As Britain’s longest‑reigning monarch, and one rarely out of the public eye since childhood, Queen Elizabeth II left behind a wardrobe so extensive and meticulously archived that the curators at Historic Royal Palaces have had an embarrassment of riches to draw upon for a new exhibition at the King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace.

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style bills itself as the largest exhibition of the late monarch’s wardrobe ever mounted, and the scale alone is arresting. More than 300 items, many on public display for the first time, attempt a sartorial biography spanning every decade of a life that lasted almost a century.

The result is a masterclass in what the Royal Palaces do best: celebrations of the British monarchy – their pomp, pageantry and performativity – delivered through the medium of clothes. It also underscores why Her Life in Style, rather than in fashion, is such an apt title.

Queen Elizabeth II valued constancy, a deliberate contrast to the restless churn of high fashion. As a figure who embodied Britishness while standing on a global stage, her appearance had to resonate widely, and what read as high style in Britain could easily have seemed out of place in parts of the Commonwealth. In such a negotiation subtlety trumped bravura.

The Queen’s wardrobe reads like a roll call of British heritage makers: Molyneaux, Burberry, Hawes and Curtis, Kinloch Anderson, Bernard Weatherill Ltd, Philip Somerville, and Gieves Ltd. Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies appear with predictable regularity, which........

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