To mark the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth, 2026 will see The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace host the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of the late Queen’s fashion ever mounted.
Through approximately 200 items, around half of which will on display for the first time, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style will chart the remarkable story of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch through clothing worn in all ten decades of her life: from birth to adulthood, from princess to queen, and from off-duty style to diplomatic dressing for the global stage.
Queen Elizabeth II’s fashion archive is one of the largest and most important surviving collections of 20th-century British fashion and now forms part of the Royal Collection. Alongside clothing, jewellery, hats, shoes and accessories, visitors will discover never-before-seen design sketches, fabric samples and handwritten correspondence that reveal the behind-the-scenes process of dressing the most famous woman in the world and shed new light on the late Queen’s close involvement in the creation of her wardrobe.
An official publication to mark the centenary, Queen Elizabeth II: Fashion and Style, will accompany the exhibition. Written by the exhibition curator Caroline de Guitaut and featuring contributions by fashion experts and designers, the book will explore the late Queen’s fashion archive and her lifelong championing of the British fashion industry in unprecedented detail.
Caroline de Guitaut, exhibition curator and Surveyor of The King’s Works of Art, said: “Over the course of Queen Elizabeth II’s remarkably long reign, her distinctive style became instantly recognisable around the world, bolstering the British fashion industry and influencing generations of designers and couturiers. Only now, as the late Queen’s fashion archive comes under the care of Royal Collection Trust, can we tell the story of a lifetime of thoughtful style choices – from her hands-on role and understanding of the soft power behind her clothing, to the exceptional craftsmanship behind each garment. In the year that she would have turned 100 years old, this exhibition will be a celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s uniquely British style and her enduring fashion legacy.”
Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style is at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from spring to autumn 2026.
Dates of the exhibition are to be confirmed with tickets going on sale in November 2025. For updates, sign up to Royal Collection Trust’s e-newsletter at www.rct.uk.
