Princess Kate isn’t the first royal to recycle her clothes, turns out the Georgian royals were at it back in the 1800s.
The wedding dress of George IV’s daughter Princess Charlotte of Wales, has gone on display for the first time in over a decade.
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Her silk embroidered bridal gown is the only royal wedding dress that survives from the Georgian period, though it appears to have been significantly altered from its original form, in keeping with the Georgian practice of repurposing and recycling clothing. Upcycling is something our modern royals, such as Kate still practice. Our future queen regularly changes the hemlines and fit of her clothing to keep her looks fresh, season after season.
“Dress is so much more than just what we see on the surface, and it’s fascinating what we can learn about a period when looking at it through a fashion history lens,” explains curator Anna Reynolds, “Visitors might be surprised to learn how much the Georgian period has in common with the fashion landscape we know today, from influencers and fashion magazines to ideas about the value of clothes and how they can be recycled and repurposed.”
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Princess Charlotte was the King’s only legitimate child, but died in childbirth at the age of 21 in 1817. Her marriage to Prince Leopold in 1816 was considered one of the most important royal weddings of the era. The Princess followed the tradition for European royal brides to wear silver, despite white wedding dresses becoming popular by the end of the 18th century thanks to Queen Victoria.
The dress is among more than 200 works from the Royal Collection that is now on show at The Queen’s Gallery, in Buckingham Palace in a new exhibition entitled Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians. The exhibition also explores Georgian jewellery, which was often highly personal and sentimental. Items on display include diamond rings given to Queen Charlotte on her wedding day and a bracelet with nine lockets, six containing locks of hair and one with a miniature of the left eye of Princess Charlotte of Wales.
As with clothing, jewellery was often repurposed; a striking necklace that’s on display was actually made from dress-coat buttons that had belonged to George III.
Looks like our royals have been sustainable sartorialists for longer than we ever realised.
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