Norman Hartnell - THE coronation Dress

I had to give this beauty a post of it's own. Did you catch the Coronation on TV on Thursday?? If not, iplayer it - BBC4.

This is a recreation of the dress by Angels the Costumiers, that is sparkling away in the Harrods windows at the moment.There is also a new display of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London  a great way to start getting into the Jubilee spirit...

Angels the costumiers- the tour

If you love vintage, costume, historical design, or just clothes full stop (everyone then?), then the Angels Tour is a mandatory experience. After years of enquires, the famous costumiers finally opened their doors to the public. And man did they do it well! The tour of their humongous HQ whizzes by in about 1.5hrs, taking in all the themed rooms, decades and categories of clothing. The sheer scale of the place is breath-taking, with over 6 million pieces of clothing throughout. This is an enthusiasts paradise. The films, tv and theatre productions that they're credited with is unbelievable. And then there are the stories that come with them! Part of the charm of the tour are all the little anecdotes that accompany each section - but don't worry, no spoilers here. 

The team pull from a vast pool of knowledge, to not only create accurate, authentic outfits for various projects, but to also make sure that it's all fed back into the incredibly organised, categorised, storage system - no guess work here.

As you can imagine, the tour is pretty popular and the groups are small, so booking in advance is a must. Tickets are £25 and well worth it!

the badge room

the fur room

this is where my knees started to buckle...