What will King Charles wear for his coronation? Everything we know about the crown dress

King Charles wears a pinstripe suit by Anderson & Sheppard in his official coronation portrait.

The king may have insisted on a facsimile of his mother’s grand coronation ceremony 70 years ago. After all, who can blame him? He’s been waiting in the wings for a long time. At her coronation, Elizabeth was 27. Charles is pushing 75.

But things were very different then. In the year The great and the good – civilian or military – who crowded into Westminster Abbey in 1953 were survivors of a world war, still the most recent scar on the British psyche. Rationing, which kept the country on near-starvation food for nearly a decade, was not fully ended until 1954, a year later. Things were grim for ordinary Britons. The coronation, however, was grand and welcoming, bringing a new mood, dubbed by scholars the “New Elizabethan Age.”

The host Razamataz was an explosion of creativity, color and vision that employed many of the country’s leading contemporary artists and musicians as well as an army of tailors. For the most part, it was a time of optimism and forward-lookingness for the Crown itself, even as it embraced medieval mysticism. Still, in starving Britain, it was a jab in the arm and a great energy, with everyone involved in one way or another. 70 years on, mired in the chaos of Brexit, many Britons may argue that there is no place for such a thing – for others, good energy is just what it calls for now. And break down the cost.

Befitting such a scene, the King – it was widely reported – was dressed in full Royal Navy admiral dress. It’s the same one he wore to the Queen’s funeral in September. This black navy suit with white collar front, lots of gold trim and buttons and lots of embellishments. And a sword.

Although naval dress uniform design has evolved over the years, this piece of equipment would not have been unknown to Captain Bligh or Admiral Lord Nelson in the 18th century. It wouldn’t be out of place in Westminster Abbey either. King Charles’ uniform was made by veteran tailor Malcolm Plewes, who worked on Savile Row as a teenager and held the royal commission for the King’s military uniform for many years. It’s Plews’s job to make a uniform like this last for years, mend it here, get the seams in and out, and keep everything in ship shape.

But in a last-minute surprise (someone won’t reveal the source), it appears the King has only one thing left in his navy uniform to wear: his trousers. Which begs the question: What else? Sure enough, Turnbull and Asser – the famous Jermyn Street shirtmaker – made the king a simple white undershirt with embroidery around the neck and oak leaves and acorns. right? It’s a must see. But on an equally low-key end, the king’s shoes will be flat leather evening pumps made by favorite London shoemakers Gaziano Girling a year ago. The company will temporarily use two jeweled logos from the royal family’s collection as a replacement for the existing satin bows.

The idea suggests itself that with such clothes, Charles could actually arrive symbolically – emphatically – as a normal man in shirt, trousers and shoes (well, maybe under a cloak) and emerge, after the ceremony, crowned and with a scepter, as the image of a divinely ordained king. . Coronation means whatever the view of the divine right of kings is in this day and age.

If this coronation is a little different, a little more real-world, it doesn’t include the coronation itself, in which the king dons a full-length “supertunica” made of gold – literally wrapped in silk thread. In gold and silver. The supertunica was first mentioned as an item in 1382. No, really. The King’s first was made for the coronation of his great-grandfather, King George V, in 1911. Charles also wears the “Imperial Mantle”. The glove on his right hand, worn for one of the key moments of his grandfather George VI’s coronation. You can call them upcycles who supported the king from his youth. But throughout his life he championed British makers and craftsmen – from shoemakers to shirtmakers to tailors – to wear it well and wear it regularly.

Ahead of the coronation, portraits released by Buckingham Palace show the monarch posing more modernly in a mid-blue wool suit by favorite civilian tailors Anderson & Sheppard. On the wrist is a yellow gold toric chronograph.

In the end, what the king wears is perhaps – to us at least – less distinguishable from the royal dolls of his forefathers. And the diversity of the guest list—and what they wore—may strike us as Charles’s most modern, egalitarian touch. Along with other members of the royal family and world leaders, there will be 850 community helpers, indigenous leaders from Amazonia and Canada, and 400 children selected from youth programs. Coronets are still hung in the vault.

Nick Sullivan is creative director at Equire, where he served as fashion director from 2004 to 2019. Before that he moved with his young family from London to Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. He has styled and artfully directed countless fashion and cover stories for both. Asker And big black bookIn the year (helped in 2006) in unique, inhospitable and sometimes impossibly cold environments. He also writes extensively about men’s style, accessories and watches. He describes his writing as beautifully fragmented.