She's one of the most photographed women in history and over the past 70 years has defined what it means to dress like a queen.
Not trendsetting or daring, but iconic.
She's become famous for her brightly coloured dresses and coats paired with a matching hat, accessorised with her signature square handbag, a string of pearls and a jewelled brooch.
It sounds simple but the Queen's style has become a powerful formula.
It's a style that has been honed and refined over seven decades, helped by the close relationships she has developed with trusted designers and dressers.
Royal fashion commentator Elizabeth Holmes says royal fashion is fun, powerful and steeped with meaning and her image is a huge page of her legacy.
Historan Michael Pick says the Queen has always had a very clear idea of what she wanted to look like.
When she was in her 20s, Princess Elizabeth began working with designer Norman Hartnell, a relationship she inherited from the Queen Mother. Full-skirted dresses with a nipped in waist, influenced by French couture, were paired with white fur stoles and diamond tiaras.
As she took on her new role as Queen, Hartnell helped her to dazzle her way through state banquets and royal tours in a host of tulle and satin gowns, intricately embellished with seed pearls, crystals and beads.
Hartnell also created two of the most important dresses she would ever wear - her wedding dress and the gown she wore for her coronation. He describes the process as a collaboration.
Pick says for her coronation dress Hartnell produced about eight designs and she chose elements from them all and made it her own.
[Source: BBC]
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