An English Christmas Tree

One of my favorite parts of the holidays this year was decorating my little Christmas tree with English themed ornaments.  In England, the St. Nicolas company creates handmade, embroidered felt ornaments that are of historic people and places.  Most of the ornaments I collected from various palace and cathedral gift shops throughout London were made by the St. Nicolas company, and one of the ornaments was a gift!

The three ornaments below are of three British Queens who were Queens in their own right -- Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth II.

I had to look high and low for the Queen Elizabeth I ornament above, and I finally found one in the National Portrait Gallery gift shop.  I love the fire red hair!

There are about four iterations of the Queen Victoria ornament -- a couple when she was a princess, one when she was an older Queen with enormous royal garments, and then the one above when she is a young Queen.  Queen Victoria still looms large over London, and so it was no surprise that there were so many Victoria ornament options.

Above is Queen Elizabeth II on the day of her Coronation.  I think this depiction is fantastic because it really captures the sumptuous robes and dress she wore on that day, and I love that she is holding the orb and sceptre.  

Above is a Tudor Rose ornament that I found at Hampton Court Palace.  The Tudor Rose emblem was created following the end of the War of the Roses, when the House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose) united.  I became positively obsessed with the War of Roses after watching the BBC miniseries "The White Queen," or as many of my friends know, after I became positively obsessed with the actor, Max Irons!

 The Queen's 60th anniversary of her Coronation occurred in 2013, and there were amazing events celebrating this anniversary throughout the year.  I love the above ornament's depiction of the four countries that comprise Great Britain -- the daffodil for Wales, the rose for England, the thistle for Scotland and the shamrock for Northern Island.

Prince George was born a couple of weeks after I arrived in London, and I thought it would be fun to get an ornament commemorating being in London during this fun time!

And finally, my best friend, Hilly, made me this great needlepoint ornament of a Union Jack.  I adore it -- a perfect addition to my English themed Christmas tree.  I can't wait to collect more English themed Christmas ornaments in the years to come!

In Fine Style

This past week, a dear friend of mine was in London for a few days.  She is an art curator, and I had so much fun hopping around the city seeing it through her eyes.  One of our afternoons was spent at the Buckingham Palace State Rooms and the adjoining Queen's Gallery.  The Queen's Gallery hosts exhibits of art from the Royal Collection.  The Royal Collection consists of art held by the Queen in trust for the nation, instead of being held privately.

This year the Queen's Gallery has an exhibit called "In Fine Style," which charts fashion during the Tudor and Stuart eras.  Many items of clothing were on display, but we were not allowed to take pictures of the garments.  However, the paintings being exhibited were absolutely fantastic!  One of the things I was most taken by was the breadth and incredible pieces the Queen has in her collection.  In the above painting we see an early 17th century fashion of wearing exaggeratedly high hair. Women often wore wired structures beneath their hair to maintain the height of the hair and to secure the adorning jewels.

The lady in the above painting is dressed for a masque (which was a social event meant to be propaganda for the Royal Court).  Her gown and hat are meant to imitate Persian style.  Over her gown, she wears a translucent mantle adorned with the equivalent of sequins (which would have been cut individually from a sheet of metal).  The effect would have been a dress that shimmered in the evening candlelight.

Above is a painting of Queen Anne, King James I of England's wife.  She was Danish royalty and her own lineage was important, even apart from being the wife of the King of England.  Consequently, she always wore jewelry that was a reminder of this fact.  Above the pearls, crosses and letters on her garment are nods to her personal history.

King Charles II is depicted in the above painting.  During his reign, he announced a new mode of male clothing which consisted of a knee length vest worn with a coat.  This outfit replaced the previous male style of wearing a doublet and a cloak.  The King introduced this new look so as to create an "English" style that was not at the mercy of continental fashion whims.  Notably, this new type of outfit was the precursor to the modern male three piece suit.

Queen Elizabeth I is displayed wearing a gown with sleeves made of a cloth of silver tissued with gold, which could be melted down to release the precious metals.  Only royalty was allowed to wear this type of fabric.  But at the time this painting was created, Elizabeth was considered illegitimate.  One of the aspects of the exhibit that I found the Queen's Gallery did exceptionally well was combining the past and the present.  With this particular painting not only did the audio guide provide curator commentary about the history of the painting, the audio guide also provided insights from current fashion designer Gareth Pugh about this garment.  For an institution such as the Royal family that often seems synonymous with tradition and reverence for the past, it was fantastic to see them seamlessly weave in touches of modernism as well.

Above Mary, Princess of Orange, is dressed for a court masquerade likely held in The Hague.  I found this garment absolutely striking.  Observers during that time described her as being very well-dressed.  Feathered cloaks like the one she is wearing were worn by the Tupinambá people of 16th and 17th century Brazil and imported to Europe where they were appreciated for their cultural context and craftsmanship.