This blog post was updated on October 9, 2018.
In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, an exhibition currently running at The Queen’s Gallery inside Buckingham Palace shines an intriguing light on the fashionable follies and sartorial considerations of 16th and 17th century nobility. For visitors visiting London and keen to learn about Britain’s royal heritage and how one’s status was expressed and identified through what they wore, this excellent exhibition is well worth keeping in mind.
In Fine Style “explores the sumptuous costume of British monarchs and their court during the 16th and 17th centuries through portraits from the Royal Collection.” The Royal Collection is one of the largest and most important art collections in the world, and one of the last great European royal collections to remain intact offering to the world a record of the personal tastes of kings and queens from over the last 500 years.
The show itself is a smartly curated look at a number of works from the Collection and features an impressive (and free with entry) handheld audio/visual media guide greatly enhancing the experience of viewing the many gorgeous and historic paintings exhibited.
Interested in why people wear what they wear today? Looking for a material connection to Britain’s illustrious and sometimes tumultuous past? Simply keen to take a gander at an amazing collection of great art? In Fine Style is definitely for you. With more than 60 paintings including significant works by Rembrandt, Hans Holbein, Van Dyck, displayed alongside other important works such as a number of etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar as well as an array of garments, jewellery, armour and more – In Fine Style follows the changing fashions of the period while demonstrating the spread of styles internationally and showing how clothing could (and still does) convey important messages.
In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion runs until 6 October 2013 at The Queen’s Gallery. The gallery is located at Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AA (entrance on Buckingham Palace Road). The nearest London Underground stations are at St James’s Park, Hyde Park Corner, Victoria and Green Park (all about the same distance and walkable). The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Last admission is at 4:30 p.m (a typical visit lasts between an hour and an hour and a half). Adult admission is Adult £9.50 (about $15) with discounts available for students, seniors, children and groups.
Find out more at royalcollection.org.uk.
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