Hollywood royalty and their clothes are favorite fodder for style-watchers.
Yet, when a bona-fide queen comes to these shores - with pieces from one of the largest privately owned jewelry collections - we barely take notice of her wardrobe.
Why?
It's simple: Queen Elizabeth II is extremely proper. She dresses exactly as she's expected to for each occasion with no risk of a wardrobe malfunction.
Sass Brown, a fashion design professor at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology, describes what's become her uniform: a slightly A-line coat, most likely in a pastel color with contrast stitching; a coordinating hat; a below-the-knee dress; a brooch; and a traditional, triangular handbag.
When she was younger, the queen was considered a beauty although never a fashion icon in the way that Princess Diana, her late former daughter-in-law, would become. For her coronation in 1953, Queen Elizabeth II wore a gown with a sweetheart neckline, nipped waist and full skirt, which was very much in line with the look of that era, albeit on the conservative side.
For her tour of Jamestown, Va.
, the queen wore a teal-blue coat with light blue trim, a teal-blue hat, black gloves, pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. At the Kentucky Derby, she had on a pistachio-green coat with gold buttons, a red bow-tie hat with a green brim, white gloves, pearl earrings and a pearl necklace.
To the rare white-tie state dinner in her honor at the White House, she turned up in a white beaded scoop-neck gown with three-quarter sleeves worn with long white gloves and a blue sash.
But for this special occasion, she traded in her pearls for a heavy dose of diamonds - tiara and all.
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