Fit For a Queen: Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s Wardrobe Created by Pierre Balmain — Google Arts & Culture
Inside the elegant outfits designed for Her Majesty the Queen by couturier Pierre Balmain
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Google Arts & Culture
Her Majesty Queen Sirikit and Balmain

Balmain designed for Her Majesty a wardrobe of daytime, cocktail, and evening dresses and outerwear to suit virtually every occasion. He knew the special considerations shaping the Queen’s choices and framed his proposals accordingly: Her dresses must carry the stamp of enduring elegance, and guard against the risk of becoming antiquated.

Many of his signature designs flourished: jackets and dresses with small ties across front or back, obi-like sashes wrapped around the waist, draped effects at hips and waist, the lavish use of bows, and large silk flowers on lapels or bodices.

As well as designing and making Her Majesty’s dresses, Balmain was charged with coordinating the choice and purchase of all her accessories, for which he worked closely with both internal and external sources. Her Majesty’s hats were provided by Balmain’s in-house millinery department, and were usually coordinated with specific ensembles. The fur coats, stoles, and trim in mink, chinchilla, and broadtail, needed for fall and winter in Europe, were also made in-house by furrier Claude Wittelson.

Pierre Balmain

Pierre Balmain was born in 1914. He abandoned his studies in architecture to pursue his lifelong interest in fashion design. His apprenticeship in couture began in 1934, when he was hired as a junior designer by couturier Edward Molyneux, who was then at the height of his career and a leading exemplar of the sleek, elegant, and tasteful aesthetic of the 1930s. Balmain trained for four years with Molyneux. His own assessment was that Molyneux had inspired him with a lasting fondness for the color beige and “a horror of gaudy details.”

Balmain then went on to work as designer with Lucien Lelong. More an editor than a designer, Lelong employed Christian Dior and Balmain to design the house collections.

By the end of World War II, Balmain was ready to strike out on his own. He found a premise at 44 rue François 1er in the fashionable 8th Arrondissement (still the company’s headquarters) and showed a modest first collection on 12 October 1945, “based on the theme of luxury combined with simplicity, and a slight touch of the East”—a concept that could be applied to much of what he later designed for Her Majesty.

Balmain’s palette that season emphasized yellows; browns; grays; clear red; several shades of blue; and white and black, either alone or in combination. A wide variety of patterns appears, including polka dots, a favorite of Balmain’s.

Thai national dress

Balmain, along with François Lesage, who had provided the embroidery for Her Majesty’s formal clothes, remained closely involved with the development of H.M. the Queen’s style.

Balmain designed the Western-style clothes for Her Majesty’s continued international travels, and he and Lesage soon began to make Her Thai national dress as well.

Beginning early in the 1970s, Balmain and Lesage’s work extended to developing strategies to transform Thai villagde silks into fashionable Western attire, which was worn by Her Majesty promote the work of Her SUPPORT Foundation.