Queen Elizabeth II's special occasion attire and accessories are always striking.
No matter if they're more traditional or trendy, they're always lavish.
Here are the most luxurious outfits the Queen has ever worn.
On November 20, 1947, Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.
Britain was still reeling from the wartime darkness of the previous years, but according
to Time the royal wedding was, quote, "the first great celebration of the postwar era."
According to the Royal Collection Trust, Norman Hartnell's design for Elizabeth's wedding
dress was approved in August of 1947, just three months before the wedding took place.
Good Housekeeping reported that 350 women worked on the dress over a span of seven weeks,
and the dress had hand-embroidered, pearl-encrusted flowers blooming all over it.
More than 10,000 seed pearls spangled the dress atop silk spun by silkworms from China,
since Japan and Italy were Britain's enemies during the war.
The dress was especially luxurious in the postwar era due to the 15 feet of silk and
tulle that made up its train, as fabric was still rationed in Britain at the time.
The royal family was not exempt from wartime rationing, so the princess paid for her wedding
dress with rationing coupons.
In the summer of 1953, a 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth was to be crowned the Queen of England,
so she enlisted Norman Hartnell - who had previously designed her wedding dress - to
create a coronation dress fit for a queen.
According to “Harper's Bazaar,” the dress took eight months to make, including time
for Hartnell to research previous coronations, to create and present nine designs for the
queen-to-be, and to orchestrate the crafting of the gown in all of its detailed glory.
After conducting his research, Hartnell retreated to Windsor Forest to start sketching.
His eight months of hard work paid off, and the new queen was so pleased with the end
result that she went on to wear the gown on six different occasions.
As for the crown, well, she's been rocking that look ever since.
"So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they're quite important things."
When Queen Elizabeth II voyaged to Australia for the first time in 1954, approximately
75 percent of the continent's 9 million population got the chance to see her at least once, according
to the National Museum of Australia.
It's fitting, then, that the young queen wore one of her most iconic looks to a state banquet
in Sydney as a nod to the people of Australia .
Her "wattle dress" was a gold tulle gown adorned with golden wattles, Australia's national flower.
Sir Norman Hartnell designed the dress specifically for Her Majesty's visit to Australia.
The dress was immortalized later that year when Australian artist William Dargie was
commissioned to paint a portrait of the queen wearing it.
Queen Elizabeth II wore yet another design by Sir Norman Hartnell to a state banquet
on the first night of her 1958 visit to the Netherlands.
As noted by the Royal Collection Trust, the evening gown showed off the best of its designer's
usual aesthetic: sparkling embellishments, detailed embroidery, and a full skirt.
It was accentuated by unique embellished shapes and tiny jewels in colors to match the fabric throughout.
Atop her head sat the Vladimir Tiara, which “Town & Country” reports is one of Her Majesty's favorites.
The tiara belonged to Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia before it was sold to Queen Elizabeth
II's grandmother Queen Mary.
On certain occasions, Queen Elizabeth swaps out the pearls for her great-grandmother's
emeralds, but she appears to have opted for classic pearls for the 1958 banquet.
In 1963, Queen Elizabeth II appeared to adopt a glamorous evening uniform: bejewelled metallic
Norman Hartnell gowns, white fur stoles, delicate evening purses with chain straps and clasp
closures, and, of course, royal jewels.
In its Fashioning a Reign exhibition, the Royal Collection Trust showcased notable Norman
Hartnell designs the queen wore in 1963, featuring a range of luxurious outfits.
The following May, Queen Elizabeth wore a fitted evening gown of silk tulle and beaded
diamond shapes to a banquet with the king and queen of Belgium.
In 1977, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Silver Jubilee, which marked 25 years since
she took the throne as monarch.
Her Majesty wore several lavish outfits that year, such as the embellished gowns she wore
for her official portrait and the state opening of New Zealand's Parliament in February, and
she ended on a bright note.
In Canada, the last stop on her international Silver Jubilee tour, she attended a state
banquet in Quebec.
In a departure from the soft metallics she favored for special occasions in previous
decades, the queen wore a seafoam green, gem-encrusted sheath dress and an especially regal tiara
as she celebrated a quarter-century of her monarchy.
In February and March of 1983, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip took their first tour of California.
According to “The Los Angeles Times,” the royals visited space shuttles and the
Yosemite National Park and attended a ritzy dinner in Los Angeles with the likes of actor Michael Caine.
"Started without you.
Hope you don't mind."
They also took a stormy ride up to President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan's
hilltop ranch, a ride which Her Majesty deemed, quote, "terribly exciting."
At an honorary dinner in San Francisco on March 3, the queen toasted the President's
warmth and the state's, quote, "magnificent technological achievements."
"This image of the United States, at the forefront of technical invention, is one of which you
are rightly proud."
In keeping with Hollywood glamour and the brightness of the Golden State, Her Majesty
wore an uncharacteristically avant-garde metallic evening gown for the occasion.
As seen in photos and video of the event, the soft-gold gown featured a dropped waist
and dramatic ruffled and jewel-adorned sleeves topped with large bows at the shoulders, proving
that even the queen of England herself was hip to the big shoulders of the '80s.
On June 9, 1992, Queen Elizabeth II attended a banquet in Paris during a state visit to France.
She wore a long-sleeved white gown spangled with floral-patterned embellishments of tiny
pearls and gems and topped with diamond-encrusted brooches.
Still, it was the queen's jewels that truly dazzled: She wore her precious Burmese Ruby
Tiara, along with a matching necklace and earrings.
According to WWD, the queen had the tiara made in 1973 using 96 rare rubies she received
as a wedding gift from the people of Myanmar nearly three decades prior.
In Burmese culture, the stones are reportedly believed to "ward off evil" and disease, so
the tiara has been speculated to carry a secret meaning when worn by the queen.
Her Majesty may have worn the jewelry to the 1992 banquet because the event took place
in the midst of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's highly scrutinized separation - or
perhaps simply because of its glittering beauty.
Through the decades, Queen Elizabeth II has worn some of her most lavish looks for the
State Openings of Parliament each year.
During each ceremony, members of Parliament wear red robes, but Her Majesty typically
stands out from the red sea by wearing some of her most dazzling embellished gowns in
shades of white and silver.
On November 15, 2006, the queen arrived at the State Opening of Parliament in an embellished
white gown, a white fur stole, white gloves, and her Diamond Diadem crown, which she has
worn for her arrival at several state openings.
As is tradition, the queen's stole and crown appeared to be replaced during the ceremony
by her formal ermine Robe of the State and the Imperial State Crown, which features purple
velvet and 2,868 diamonds in addition to precious rubies, sapphires, pearls, and emeralds.
Each June, Queen Elizabeth II, members of the royal family, and 24 selected knights
participate in the Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor Castle.
Ceremonial attire plays a key role in the annual event: the queen, senior royals, and
the knights and ladies in the procession wear, quote, "grand velvet robes, glistening insignia,
and plumed hats," per “Royal UK”.
On Royal Garter Day in 2011, the queen stood among the knights and ladies and fellow senior
royals, including Prince William and Prince Charles.
The Order of the Garter procession was awash with matching midnight-blue velvet capes bearing
Order of the Garter emblems on one side.
Her Majesty typically stands out from crowds in opulent gowns or rainbow colors, but on
this occasion, she was distinguished primarily by her Garter star brooch, which featured
838 brilliant diamonds.
In 2012, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, indicating 60 years on the throne.
To mark the occasion, Her Majesty posed for an official portrait in the Centre Room at
Buckingham Palace, as noted by Forbes.
She donned a white silk dress adorned with lace, silver sequins, and a "scalloped edge"
all designed by her royal dressmaker, Angela Kelly.
Emphasizing the "diamond" in "Diamond Jubilee," Her Majesty brought out some of the most sparkling
pieces of the royal family's jewelry from the Royal Collection, including one of her
most dazzling crowns, the State Diadem.
She paired the crown with Queen Victoria's collet necklace, known as the coronation necklace,
which has been worn to coronations since 1902, per the Royal Collection Trust.
The outfit was later recreated for a wax figure of the queen, which lives at Madame Tussauds in London.
The year 2012 was full of pomp and circumstance for Queen Elizabeth II.
It was the year London hosted the Olympic Games, and that of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee,
which sparked several honorary events worth dressing up for.
In June, the queen attended a Diamond Jubilee tribute concert, as noted by the Mirror.
Her Majesty wore a shimmering number by dressmaker Angela Kelly for the occasion.
The gold, long-sleeved dress featured a swirling silver-and-gold pattern over one side of the
chest, recalling the glamorous metallics the queen favored in the early '60s.
It's no surprise, then, that the dress was fashioned from fabric that had been bought
in 1961 and was, quote, "hauled out of storage from the palace stock room," according to The Liverpool Echo.
Sounds fancy.
As the whirlwind year drew to a close, the queen attended the annual Royal Variety Performance
in November wearing a silvery, bejeweled gown - also designed by Angela Kelly - and tiny
silver shoes to match.
It was the perfectly luxurious send-off to an already luxurious year.
Every eight years, Queen Elizabeth II attends the Service of the Order of the Bath.
The traditional service honors the installation of new knights at Westminster Abbey, where
Her Majesty makes, quote, "the presentation of gold and silver coins, a symbolic surrendering
of worldly treasures," according to BBC.
On May 9, 2014, the queen's appearance at the service prompted a PopSugar article aptly
titled, "Look How Queen-y the Queen Was Today."
In addition to a simple, long-sleeved, white dress and her typical silver heeled shoes
and white gloves, Her Majesty wore striking royal regalia: ceremonial gold tassels, a
diamond tiara from the Crown Amethyst Suite of Jewels, and a ruby-red velvet cape decorated
with two traditional white shoulder bows.
The cape featured a flowing train, which a uniformed young boy carried to keep it from touching the ground.
It doesn't get much more queen-y than that.
She truly looked like she had stepped straight out of a fairy tale.
Queen Elizabeth II often pulls out the most swanky stops for the State Opening of Parliament,
and the 2019 opening was no exception.
The occasion calls for lavishness; even the Queen's Speech, which is actually written
by members of the British government, is presented to Her Majesty in a silk bag, as noted by “Town & Country”.
For the 65th state opening of Parliament in 2019, in addition to the traditional ermine
Robe of State she wears to each Parliament opening, Her Majesty wore an embellished silk
Angela Kelly gown that bore a striking resemblance to the one she wore for her Diamond Jubilee
portrait back in 2012, complete with the coronation necklace and the Diamond Diadem she wore.
Even so, the outfit drew headlines, as she did not wear the traditional - and very heavy
- Imperial State Crown, per “Harper's Bazaar”.
Of course, there may be a reason for that.
"And you can't look down to read the speech.
You have to bring the speech up.
Because if you did, your neck would break."
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