From Crown To Couture

Style and Celebrity from the Georgian Court to the Red Carpet

I was enthralled by the Crown to Couture exhibition I visited at Kensington Palace, which linked the necessity of being dressed appropriately to attend the Georgian Court and how it shapes fashion today, in particular the importance of drama and impact on today’s Red Carpet.

Rather than being invited to Court, you rocked up in your best clothes, only the best dressed being admitted, and rubbed shoulders with the influencers of the time in an effort to gain employment or position in elevated society or to make contact with a particular person. The exhibition beautifully drew a comparison between the red carpet of the Georgian Court to the 21st-century celebrity parade at the Oscars, BAFTA and Met Gala.

Whilst strolling through the beautifully refined corridors and rooms of Kensington Palace, it was pure joy to submerge myself in the beauty and precision of the work, attention to detail and creativity, plus the organisation and preparation needed to pull off such a treat. The curators, Polly Putnam and Claudia Acott Williams have excelled.

The Crown to Couture exhibition was an intimate opportunity to inhabit a regal past and explore how it shapes high fashion today through individual pieces displayed as art and supported by their story.

The exhibition not only took you along a walk through the beauty of the palace state apartments but also past over 200 items from ball gowns to court suits and accessories to the stunning ‘Crown Room’ where it was possible to see, up close the stunning emerald and diamond crown, necklace and earrings of Queen Victoria, designed for her by her beloved Albert.

I recently wrote an article mentioning Queen Victoria wearing black for 40years after Albert’s death. This beautiful, glittering jewellery, designed for her by her beloved, having been put away and replaced with black jet jewellery by the grieving queen, illustrated to me perfectly the depth of her loss.

With over 200 items I can only explore my favourites here, although it was hard to choose.

Audrey Hepburn first wore this ivory lace dress, designed by the wonderful Edith Head, in the 1953 Roman Holiday. It was later altered by Givenchy for her to wear to the 1954 Oscars.

Iris Law wore this outfit to the Met Gala in 2022.

Designed by Jeremy Scott for Moschino, it incorporates a technique of encasing hand-dyed feathers in lace. It’s impressive both up close and at a distance.

The exhibition was a wonderful opportunity to stand within touching distance of Beyonce’s 2017 GRAMMY Awards dress and headdress designed by Peter Dundas.

How wonderful to see the beautiful execution of Blake Lively’s own inspiration echoing the architecture of New York, designed by Donatella Versace for Atelier Versace for the Met Gala 2022.

The dress was a transformational homage to New York’s architecture. She arrived on the red carpet in a geometric crystal embellished bronze gown representing the Empire State Building with an elaborate bow which when unfurled transformed the dress to pale green to mirror the gradual oxidation of the Statue of Liberty, complete with a concealed pair of gloves. The train is foiled and embroidered with zodiac signs taken from the ceiling of Grand Central Station. Quite an entrance and she looks as though she had fun wearing it.

The exhibition beautifully illustrated the parallels at court with an 18th-century embroidered velvet jacket and waistcoat with an outfit worn by Tan France to the Emmy Awards 2019 celebrating his South Asian heritage. He wore a silk kurta (tunic) and an embroidered sherwani coat by Indian designer Varun Bahl.

Going to ‘Court’ in the Georgian era meant a visit to a royal palace, where you hoped to meet the King, Queen or Prince of Wales.

At Court, your dress and manners were crucial to getting noticed. A successful appearance could further your career, show your political standing and secure your social position.

Like Court, today’s red carpet can make your career on the global stage and illustrates that even though we have become more relaxed in our daily attire, dressing for the occasion is still important.

The clothes make the man (in this I take ‘man’ to mean all genders, broadly ‘mankind’), we are, rightly or wrongly, judged by what we wear and are treated accordingly. This can also be taken to mean that by dressing in a certain manner you can shape your behaviour and affect the way you perform. This is ‘enclothed cognition’. Taken simply you will feel good if you wear something you like and which feels good and that will show in your demeanour.

Dress to impress remains as true now as ever.