Bridesmaid's dress from Queen Elizabeth II's up for auction at Christie's

The dress, designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, was commissioned by the Queen Mother and was once worn by Kate Moss.

Lady Elizabeth (5th from left) on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in the dress.
Lady Elizabeth (5th from left) on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in the dress.
(Image credit: Topical Press Agency/Stringer via Getty Images)

The bridesmaid dress worn by the late Lady Elizabeth Longman (née Lambart) at the wedding of her lifelong friend the late Queen to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947 will be among the highlights of Christie’s Exceptional Sale on July 2.

Sir Norman Hartnell was commissioned by the Queen Mother to design both the bride’s wedding dress and the eight bridesmaids’ dresses; with a dose of inspiration from Botticelli’s Primavera, mixed in with high-Victorian style, all had floral motifs that were symbolic of post-war Britain’s regrowth. The results were obviously pleasing, as he went on to design the Queen’s Coronation gown a few years later.

The dress, designed by Norman Hartnell.
(Image credit: Christie's Images)

This is the only one of the bridesmaids’ dresses ever to be sold; it was exhibited at the Fashion Museum in Bath from the 1980s to the 2000s and was once even worn by Kate Moss. Apparently, Lady Elizabeth happened to be staying at a private house where the supermodel was doing a photoshoot; Ms Moss said: ‘Meeting Lady Elizabeth and wearing her dress, that had such a wonderful heritage, was a magical moment for me. I felt like I was wearing a piece of history.’

Lady Elizabeth was the daughter of Field Marshal the 10th Earl of Cavan and his wife Joan, who was a lady-in-waiting to the then Princess Royal. Lady Elizabeth's relationship to the late Queen, which lasted throughout their lives, began when they were children.

‘Christie’s is privileged to be offering this evocative and rare example of royal fashion history,’ comments specialist Benedict Winter. ‘This beautiful dress epitomises the glamour of Norman Hartnell’s commissions and the hope that the late Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s wedding gave to post-war Britain.’ The dress (estimate £30,000–£50,000) can be seen at a pre-sale exhibition at Christie’s, SW1, from June 28 to July 2.


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Annunciata Elwes

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.