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RSN Exclusive Book and Author Online Talk Offer!

Fashioning the Crown: A Story of Power, Conflict and Couture

Author, Justine Picardie in conversation with RSN Curator of Textiles, Dr Isabella Rosner 

Wednesday 18 March 2026, 7pm UK

From the birth of the house of Windsor in 1917, its leading women – Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II – faced the perils of abdication and assassination, revolution and the rise of fascism, the threat of invasion and all-out war. Their sartorial decisions, alongside those of their royal husbands, projected power and perpetuity, diplomacy and defiance.

In this story of espionage and exquisite couture, acclaimed author and journalist, Justine Picardie reveals the undercover lives of the creators behind the façade – including Hardy Amies, Cecil Beaton, Norman Hartnell and Edward Molyneux – and traces the ways in which visual iconography safeguarded the monarchy, even when their reign seemed to be hanging by a thread.

Join Justine for this exclusive RSN online talk with Dr Isabella Rosner to discover how her original research in the Royal Archives and her own experiences at Balmoral, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, reveal the family feuds and international conflicts that challenged the Crown, and how royal fashion has long been wielded as a weapon.

The Book: Fashioning the Crown

Featuring over 100 sumptuous images and published ahead of the centenary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, this beautifully illustrated book uncovers the hidden history of the Crown and how it survived a tumultuous era and two world wars.