{"id":2308091,"date":"2026-03-02T10:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2308091"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:50:10","slug":"unique-piece-of-royal-history-to-go-on-show-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/unique-piece-of-royal-history-to-go-on-show-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique piece of royal history to go on show in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

A rare chance to see an historic royal outfit up close has just
\nbeen announced.<\/p>\n

The
\nroyal christening gown<\/a> worn by kings, queens, princes and
\nprincesses for almost 200 years will be put on show in London later
\nthis year. It\u2019s believed to be the first public exhibition for the
\nhistoric outfit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of an exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the
\nbirth of Queen Elizabeth II and the gown will form a central part
\nof the once in a lifetime show.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Queen
King Charles III wore the
\nroyal christening gown at his baptism in 1948
(Royal Collection Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Queen Victoria commissioned the lace christening outfit when her
\nfirst child, Princess Victoria, was born in 1840.<\/p>\n

Over 80 years later, Queen Victoria\u2019s great, great granddaughter
\nwore it to her baptism. The baby who was christened then, Elizabeth
\nAlexandra Mary, would go on to take the throne in 1952 and reign
\nfor 70 years, eclipsing the record set by Victoria herself.<\/p>\n

In total, 62 royal babies wore the christening gown including
\nseveral other monarchs. King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward
\nVIII, King George VI and King Charles III were all baptised in it,
\nas well as Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A\"A
The future King Edward VIII
\nwore the gown at his christening which ended with the first \u201dfour
\ngenerations\u201d photo of monarchs in royal history
(Royal Collection Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Prince William wore it at his christening. However, Prince
\nGeorge wore a replica of the original. The last royal baby to be
\nchristened in the gown was Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor.
\nFollowing her baptism, in 2004, Queen Elizabeth II decided the
\ngown, made of silk and lace, was too fragile to be used again and
\ncommissioned an exact copy of it which has been used by all royal
\nbabies since. The first to wear it was Louise\u2019s brother, James,
\nEarl of Wessex.<\/p>\n

The original christening outfit was designed to be much more
\nthan just a royal gown. Queen Victoria was determined to support
\nthe dressmaking industries and she deliberately chose very British
\nmaterials for the gown to be made from to give them a very public
\nbacking in the hope it would bring them more trade.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A\"A
The pretty lace used across
\nthe gown will be on show from April
(Royal Collection Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Her decision led to silk from Spitalfields in east London being
\nused to construct the gown which is also covered in lace woven in
\nHoniton in Devon. The christening outfit was designed by her
\ndressmaker, Janet Sutherlands, who also carried the title of
\n\u2018Embroiderer to the Queen\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Royal Collection Trust has spent over 100 hours carefully
\nrestoring the original gown ahead of it going on show. Plans to
\nkeep the dress in perfect condition were made when it was first
\ncommissioned with a note attached to the gown advising it should
\nonly be washed in natural spring water.<\/p>\n

The exhibition curator, Caroline de Guitaut, said \u201dthe
\nchristening robe was the most significant garment worn by Princess
\nElizabeth in her infancy and is an exceptional example of British
\ncraftsmanship \u2013 something Queen Elizabeth went on to champion
\nthroughout her life. As the earliest piece of clothing worn by the
\nQueen, and by so many royal babies before and after her, it holds a
\nspecial place in her wardrobe. We are delighted to be able to share
\nit with as many people as possible in this centenary
\nyear.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"A\"A
The names of all the royal
\nbabies who wore the gown were written down by Queen Elizabeth
\nII
(Royal Collection Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Also on show will be another, less well known piece of royal
\nhistory. Queen Mary began the tradition of recording the names of
\nall babies christened in the gown in a special note that went with
\nit and Queen Elizabeth II continued that practice.<\/p>\n

There will also be a chance to see the bonnet, silk satin shawl,
\nsash, bows\u00a0and ribbons that were traditionally worn for
\nchristenings and which were covered in the emblems of the United
\nKingdom.<\/p>\n

The exhibition takes place at The King\u2019s Gallery at Buckingham
\nPalace which was also the site of the chapel there until it was
\ndestroyed in the Blitz. It means that the gown will be on show in
\nthe space where Queen Elizabeth II wore it at her own
\nchristening.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in
\nStyle\u00a0<\/em>is at The King\u2019s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from
\n10 April to 18 October 2026<\/strong>, Tickets cost \u00a322 for adults
\nand \u00a311 for children and are available from the Royal Collection Trust
\nwebsite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source royalcentral.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rare chance to see an historic royal outfit up close has just been announced. The royal christening gown worn by kings, queens, princes and princesses for almost 200 years will be put on show in London later this year. It\u2019s believed to be the first public exhibition for the historic outfit. It\u2019s part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2308092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2308091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Unique-piece-of-royal-history-to-go-on-show-in.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2308091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2308093,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308091\/revisions\/2308093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2308092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2308091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2308091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2308091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}