Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection

A collection of national and international importance

The Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection is a Designated collection of national and international importance, cared for by Historic Royal Palaces.

It contains 10,000 items of historic dress from the 16th century to the present day, which tell the story of the history of fashion, life at court, British ceremonial traditions, and the lives of key historical figures and the people they encountered. Our collection contains items of clothing worn by royalty including George III, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Diana, Princess of Wales.

The Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection was created in the early 1980s, after Aubrey Bowden loaned Historic Royal Palaces a significant collection of court uniforms. Historic Royal Palaces continues to expand and develop the collection, which also contains prints, historical photographs, letters, diaries and scrapbooks.

The Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection can be consulted by appointment for research and education purposes and is based at Hampton Court Palace. Advance booking is essential. To book an appointment please contact curators@hrp.org.uk

Court mantua, 18th century

This style of dress with its wide extended petticoat was worn to royal courts across Europe.

The white brocaded background of the fabric is typical of English woven silk and represents a high point in Spitalfields weaving.

Zoom in to see the zigzag and other geometric motifs, together with the stylised flowers in naturalistic colours.

Baby cap, 1767-69

This baby's cap belonged to George III's fifth child, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (1767-1820), father of Queen Victoria.

The cap was made by hand. The decorative crown insert is made from a type of needle lace called hollie stitch where panels of lace are set between panels of pleated cloth.

Zoom in to have a closer look.

Watch: How Diana, Princess of Wales, Understood Royal Fashion

Included in the collection are pieces that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales. Curator Matthew Storey looks at three outfits from the Princess's wardrobe, each a great example of how Diana understood fashion and spotlighting the best of 1980's fashion.

Video transcript

Follow along with an interactive transcript of this video on YouTube. A link to the transcript can be found in the description.

You can help

Conserving the palaces and our collections is expensive work and as an independent charity we receive no funding from the Government or the Crown. We depend on our visitors, members, donors, volunteers and sponsors to help us.