Queen Elizabeth Sits Front Row at London Fashion Week — See the Pics!

British monarch Queen Elizabeth made a surprise appearance at London Fashion Week on Tuesday, Feb. 20, sitting in the front row at the Richard Quinn show. She was in attendance to present the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design to the young designer.

Sitting between the chief executive of the British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush, and Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, she wore a duck egg blue skirt suit by personal stylist Angela Kelly and carried one of her signature bags. Fun fact: When Queen Elizabeth moves her bag from one hand to the other, it means she wants her staff to usher her away. “It would be very worrying if you were talking to the Queen and saw the handbag move from one hand to the other,” royal historian Hugo Vickers shared. If the bag makes its way to the floor, that means she would like the event to end in five minutes.

Elizabeth stayed at the event for some time. In fact, it was a first for the monarch, who hasn’t been seen at a London Fashion Week show before. Her late sister, Princess Margaret, attended Dior’s couture show at Blenheim Palace in 1954.

London born designer Richard Quinn established his eponymous label in 2016, having graduated from the esteemed Fashion MA course at Central Saint Martins.

It comes just a day after the Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge and Sophie, Countess of Wessex launched the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange with a soiree at Buckingham Palace. The initiative hopes to use fashion as a common language to change the way that people view the modern commonwealth today.

Parts of this story were written by Rebecca Cope. They originally appeared on our sister site, Grazia Daily.

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