Happy Birthday to our Queen!

Saturday 21st April is our Queen's birthday, Her Majesty will be 86 this year, the year of her Diamond Jubilee.

An exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum features portraits of Queen Elizabeth II by royal photographer Cecil Beaton, celebrating Her Majesty in her roles as princess, monarch and mother and coincides with the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Jane, from our London office, visited the exhibition last week and gave us an ilovegorgeous review:

"Some of the dresses the Queen (then princess) and her sister were wearing in the photos of when they were younger are in star and butterfly prints/fabrics - so interesting that even then those were the motifs chosen. Our archive, current and forthcoming collections all feature star prints or butterfly prints - they seem to be perennial classics. 

The dress worn by the Queen's daughter, Princess Anne, at her coronation was really sweet - puff sleeves, short in length, frills and bow at the back: 

The dresses worn by her attendants have bodices similar in shape to the Jubilee dress in our current collection, The use of silver and gold embroidery on their dresses is very ilovegorgeous!

In some of the photographs of the Queen as a teenager, Beaton uses cascades of flowers, floral garlands and painted backdrops to set the scene - this really reminded me of ilovegorgeous shoots, are we influenced by photographic history or is this a timeless theme?

There is a recording of the Queen speaking on Children's Hour during WW2 when the announcement that children would need to be evacuated had been made. She was still young but so confident and reassuring.

It was so lovely to see family pictures, when her children were young and them together looking so natural/relaxed, just like any other family snaps.

The exhibition made me realise just how much change she will have seen during her reign - conflict, births, deaths, marriages, different prime ministers...

The sweetest thing was two little girls in the exhibition who were looking at the photos, wandering around singing their own version of God Save the Queen (so funny!)."

Thanks to Jane for visiting the exhibition and giving us her personal thoughts - with a nod to ilovegorgeous style!

The exhibition finishes in London on Sunday 22nd April - this weekend - and then goes on tour:

United Kingdom

• Leeds City Museum - 8 May - 24 June 2012
• Norwich Castle Museum - 7 July - 30 September 2012
• Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne - 13 October - 2 December 2012

International

• Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, Australia - 25 February - 15 April 2012
• Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - 1 June - 3 September 2012