Queen Elizabeth, portrayed first by Claire Foy and then Olivia Colman -- with rumors of Imelda Staunton taking over the role in subsequent seasons. Because the Queen is such a private figure, much of the show had to be imagined, especially the moments behind closed doors.
The costumes of The Crown followed this division of public versus private in the script. Below are five costumes that were true to their historical source, and five that were a figment of the designer's imagination.
Accurate: The Wedding Dresses
The Crown Seasons 1 and 2 featured not one, but two royal weddings. (Three if you count the one at the beginning of "Beryl.") The show opens with then-Princess Elizabeth making the final preparations for her wedding to Philip Mountbatten in 1947. Elizabeth wore an ivory silk wedding dress embroidered with an exquisite floral motif on the bodice, skirts, and train. Margaret later got her happy ending in 1960, when she married Anthony Armstrong-Jones in a streamlined and minimalist gown made from silk organza.
Elizabeth and Margaret's wedding dresses on The Crown were replicas. The actual royal wedding gowns were both designed by Norman Hartnell, favored courtier of the royals.
Made-up: Margaret's Checkered Coat
The real-life Princess Margaret was seven inches shorter than the actress who played her as a young woman on The Crown, Vanessa Kirby. Because of the height difference, all of Margaret's costumes were tailored to fit Vanessa Kirby's taller frame. In some cases, this gave the costume designers more room to experiment with different outfits that built her character. A prime example is the checkered wool coat Margaret wore on her motorcycle ride with Tony. Not only was the coat an original creation (that is, not based on a real outfit of Margaret's), the weight of the fabric and bold pattern would have overwhelmed the real Princess Margaret's smaller frame, according to Season 2 designer Jane Petrie.
Accurate: Elizabeth's Coronation Attire
Some events in the royals' lives are so heavily documented that there was no possibility of the costume designers reinterpreting the clothes. Elizabeth and Margaret's weddings are a great example; Elizabeth's coronation is another. Season 1 designer Michele Clapton (who also created queenly looks for Dany, Sansa, and Cersei in Game Of Thrones) was lucky enough to find a replica of the coronation gown commissioned for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The gown, again based off the original by Norman Hartnell, featured embroidered floral emblems of the countries under the Queen's imperial rule in gold and silver thread.
Made-up: Elizabeth's Teal Ball Gown
Behind closed doors, the designers had more freedom to create costumes that developed the royals' inner lives. Elizabeth first wears this teal gown with floral embroidery to the ballet, where she watches Philip's alleged paramour win a standing ovation. From her box seat, the audience could only see the straps and upper bodice of Elizabeth's dress. The embroidery was not visible until the dress appeared in a later scene where the Queen danced with Prince Philip. The spiral pattern and fluid motion of the skirts as Elizabeth danced made this costume one of the most recognizable from the show.
Accurate: Charles's Investiture
Yet another heavily documented event, Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales, featured the royals at their most colorful. First, the regalia: Season 3 designer, Amy Roberts, replicated Prince Charles's crown and the Queen's pearl-encrusted, unique hat. Roberts's team also replicated Princess Anne's blue coatdress and pillbox hat, Princess Margaret's pink snood, and the Queen Mother's feathery green confection. The real royals looked just as colorfully ridiculous as their characters on the show. It doesn't get more accurate than this.
Made-up: Margaret's White House Dress
In the Season 2 episode, "Margaretology," Princess Margaret is on a diplomatic mission to the United States. Her goal? To win over President Johnson, who had snubbed the Queen's invitations to a state banquet and shooting at her summer estate, and persuade him to bail out Britain financially. Margaret bonded with the President over their shared bitterness living in someone else's shadow and impressed the party with her poetic talents. She did all of this is in a red floral off-the-shoulder ballgown, a notable deviation from the pink dress and bolero jacket the real Princess Margaret wore to the state banquet in 1965.
Accurate: Elizabeth's Aberfan Coat
Elizabeth doesn't typically wear red, preferring cooler tones and pastels. Her most notable costumes to feature red have all been in tense situations where the reputation of the crown was at stake due to Elizabeth's actions (or lack thereof). For instance, she wore a white dress with red flowers during her fight with Philip in front of an Australian film crew. She also wore a red coatdress when she made a tone-deaf speech at the auto factory, publically showing how out-of-touch the royals could be.
Finally, Elizabeth wore a double-breasted red coat and fur hat when she visited the site of the Aberfan mining disaster. Elizabeth faced plenty of criticism for her delay in visiting, and her cold insistence that "The Crown visits hospitals, not the scenes of accidents."
Made-up: Anne's orange sweater dress
There wasn't nearly enough of Elizabeth's only daughter, Princess Anne, in Season 3. Fans were enamored with the cool and collected princess who inherited her father's habit of forcefully speaking the mind. Anne's irreverent approach to royal life informs her fashion choices, such as this fashion-forward mock neck sweater dress she wore for an imagined moment with her family. The trendy (for the time) burnt orange color and short skirt could have fit right in at Mad Men's ad agency, and they show that Anne was very much living in modern times.
Accurate: The Tiaras In Seasons 1 And 2
The Crown paid close attention to the details of costumes that existed in real life. One such detail is the jewelry, and in particular, the tiaras that the royals wore to public events. The show tended to use replicas of real-life pieces, including the Poltimore tiara at Margaret's wedding, the Queen Mary's fringe tiara at Elizabeth's wedding, and the George IV diamond diadem for an official portrait. (That's right. The tiaras have names.) The design team's commitment to recreating historical looks helped establish the show's reputation for accuracy.
Made-up: The Tiaras In Season 3
With a new designer at the helm, Season 3 of The Crown followed a more organic process in creating the costumes. Instead of exact replicas, Elizabeth wore invented tiaras and jewelry sets that worked with the rest of the ensemble but did not exist in the real royal collection. The exception is Margaret's wedding tiara, which appeared for a moment in "Margaretology."
Between Michele Clapton, Jane Petrie, and Amy Roberts, The Crown showcased a different approach to costume design in each season thus far. We cannot wait to see who takes the helm and the costumes, both accurate and imagined, they create with their tiara pairings in Season 4.
