A Tale of Two Turquoise Patterned Coats, Dresses and Hats

Oh, I love the colour of this outfit! A vibrant turquoise silk with a subtle floral pattern, this has actually had two incarnations in the course of its life - first as a black-fur trimmed ensamble with cossack hat, then later has lost all the fur trim and acquired a fabric-covered bucket hat with a diamenté and turquoise studded claps (one of very few to have such an embellishment in Her Majesty's hat box!). Either that, or the Queen had two sets made in the same fabric, although I'm all in favour of the remodelling option, as Her Majesty is thrifty with her wardrobe, plus the garments main features (collarless coat with self-covered buttons and matching dress with deep pleats) remained fixed.

Anyway, let's take a closer look at the first verison of this look, seen to my knowledge only once, on 21 October 2008, upon the Queen's arrival in Ljubljana, a the start of an official visit to Slovenia. The coat then sported two large bands of black fur at the hem and black fur cuffs.

 

The dress was then visible in all its glory when the Queen attended a reception hosted by the British Ambassador at the Hotel Union on the same evening. It's in the same intricately patterned fabric as the coat, with cuffs trimmed with fur on a smaller scale. The Queen kept on one of Queen Victoria's diamond bow brooches:

 

 

Fast forward a few years, just days prior to the Royal Wedding, for the traditional Maundy Thursday service at Westminster Abbey on 21 April 2011, the Queen's 85th birthday (Daily Mail article here). Interestingly, this was also the first time in the Queen's reign that the two occasions have coincided. Not a hint of fur in sight, a brand new hat, and the birthday girl looked terrific in turquoise, topping off her look with the Jardine Star brooch:

 

On 21 October 2011, we saw the dress worn on its own for official meetings at Government House, Canberra, during the Queen's official visit to Australia. I'm pretty much convinced that this is exactly the same dress as the one worn in Slovenia, as opposed to the Queen having had a second, identical one made, with the sleeves slightly shortened to allow for the removal of the fur cuffs.  Her Majesty met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard (seen below), Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott and other senior politicians. She wore the Nizam of Hyderabad diamond rose brooch:

 

 

The dress was worn on its own on 8 October 2014, for a private audience at Buckingham Palace with, among others, the new High Commissioner for Singapore, Ms Foo Chi Hsia (seen below). The Nizam of Hyderabad Rose brooch was worn again:

The Queen repeated the dress on 14 October 2015, again for audiences at Buckingham Palace (she is shown below with Barbara Woodward, Britain's Ambassador to China). She wore one of Queen Victoria's Bow brooches: