LONDON — An exhibition titled "The Queen's Style" has opened at the King's Gallery in Buckingham Palace in London, displaying roughly 200 items from Queen Elizabeth II's wardrobe, many of which had not been publicly displayed before. The show traces her dress across seven decades on the throne until her death in September 2022 at the age of 96.

Among the earliest items on view is the royal christening gown, first worn in 1841 for the christening of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter and used for every royal baby until 2004. The exhibition also presents Elizabeth II's 1947 wedding dress, designed by Norman Hartnell, which incorporated the white rose of the House of York and orange blossoms as a symbol of fertility. Her 1953 coronation gown, also by Hartnell, bore embroidered emblems of the English rose, Scottish thistle, Welsh leek, shamrock of Northern Ireland, and plants representing Commonwealth nations, including a lotus flower for India and a jute plant for Pakistan.

Dozens of formal gowns are on display, including the full-skirted, narrow-waisted, arm-and-shoulder-exposing styles favored by the Queen in her first decades on the throne, columnar gowns from her middle years, and sheath-style garments from her later years. One centerpiece is a duchesse-satin evening gown fashioned by Hartnell for a state dinner in Islamabad during her 1961 tour of India and Pakistan, her first state visit as monarch. The gown appeared almost entirely white from the front except for wide-set kingfisher-green shoulder straps, while its back featured a waterfall drapery of overlapping white and green satin layers as a tribute to the colors of the Pakistani flag.

A seafoam-blue silk chiffon dress with appliquéd cherry blossoms on the skirt and long trumpet sleeves, worn during her 1975 state visit to Japan — the first by a reigning British monarch — illustrates her use of fashion for symbolic engagement. The daywear gallery presents monochrome dresses and coats in pink, lavender, peach, and citrine, alongside a Burberry rain cape made for horse riding that is abbreviated at elbow level. Also included is the pale-blue, white-trimmed dress, coat, and hat worn during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022, her last major public appearance.

Biographer Ben Pimlott writes in his biography: "Her concerns were practical. She wanted to wear dresses that were comfortable and not too expensive, and which would not cause offence."