The cold stuff in the classic movie "The King's Speech": what the real British royal costume looks like

In February 2011, at the 83rd Academy Awards Ceremony, a film about the history of the British royal family won 11 nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score, and finally won 3 awards for Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. The film is The King's Speech.

Stills from the classic movie The King's Speech

The film The King's Speech tells the story of the Duke of Yorkshire, played by Collin Firth, who was unable to speak in public due to stuttering, which caused him to lose his ugliness at large ceremonies one after another. Helena Bonham Carter plays Elizabeth, a virtuous wife who seeks a famous doctor everywhere to help her husband, but traditional methods always do not work. By chance, she visited Lenar Logue, a language therapist played by Jeffrey La, in a different way. Although the Duke was not interested in Logue's strange moves, the Duke found himself fluent in reading Shakespeare while listening to music. This allowed him to begin to trust Logue, cooperate with the treatment, and slowly overcome the psychological obstacles. Albert was later commissioned to become George VI, who finally succeeded in delivering the inspirational story of an inspiring speech.

Colin Firth won an Oscar for Best Actor for his brilliant interpretation of George VI, and the film's presentation of the British royal family was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design. So what does the real British royal costume look like? In March 2010, there was an exhibition that revealed this secret.

Among the approximately 10,000 exhibits on the Royal Dress Collection, the wardrobes of the royals, from Henry VIII to Princess Diana, are displayed.

With another royal wedding approaching in May, there is an interesting addition to the exhibition: in 1947, while the future monarch was preparing his own wedding dress, london's Raine brand made sample shoes for Princess Elizabeth.

When new clothes arrived, the staff always checked the pockets, and in this suit jacket, a dry autumn leaf was found.

This means that the Duke was walking in the courtyard of his castle on the outskirts of Paris, picking up a leaf and putting it in his pocket to commemorate that beautiful autumn day. At that time, people's dress was very personal, which could reflect the temperament of the dresser and the social class to which the dresser belonged.

When new products arrive once a month, they are sealed as closely as possible with plastic and placed in the refrigerator. Many clothes cannot be refrigerated because some of their details may freeze in the cold. If they can't be refrigerated, they are taken to an isolation room and thoroughly examined with the naked eye for a few weeks until the staff is convinced it is not carrying a pest.

Deciding which object to include in the collection is a collective decision, writing a proposal that is then distributed to colleagues within the institution of the historic royal palace. It does not differentiate acquisition costs by sector, but in the previous financial year, all new collections cost £148,000 (about 1,318,000 yuan).

In addition, many of the items are donated or leased on a long-term basis, and auctions are also a good channel: at the exhibition "Diana: Her Fashion Story", which will be exhibited at Kensington Palace in London, some items were purchased at the auction held by the Princess in 1997 to raise funds for AIDS charities.

When considering whether to add a work to a collection, being able to prove the provenance is an important factor. For Diana's attire, it's simple: the princess has a lot of photos, or the staff can call the Dukes and family of Cambridge, as well as the residence of Prince Harry and Meghan, and one of the six palaces managed by the public areas of the historic Royal Palace. About 300 pieces of the collection were placed in this palace, which is located in the heart of London and is very convenient for scholars and researchers.

The essence of the entire collection lies in the Buckton altar cover, a piece of fabric recovered in a church in Herefordshire two years ago and widely believed to be part of Queen Elizabeth I's skirt. If true, it would be the only item in her wardrobe known to remain. Clothes were often redesigned for new uses, and this 5-foot-wide, 7.5-foot-long silver embroidered cloth was probably worth "a house." The fabric is embroidered with botanical motifs in gold and silk threads: daffodils, foxgloves and, of course, Tudor roses. It is being preserved in the workshop for restoration.

So the movie "The King's Speech" not only shows us the history of the British royal family, but also triggers a discussion about the British royal costume. (Zihua)