Sophie's husband — Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and the youngest son of the queen — added that they loved watching his mother work a crowd.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best entertainments is being in the car behind the queen's car," he laughed. "That's when you see all the reactions, especially places where they're not expecting to see the queen."
An analysis done by Vogue in 2012 showed the queen most often wore blue that year, though McAndrew said earlier this year she believed the royal is "more into pink and red now."
"She's gotten very into lime green recently as well," McAndrew said. "I suspect that she probably got persuaded into wearing it and then probably had a lot of compliments."
The queen's senior dresser, Angela Kelly, had worked for the royal since 1994. In Kelly's 2019 book, "The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe," she explained that many of the monarch's outfits were designed and made in-house. In designing the royal's outfits, Kelly said she used locally purchased fabrics, gorgeous belts of cloth purchased while traveling, and occasionally fabrics gifted to the monarch.
"Colour is key though — the colour chosen must suit the Queen and the occasion," Kelly wrote. "Vibrant colors work well in the daytime: they allow her to stand out from the crowd and be visible to the well-wishers who have come to see her."
As it is likely to rain in England, the queen also had a collection of clear umbrellas with every possible color trim to match her outfits, Kelly said.
“If it is raining, she will use one of the many transparent umbrellas she has...which ensures that, even in the wettest conditions, she remains as visible as possible,” Kelly wrote.
