Spring cleaning isn’t just for commoners — even the Royals do it. For a family that seems to have a rule about everything, there are surprisingly few royal mandates about this topic. While some things have to be kept for posterity, the royals are practical people who want their unwanted items to be put to the best use. Queen Elizabeth II hated tossing perfectly good clothes, so she would often have worn-out or unwanted pieces turned into new ones that she would use again and again when she was at home. When they were beyond repair, she turned them into cleaning rags. Imagine…….the queen’s staff could have been dusting a bookshelf with pieces of Her Majesty’s dress! Given the historical importance of Queen Elizabeth’s clothing, a lot of it is carefully preserved in a dedicated archive in Windsor that houses more than 4,000 items. Prince Philip, King Charles and Princess Anne all have a similar attitude to Queen Elizabeth. For example, King Charles often wears a coat that belonged to his father — a double-breasted camel coat with leather buttons and a distinctive belt. Princess Anne was recently spotted wearing a 57-year-old coat to a State Banquet. Not to be outdone, Prince Philip wore his wedding shoes for 70 years after his marriage. Princess Diana often upcycled her ensembles, including a long-sleeved light blue gown that she slipped on for a visit to Portugal in 1987, which then reappeared — minus the sleeves but with a new heart-shaped strapless neckline — at a charity ball two years later. Princess Kate might just be the “queen of re-wear.” She owns a pair of Penelope Chilvers boots that she’s been wearing for 22 years. Some royal pieces have also ended up in secondhand stores, mixed among the clothing of the commoners. Rewearing and upcycling have long been part of royal practice, but the late queen and her husband helped make them standard again.
