Elizabeth I is a historical character and at the same time a style icon. To begin with, I propose to figure out what a style icon is. A style icon, by definition, is a well-known personality with a pronounced individual style, an example to follow and a muse for designers. Consequently, this is the person who sets the trend, radically turns the worldview over by expressing his individual style.

I think we should start with the historical aspects, before Elizabeth entered the reign, in order to understand the whole essence of the expression of the queen's personality.

Queen Elizabeth I - Biography

Elizabeth I (1533-1603) Good Queen Bess, Queen-Virgin - Queen of England and Ireland since November 17, 1558, the last of the Tudor dynasty. Daughter of King Henry VIII Tudor of England from marriage to Anne Boleyn. The reign of Elizabeth is called the "golden age of England" due to the flourishing of culture and the increased importance of England on the world stage. Elizabethan - Shakespeare, Marlowe, Bacon.

Elizabeth changed the course of history and ruled the country for over half a century. The queen got a disunited country, divided by religious disputes, and she was able to turn it into a mighty power. If we talk about style, about the costume, then the queen completely destroyed the "Spanish costume" characteristic of the era of that time.



Elizabeth was born on September 7, 1533 at the Royal Palace in Greenwich. For passionate love, Henry VIII married her mother, Anne Boleyn, the king hoped that Anne would give him long-awaited sons. The birth of Elizabeth made few people happy - the royal family already had a daughter, Princess Mary. When Elizabeth was two years and eight months old, Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth's mother) was executed on charges of high treason.

Anna never gave birth to a son to Heinrich and, according to the court, she repeatedly cheated on her husband, the evidence of "multiple betrayals" was clearly falsified. Elizabeth and Mary were declared illegitimate, but this did not affect their lives of luxury. After, King Henry VIII was married several times, so his wife Jane Seymour gave birth to Henry's son Edward. After the death of Jane Seymour, Henry married three more times.

He divorced Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard was executed on charges of adultery. The execution of the young stepmother shocked the nine-year-old Elizabeth almost more than the death of her mother. King Henry VIII ended up married six times.

It was at the age of nine that the future Queen Elizabeth developed a strong rejection of marriage, according to some experts of a secret physiological or mental abnormality. Her biography keeps many secrets. Everyone knows that until the end of her days she remained an innocent maiden and handed over the throne to the son of her main rival Mary Stuart, but everything is in order.





The last manifestation of the monarch's will, Henry VIII "recognized" his daughters and gave them hope, if not for the crown of England, then for a trouble-free future. After the death of the king, the reign passed to his son Edward (brother of Elizabeth), but he was only 10 years old, and power passed to his uncle, who was soon executed. Young Edward, who was very sickly, was persuaded to surrender the throne to Lady Jane Gray, queen of nine days.

At the age of 16, Edward VI died, after the intrigues of Lord Protector Dudley, Jane Gray ascended the throne. Mary, Elizabeth's sister, quickly overthrew this rebellion and became queen at the age of 37. Mary actively pursued a policy of returning England to the fold of the Catholic Church.The majority of the population of England remained Catholics, but a narrow stratum of nobles were Protestants.



Mary's reign was very short-lived and brutal. In early November 1558, Queen Mary felt her days were numbered. The council insisted that she officially appoint her sister as the heiress, but the queen resisted: she knew that Elizabeth would return Protestantism, hated by Mary, to England.

Under pressure, Maria yielded to the demand of her advisers, realizing that otherwise the country could plunge into the chaos of a civil war. The Queen died on November 17, 1558, remaining in history as the Bloody Mary (or Bloody Mary). Elizabeth, having received the news of her sister's death, said: “The Lord decided so. His works are marvelous in our eyes. "

At the time of her occupation of the throne, Elizabeth was twenty-five years old. By the standards of the 16th century, when many did not live to be fifty, this was quite a respectable age. Consider her style and the years of Elizabeth's reign, since both were interconnected.

How the style of Queen Elizabeth I was formed

The reign of Elizabeth I fell on the era of the Late Renaissance. The queen arranged a magnificent coronation, as she realized that she did not get the country with the best conditions, and there were also many disputes over her right to the throne. 25-year-old Elizabeth chose for her coronation a red velvet dress richly embroidered with precious stones.

She looked much younger than her years and seemed like a very young girl. First, they put the Tudor crown on her head - the one that belonged to her father Henry VIII. Every now and then she strove to crawl. After that, the crown was replaced with one that was made especially for the ruler.

Elizabeth uttered a phrase that very few people then took seriously: “For the glory of God, for the good of the state, I decided to keep the vow of chastity indestructible. Take a look at my state ring - I have already become engaged to it with my spouse, to whom I will invariably be faithful to the grave (...). My husband is England, children are my subjects (...). I wish they would write on my tomb: "She lived and died a queen and a virgin."

Elizabeth acted very carefully, surrounded herself with her loyal subjects, but the country was waiting to see who would become Elizabeth's husband. The future of the country and further policy depended on this. A marriage to a European would plunge England into European strife, and a marriage to an Englishman would put her in front of a faction's choice. England suffered from the confrontation between Protestants and Catholics, and any wrong step could plunge her into the abyss of war.

Elizabeth's decision to abandon marriage was ultimately not a whim, but a wise political move. The Queen decided to do as she saw fit. She did not marry and did not leave behind heirs. Officially, Elizabeth went down in history as the "Virgin Queen".

Dresses and other outfits of the Queen

Elizabeth's costume was built according to the Spanish model, but only formal signs remained from the Spanish: a collar-raf, a rigid bodice-corset, but the solution of the skirt, the shape of the frame-farsingale, all proportions are spontaneous "(Source: M. N. Mertsalov's book" Suit of different times and peoples ").

"Farsingales are flat and very wide frames without a front part, allowing the toe of the bodice to be lowered far down. The excess fabric of the skirt was laid in transverse folds and fixed with the cape of the bodice, their location was fixed with special spacers sewn to the cover. Farzingale distorted the real proportions of the human figure, creating an unnatural and a disproportionate silhouette. ”The colors and shades of the suits have always been very bright and saturated.

During the Late Renaissance, ladies achieved a white complexion by any means. Poisonous white lead literally corroded the skin, but did not lose its popularity. In Europe at that time, a more expensive method appeared - rice powder, which whitened, but did not harm the skin. The look was completed with a light blush and a drop of red lipstick.



To this day, Elizabeth is known not only for the huge number of her outfits, in her wardrobe there were over 3 thousand dresses, but also for the fact that they were all examples of jewelry, textile and tailoring. Elizabeth tried in every possible way to diversify the decoration of her outfits and never wore a dress, no matter how expensive it was, more than once.

My personal opinion is that the dresses were a kind of constructors that had interchangeable details. Embroidered with a large number of precious stones, adorned with the best expensive lace, embroidered with gold and silk threads, these outfits demonstrated royalty and power to both compatriots and foreigners.



Images on costume ensembles were almost always associated with the theme of an event, the conquest of territories, or vice versa, peaceful actions. The Queen was very fond of roses in the drawing, a kind of rejection of the concept of marriage and indeed men in general.

“The life of the court was the worship of the earthly goddess and the worship of her beauty. This was emphasized by Elizabeth's dresses, with their splendor and extravagant proportions, which were radically different from those of the Spanish queens ”(Source: the book“ Fashion and Style ”Encyclopedia).

The ruler herself was considered the only trendsetter in the country. So, at one of the official events in Oxford, she appeared in gloves elongated to the elbow. They immediately became popular throughout England. Also during her reign, women began to show their necks, the length of the dress was significantly shortened. It was allowed to wear loose hair, and a high forehead and white skin became the main indicators of female beauty.

It is believed that it was Elizabeth who introduced the fashion for high collars that lay on the shoulders and hid imperfections. In all portraits, she is depicted in closed clothes with a lot of jewelry around her neck. The monarch was said to be rather shy. In her will, she asked not to examine her body after death.



Under Elizabeth, the British philosopher and historian Francis Bacon became famous, as well as William Shakespeare, who created his great works. It was under Elizabeth that theater began to develop. The portraits of the queen are an exhibition of the wealth and power of her country, expressed in the dress of the ruler.

Against her background, not only any modern European queen looked like a wretched orphan, but even some great man covered with jewelry would feel flawed.

Her successes in the reign are indisputable and outstanding, I do not see much point in talking about them, since after all this article is about her as an icon of style, but I will add that experts say that by the end of her life Elizabeth was left completely without teeth and almost bald. The skin was in a terrible state.

Once a young boyfriend entered her chambers without knocking, a kind of toyboy of the Middle Ages, seeing Elizabeth without a wig and tons of makeup, he was horrified and ran away. The guy was executed as expected.

Queen's style and modern fashion

Nowadays, the style of Elizabeth I is very often used and inspires artists.

Fashion houses: Alexander McQueen (Alexander McQueen), Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga, Vivienne Westwood draw inspiration and copy the style of the Elizabeth era.

Queen Elizabeth I at the cinema

The film industry has recreated films more than once:

The motion picture "Two Queens". It was the images of Elizabeth I performed by Margot Robbie that were most accurately recreated. For formal costumes, Alexandra Byrne carefully studied the portraits of the Queen of England. In two looks we can see the famous attribute of the costume of that period - the raff collar. This collar was designed to highlight the whiteness of the face.

A little later, with the advent of colored starch, they began to tint the raf to match the suit. Alexandra Byrne also used an open raf, which became fashionable thanks to Elizabeth I. The cut of such a collar opened the neck and chest. The queen adored rafa and even introduced a decree regulating the maximum collar height.



Interestingly, Alexandra Byrne has already created the costumes of Elizabeth I for the films "The Golden Age" and "Elizabeth".The 1998 film Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett, was nominated for an Oscar in 7 nominations, one of them Best Costumes. This time, Byrne decided not to adhere to historical accuracy, but the English fashion of the second half of the 16th century can still be traced. Let's find out which images most accurately reflect the story, and in which cases Alexandra Byrne showed a new look.

There are many films based on the personality of Queen Elizabeth.

Here's a small list:

• Bette Davis, The Virgin Queen, 1955
  
• Plenda Jackson, Elizabeth: Queen of England, 1971
  
• Judy Dench, Shakespeare in Love, 1998
  
• Helen Mirren, Elizabeth I, 2005
  
• Anne-Marie Duff, The Virgin Queen, 2005
  
• Joely Richardson and her mother Vanessa Redgrave played Elizabeth in her youth and old age, Anonymous, 2011
  
• Rachel Skarsten, Kingdom, 2013-2017
  

Also, many heroines in films are inspired and exaggerated the style of Queen Elizabeth. Alice in Wonderland example, Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen. "Snow White: Revenge of the Dwarfs", Julia Roberts - the evil queen Clementanna, Snow White's stepmother and many others.



Many celebrities, singers and models show their images in the interpretation of Queen Elizabeth: Lady Gaga, Madonna.

Vogue magazine stylizes the photo shoots in the style of the queen. Undoubtedly, Elizabeth 1 as a historical character is a superhero of style and inspiration for designers and stylists of all time.