Queen Elizabeth II's Rare Fashion Show Moment Shared by Fans: 'Two Queens'
Queen Elizabeth II's rare attendance at a London fashion show in 2018 has taken social media by storm after fans uploaded a clip from the event to TikTok.
Elizabeth attended the runway show presentation of British designer Richard Quinn, alongside Vogue's editor in chief, Anna Wintour, to present him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in February 2018.
The show marked the first time that the monarch had attended an official London Fashion Week presentation, however, she was by no means a stranger to fashion shows, having been present at a number in the early years of her reign, organized by members of the post-war consortium, the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (Inc Soc).
Among Inc Soc's members were the designer of the queen's wedding and coronation dress, Sir Norman Hartnell (who was the first designer to be awarded a knighthood), Sir Hardy Amies and Victor Stiebel.
Uploaded to TikTok by user queens.vida, the popular video of Elizabeth and Wintour has been viewed over one million times and received in excess of 185,000 likes and 400 comments.
A number of fans have praised the monarch for attending the event, while others have voiced their surprise that she was there.
@queens.vida TWO QUEENS. PERIODD #queenelizabeth #annawintour #newyorkfashionweek #fyp ♬ original sound - queens.vida
"TWO QUEENS. PERIODD," reads the video caption, with one TikTok commenter writing: "NO WAY HAHAHA I LOVE YOUR MAJESTY."
"I love how Queen Elizabeth II was getting into it," posted one user.
"Ok on the left the Queen of England, on the right the world queen of fashion," wrote another, with a further comment reading: "If I was one of those models I would be so scared to mess up in front of the queen of england!"
Since winning the queen's award for design in 2018, Quinn has gone on to become one of Britain's most influential fashion creatives, regularly showing new and innovative collections with a twist of Brit eccentricity, appearing on the backs of high profile figures such as Cardi B and Kendall Jenner.
Speaking after the monarch's death in 2022, Quinn said, per The Evening Standard: "Whenever anyone asks me about what we do, it always starts with the Queen. That's how everyone knew us first."
The designer dedicated a number of looks in his Spring/Summer 2023 collection to the late monarch, each in black with one featuring her recognizable coat and hat combination.
Accompanying the queen to Quinn's 2018 presentation was her trusted aide and dresser in charge of her personal wardrobe, Angela Kelly, who wrote about the event in her book The Other Side of The Coin.
"As the queen walked into the room there were audible gasps from every direction," she recounted. "Followed swiftly by camera shutters going off at full speed. After the initial shock, there was a spontaneous round of applause and some of the media even had tears in their eyes - it's so unusual for anyone to see the queen in this way and everyone was thrilled to capture her majesty in this rare moment."
Wintour herself referenced the event in her personal tribute to the monarch, who died aged 96 in September 2022, after ruling for 70 years.
"The queen touched everyone," she wrote for Vogue. "Wherever they were in the world, maybe because despite her sense of absolute adherence and devotion to the role, who she was as a woman always shone through; her smile and her keen interest in others never failed her.
"I experienced that first hand when I sat with her at designer Richard Quinn's show, just before she presented him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design. She was so delighted to be there, telling me how she had appeared in a fashion show long before she became queen. She said it with joy and humor that bounded around the room, lighting it up: An everyday occurrence for Her Majesty, an unforgettable one for the rest of us."
In subsequent years, the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design has been presented by other members of the royal family. Most recently Kate Middleton, as Duchess of Cambridge, in May 2022.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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