Queen Elizabeth Finally Had Her Dream Photoshoot, Thanks to Royal Dresser Angela Kelly
Queen Elizabeth has always appeared as a sensible, dutiful monarch. But just once, she threw caution to the wind, participating in a risky photoshoot against her aides' (and mother's) best advice.
It's true: on one occasion, the Queen dared to pose with her hands in her pockets. Royal dresser Angela Kelly revealed that she'd long known about the Queen's "secret wish" to have her photograph taken while she had her hands in her pockets—and Kelly also knew that the monarch's advisors warned her such casualness might "bring the monarchy down," and were "not suitable for the public eye." The Queen Mother, too, believed such an action to be unthinkable.
But that didn't stop Kelly from making the Queen's wish come true. The royal dresser was working on her first book, and felt this project provided the Queen with the perfect opportunity to indulge in her wildest fantasy. And in her new book, The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, Kelly reveals how it all went down.
The Queen signed on, but not without hesitation. "The Queen looked at me in amazement as I asked whether she knew the potential implications of the photographs," Kelly writes, per the Telegraph. "She didn't take long to answer: yes, she would do it and, yes, she was sure."
On the day of the shoot, though, the Queen proved more than up to the challenge. Photographer Barry Jeffery began to speak to her about his plan for the shoot, when the monarch took charge of the situation. "Within moments, the Queen raised her hand respectfully and Barry immediately stopped talking," Kelly writes.
"'No Barry, this is how we're going to do it,' she said. 'Just keep the camera rolling.'"
Kelly goes on, "And we were off. Her Majesty took her position in front of the lens and started striking a series of poses, slipping her hands in and out of her pockets and placing them onto her hips, mimicking the stances of a professional model."
The resulting images can be seen on Hello—but be warned, they might not be suitable for the public eye.
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