Are you sick of hearing about the Diamond Jubilee yet? Well, I’m not. At the risk of sounding like I was born during WWII, I absolutely adore Queen Elizabeth II. There are antique portraits of her hanging on my wall, and I have been known to impulse buy anything bearing the Queen’s image– from thrift store teacups, to postage stamps, to special editions of Hello! Magazine. She’s the reason why gin and tonics are my drink of choice, along with Earl Grey tea; so you can only imagine what the excitement of this past weekend’s Diamond Jubilee has done to my sleep patterns.
To put this weird obsession into perspective, I come from a family where my grandmother enjoys reading thousand-page biographies about the Queen Mother and my mother forced me out of bed at 5 a.m. to watch the Royal Wedding of Will and Kate last year, so I have to assume a good chunk of this Queen-worship comes to me secondhand through both nature an nurture.
It’s incredibly difficult for me to explain exactly why I love the Queen so much… I just do. Every time I see her picture, I am filled with an indescribable joy. She has the kindest smile in the world, remains beautiful in all her aged glory, and is quite the snappy dresser. I don’t usually freak out about celebrities, but when she did a Royal tour of Canada in 2010, I sweat for hours in the hot July sun just to catch a glimpse of her outside the Research In Motion production facilities back when I lived in Waterloo, ON.
Queen Elizabeth II is simply fascinating. She has one of the most recognizable faces in the world. Aside from Jesus, her image is one of the most reproduced of all time, gracing the back of every Canadian coin, twenty-dollar bill and a whole lot of postage stamps. In the early years of her coronation, she was a young, blushing bride with a shy, unassuming face– she was, and still is, the most beautiful woman in the world. When she ascended to the throne, she was still grieving the death of her father, but was ready to assume the responsibility of the Queen of England, a role she had been preened for since birth.
In the 60 years since her ascent to the throne, she has played the role of a Queen to its very fullest, embarking on Royal tours, holding babies, signing documents, shaking hands with diplomats, and delivering hope in times of need. She has grown old while the world watched, but remains a private and reserved woman. To me, she is more than just the Queen of England, she is a Queen of Elegance who keeps her composure no matter what crisis faces her kingdom– with a coveted wardrobe to boot.
I have always admired the Queen’s regal ability to look fabulous at all times. She repeats the same uniform of a jacket, pencil skirt, hat and pumps over and over again, changing only the colour of the clothes. Every time the Queen makes a public appearance, she is wearing a monochromatic outfit, impeccably accessorized with pearl jewelry. She almost always wears gloves and carries the same black handbag no matter the colour of her garb. Her white hair is always delicately curled into ringlets, topped with a uniquely British hat. She never forgoes make-up and a shock of lipstick always adds colour to her pale skin. Her consistent look is the sartorial equivalent of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’
British Vogue tracked every outfit worn by the Queen in the past twelve months, determining that 29% of her outfits were a shade of blue, from peacock to eggshell– more than any other colour. The Queen also appears to enjoy wearing pink, purple and green, but it is undoubtedly (and unironically) royal blue that suits her the best.
It seems I am not the only person enchanted with the Queen’s fashion choices – Donatella Versace is quoted saying: “If I could dress anyone I’d like to dress the Queen — she can handle anything. I’d put her in black — she never wears black — and add a little leather, maybe. A little rock ‘n’ roll.”
Versace’s proposal in not so unusual, considering the Queen is a rock star in her own right. She is always going ‘on tour’ and doing public appearances to connect with her fans and admirers. Instead of just sitting in a castle signing papers and polishing her crown jewels, she interacts with the world around her.
I actually managed to catch the Queen on one of her many ‘world tours,’ when she visited Canada in July 2010. She came to my university town of Waterloo, Ontario to tour the production facilities of Research In Motion, and ostensibly, figure out how to use a Blackberry. There were hundred of people gathered to see her even though it wasn’t an official public appearance. She did not address the crowd albeit for a quick Royal wave, but it was the most magnificent thing I have ever seen. She was dressed in head-to-toe yellow and looked like a beautiful ray of sunshine emerging from her big black car on that sweaty day in July.
The whole time I was squinting through the crowd and standing on my tippy-toes, but I saw her damnit, and it meant a lot. It was the most jarring experience, to actually see your idol standing on her on two feet supported by the same ground you are also standing on. She was like an angel.
Apparently I am not alone in my googly-eyed Queen adoration. It seems odd that anyone under the age of retirement would take more than a passing interest in the Queen, but a recent poll suggests that support for the monarchy is on the rise among young people in Canada. Fifty-one percent of Canadians stand in favour of maintaining ties with the monarchy, which is up from 49% in 2009. Another poll saw Queen Elizabeth II voted the ‘favourite monarch of all time‘ in the Sunday Telegraph, which is kind of a no-brainer since she is the only monarch most of us grew up with and nobody cares enough to skew the poll by picking out really obscure dead Royals.
Ultimately, Queen Elizabeth II is special because she’s the last culturally relevant monarch. She ascended to the throne in the 1950s, a time when Britain and the Commonwealth were all about dainty social values, afternoon tea, and plain old hegemony. She has seen the world transform from a place of conservative rules and traditions to a place where political revolutions like feminism and civil rights have changed the way people interact with one another. Not to mention that people now communicate mainly through battery-powered gadgets these days instead of ‘telegraphs.’ Despite these cultural shifts, she remains a completely unchanged woman. She is just as elegantly stuffy today as she was back then, and is a relic of a bygone era.
Many people (quite rightly) believe the monarchy is a relic of colonialism with no relevance to contemporary Canadian politics. Others claim the Royal family is the largest welfare case in British history, as their wealth is comes entirely from the state and costs each British taxpayer approximately 69 pence per year. I’m glad to live in a world where citizens have the freedom to criticize the effectiveness of our political leaders, but if anyone ever makes a personal jibe at the Queen in front of me… be prepared to throw down. Queen Elizabeth II is too deeply embedded in my nervous system as a wonderful, strong example of womanhood for me to discuss her political significance in any sort of objective way, and that is just fine.
Cue the gramophone, love — God Save The Queen.
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Isabel Slone is a Toronto-based fashion blogger and writer. Follow her on Twitter at @isabelslone.
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