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The duch*ess of Cambridge has long been known for re-wearing pieces from her own wardrobe –but well before Kate emerged on the public stage, the Queen was already making a point of repeating past looks. Back in the 1960s, the monarch re-wore her custom-made gowns at high-profile events, including the Norman Hartnell dress that Princess Beatrice borrowed for her wedding day in 2020.
The Queen’s personal dresser, Angela Kelly, previously explained how the royal’s repeat-wears were always carefully considered. “Typically, the lifespan of an outfit can be up to around 25 years,” Kelly wrote in her book The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe, published in 2019. “Her Majesty is always thrifty and likes her clothes to be adapted and recycled as much as possible… After two or three outings, a piece will have become familiar to the media, so we will either look for ways to modify it or it will become something that is worn on private holidays at Balmoral or Sandringham.”
Below, see the Queen’s best repeat outfits over the years.
