clothes worn by a working woman of her time. And there’s a really good audio guide delivered by Keeley Hawes who is perfect. It’s on until the end of October and a lot of the pieces such as her wedding dress are now so fragile that they won’t be displayed again. Tickets are sold out until the end of August but you can find them for later dates here.
Summer bodies
I know, summer bodies are hard work but I've been trialling a couple of effective new products. They're from good old Boots No 7 and they extend the Future Renew range that I tested last year. My top favourite is the hand cream because it's moisturising, not greasy and has SPF15 worked in. I keep it on my desk because I sit facing the window and do everything I can to combat the ageing skin on my hands. As with the rest of the Future Renew range it has peptides worked in to support the self-repair process. I'd go so far as to say that this is the only hand cream I use now for daytime – I like something richer at night but this is perfect for when you're busy and you want soft hands that don't leave greasy smears everywhere.
I've been faithful to No 7's Protect and Perfect body serum for years but I've now switched to this new, improved version. Again it contains peptide magic, I can't say for sure that it's reversed signs of ageing but it does make the skin on your body feel fantastically hydrated which is what we need as we release bare arms and legs into the sunshine. There's always some kind of offer on at No 7 so it's worth stocking up.
Midlife Lately
I started with a style icon, now for some more everyday moments. It must seem as if my life is all about travel and big moments just now but trust me, there’s a lot of ordinary stuff going on in the background. At home our 300 year old house is complaining that we’ve been spending all of our free time in Newcastle for the last five years and neglecting its upkeep. We’ve needed a new roof since we first moved here 22 years ago – but who wants to spend their hard earned cash on something that you don’t really see? It’s a big job because it’s listed and in a conservation area so all materials will have to be reclaimed and it’s going to cost a fortune. So am I saying that this is the year we’ll finally do it? Absolutely not but I have resigned myself to Mal’s suggestion that we spend all of the weekends in June here so that he can get up there and work on it.
In the meantime he’s started with our bedroom where the floorboards need taking up so that he can tackle a blocked pipe and the wall needs replastering after said roof let the water through this winter. It means that we’ve had to empty the room and store everything in the boys’ bedrooms. And I’ve told myself that nothing is coming back in unless it truly has a place.
It’s a luxury having a bedroom that covers the complete top floor but it’s also dangerous because when there’s a lot of space you tend to fill it. I have far, far too many clothes, shoes and handbags – at least 50% of it needs to go. And so I spent the lovely sunny weekend a couple of weeks ago cloistered in my dressing room starting to reorganise things. And I’m only telling you all of this because a few small changes have already made a big everyday difference.
Wardrobe organisation tips
I’ve always organised my clothes by type on rails. So you can imagine that I have a rail that’s filled with tops and jackets arranged through the colour spectrum like a rainbow. The next rail holds my trousers and skirts arranged similarly and the tallest one has my dresses arranged by colour per season and then my coats. It should work but it never has. For years I’ve woken up every morning, gone into my dressing room and felt overwhelmed.
So I sat in there for a while before I started to cull things and it struck me that I have a dual personality when it comes to colour and getting dressed. I’m either in a sober navy mood (usually for work and meetings) or I’m in a light denim with colour mood. I’ve now created a rail that has all of the navy pieces that work together (tops and bottoms, including my indigo denim). And a rail for light denim and colour. It has changed my life. All I have to do now is ask myself first thing if I’m in a navy mood or a colourful one and then let my eyes lead me.
The culling question
I’m slowly culling things and it’s difficult when I’m gifted so many things that I genuinely like – I have far more clothes that I love than days in the year to wear them. So I’m asking myself a simple question when I look at each one. “If you were standing in a shop today, would you buy this?” And it’s really helping – I imagine standing at a checkout and the answer suddenly becomes clear. So as we’re probably all doing a seasonal turnover at the moment I thought it was worth sharing that with you. When you get your summer clothes out, ask yourself if you’d still buy them today and if not, sell or donate them.
Don’t forget – you don’t feel good when you wear something just because it’s there and you feel you ought to, it sucks the joy out of your whole day and our lives are getting too short on time for that.
Everyday outfits
Here are some everyday moments from Newcastle a couple of weeks ago when I was urging it to feel like spring, even though the easterly winds were blowing.
As you know we often work at The Glasshouse because they have a great hot-desking set up so this was on the way back from a day spent there. The ivory jeans were my springtime gesture but they’re still worn with a warm jumper.
Boden jacket (AW25); Mango jumper (AW22); Me+Em jeans (SS21); Trainers (sold out)
Mal had been busy sorting things out for his mum all day here so we arranged to meet in the evening for a drink and a catch-up. Whenever this happens I take the opportunity to delve into my wardrobe and come up with something unexpected. It adds a little extra to a date night and this small touch of glam did the trick. As you know he loves black but I hardly ever wear it. If you haven’t done anything like this for a while give it a try, it’s worth it for the glint of surprise that you see in their eyes… and the way that it makes you see yourself in a different light for one night only – I went into full Miranda Priestley mode here.
Satin duster coat (ancient, from Selfridges in the 90s); Me+Em jeans (AW22); Hush boots (AW19); Sunglasses
Back to normal here with the navy capsule coming into play. We spent an afternoon driving around the towns and villages of Northumberland because we’re tentatively looking ahead and playing with where we might eventually settle. Of course it depends on where the boys end up, our future is a roll of the dice along with them and the families they might have. For now it’s fun looking around so we tried the Newcastle suburbs, Morpeth, Alnwick and some of the surrounding villages. I need both hills and sea to feel happy though and this part of the Northumberland coast is very flat. Anyway we were in Alnwick here – beautiful but deadly quiet on a Friday afternoon.
Cardigan (gifted SS26); Me+Em jeans (AW21); Boden boots (AW22); Sunglasses
Saturday tends to mean one thing in Newcastle – and that's dancing. We get such a lot of flack for it from people who can't take it as seriously as they would if we were doing something that's perceived as more worthy like cycling. But there's a lot of scientific research coming out at the moment that shows how beneficial dancing is so I'm just going to add these slides here because sometimes presentations slides hit home harder.
So here I was, ready to get my 20,000 steps in, knowing how much better it was for me than just going for a walk.
Adidas Originals jacket (SS25); Me+Em jeans (SS24); Trainers (now in the sale)
Here’s the morning after and you can see a big ‘energy bar’ of Dairy Milk in my hand!
Hobbs jacket (SS14); Mango jumper (SS21); Me+Em jeans (SS24); Trainers(now in the sale)
And this was this week in Manchester where it was much warmer, back in navy for work and meetings.
Knitted cotton polo top (gifted SS26); Trousers; Light spring jacket; Boden loafers (SS23)
So there you go, a slice of everyday life and chat in the midst of what has been a busy time. Come over and join me on Instagram/Facebook Stories from tomorrow to find out how my sea legs are doing (hint – I don’t have any and neither does Mal). And I’ll be back next week.
