Inside the Royal Wardrobe: A Dress History of Queen Alexandra
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Overview
Queen Alexandra used clothes to fashion images of herself as a wife, a mother and a royal: a woman who both led Britain alongside her husband Edward VII and lived her life through fashion. Inside the Royal Wardrobe overturns the popular portrait of a vapid and neglected queen, examining the surviving garments of Alexandra, Princess of Wales – who later became Queen Consort – to unlock a rich tapestry of royal dress and society in the second half of the 19th century.
More than 130 extraordinary garments from Alexandra's wardrobe survive, from sumptuous court dress and politicised fancy dress to mourning attire and elegant coronation gowns, and can be found in various collections around the world, from London, Oslo and Denmark to New York, Toronto and Tokyo. Curator and fashion scholar Kate Strasdin places these garments at the heart of this in-depth study, examining their relationships to issues such as body politics, power, celebrity, social identity and performance, and interpreting Alexandra's world from the objects out.
Adopting an object-based methodology, the book features a range of original sources from letters, travel journals and newspaper editorials, to wardrobe accounts, memoirs, tailors' ledgers and business records. Revealing a shrewd and socially aware woman attuned to the popular power of royal dress, the work will appeal to students and scholars of costume, fashion and dress history, as well as of material culture and 19th century history.
Examining the surviving garments of Queen Alexandra, this book adopts an object-based methodology to explore the dress and society of the royal elite in the 19th century.
Adopts an object-based methodology that is structured by dress types, providing a model for further research in historical dress
Examines wider themes such as marriage, mourning practices, patronage of British textile trades, dress as a public spectacle and the late 19th century female body
A rare and in-depth portrait of Alexandra's life, her wardrobe and her times that debunks myths about Alexandra established by popular biographies and histories
Introduction
1. Managing the Royal Wardrobe
2. Engagement and Marriage
3. Evening and Court Dress
4. The Travelling Princess
5. Fancy Dress
6. Tailoring
7. Mourning Dress
8. The Coronation Gown
9. Dispersal of a Royal Wardrobe
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Queen Alexandra used clothes to fashion her self-image throughout her life and Kate Strasdin's fascinating new book shows us how. From tight tailoring and glamorous evening wear to elegant mourning, Inside the Royal Wardrobe provides an innovative, engaging analysis of how Alexandra led fashionable society.
Inside the Royal Wardrobe is an illuminating and poignant study of the clothes that made Queen Alexandra the most stylish woman in Britain. Skilfully weaving together public and private life, Strasdin shines new light on her compelling story.
Kate Strasdin's fascinating book gives us an intimate history of a queen who dressed to impress, and sets the stage for new understandings of the work that goes into fashioning celebrity.
- Title: Inside the Royal Wardrobe: A Dress History of Queen Alexandra
- Author: Kate Strasdin
- Series: Dress and Fashion Research
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 192
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781474269957, 9781350102347, 1350102342, 1474269958
- Resource ID: LLS:9781474269957
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T11:08:09Z
Kate Strasdin is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the Fashion and Textiles Institute, Falmouth University, UK, and a Visiting Lecturer at DeTao Masters Academy in Shanghai, China. She is Deputy Curator at the Totnes Fashion and Textile Museum, one of the largest private collection of dress in the UK.