That Time I Made a Queen Elizabeth I Costume.

...and then remade it... and then added some more bling... and then a bit more...

Remember, if you can, to a world before before Covid, before Brexit, even all the way back to the days before everyone was on Facebook! Yup, people existed in those dark times. It was actually quite nice...

In 2007, I was working at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norfolk's principle museum, having narrowly escaped from an insurance call centre in 2005.

Our boss at the time was a big fan of re-enacting. I hadn't really heard of it, but understood it involved costumes, which I was already an enormous fan of. So when the boss suggested I choose any character from the castle's 900 year history to 'dress up and walk about as', it took me literally seconds to pick Queen Elizabeth I, based purely on the jewellery.

The deal was that I would pay for the fabric, make the costume on work time, use it at work and keep it afterwards. So I began.

I chose to make a version of the 1574 Pelican Portrait dress because it dated to around the time QE1 visited Norwich. My sole research at that point was to use a re-enactor colleague's Kentwell Hall 1570s costume suggestions sheet. Hmmm!

This was 16 years ago, and from memory I think it went ok, apart from my more experienced colleagues doing a bit of tooth-sucking at my visible machine stitching. To get it finished there was a bit of surreptitious sewing in the museum galleries, and a LOT of bodice embellishment in front of the telly at home.

My boss showed remarkable deftness with the kirtle pleats, which are still in place to this day. Here are those pleats accompanying me up some steps in 2022.

Back in 2007 I naively blanched at the idea of wearing a wig, so instead I'd created a French hood. Bad decision- it turns out people mainly recognise QE1 by her frizzy ginger hair. In hindsight the ruff was terrible, I'd forgotten about cuffs, and the bumroll was all wrong- but a lot was good and I was rightly proud of my achievement. This is the only photo I have of the its first outing:

How crisp and bright the fabric looks! However, my favourite early photo is the moody one at the top, by Antonella Muscat, which got featured as a centre fold (!) in a local magazine.

I soon discovered that castle visitors were more interested in what was under the kirtle (pardon the expression) than talking to me about history. Inspired, I developed a talk called 'Dressing Queen Elizabeth I', which I began in my linen shift and added the layers of clothing, talking through the fabrics, styles, symbolism and so on until I was fully resplendent as Gloriana herself. This talk, and versions of it, kept the over-sixties of East Anglia regularly entertained at WIs and U3As from 2008 until 2018! I still use versions of it in all my costumed work in live interpretation (the gregarious cousin of re-enactment), museum education, heritage freelancing and much, much more. During this decade of discovery my research into QE1 and her life expanded exponentially, and the costume had lots of alterations, tweaks and additions- see the variety of wigs, capes, ruffs, cuffs and headdresses here...

It wasn't all talks though. In 2014 I had a particularly memorable day re-enacting QE1's 1568 visit to Cambridge, including presiding over a Tudor Evensong in Kings Chapel. Here we are processing in.

Other venues have been equally impressive, and audiences no less enthusiastic (of course, as every reenactor knows, historical costumed work takes you to some beautiful venues that usually offer not-very-beautiful changing facilities!).

Here's a glimpse of how my Queen Elizabeth I costume looks like now:

I embarked on a massive total costume overhaul during Lockdown in 2021. I relied heavily on original source material: 'Lost From Her Majestie's Back', a book containing the lists written by QE1's Ladies of the Bedchamber of all the wardrobe items the Queen lost on her travels or gave away. It's an absolute treasure trove of information.

This resulted in a reduced bumroll, a new farthingale in purple taffeta 'with orange vellat ribbons', red velvet slippers adorned with rubies, and a general up-glittering of the whole thing. I also bought a new wig- the heaviest yet!

In this renewed costume I appeared, nay, starred! in some educational resources about Elizabeth's 1578 East Anglian Royal Progress, filmed in virtual reality on location at Stranger's Hall, Norwich, a wonderful medieval building- do go if you ever get the chance.

Here I am in my chamber, relaxing between takes.

In summer 2022 I was back in my Tudor underwear, this time in Norwich Cathedral, close to the tomb of Elizabeth's Boleyn ancestors.

I wonder what 'Queenie' will do next? Why, a self-portrait of course! Follow me on Instagram or Facebook!

@WhatQueenieDid for more reenactment adventures, and @racheldecontefineart for painting updates!

Image credits top to bottom: @AntonellaMuscatPhotography, Cathy Terry (NMS), @BrailsfordLearning, collage by all listed, @MartinBond, @weare_immersive (x2 on location), farthingale and portrait photos both mine.