The oldest surviving British royal wedding dress on display at Buckingham Palace

The oldest surviving British royal wedding dress, worn by the Princess Charlotte of Wales In the 1816, will be exhibited to the public in the Queen’s gallery on Friday 21st April. It is in fact part of one exhibition on Georgian fashionentitled Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians the precious and historic silk dress, which features delicate silver embroidery and a long train, as well as puffed sleeves and intricate floral detailing along the hem and around the collar.

The only surviving royal wedding dress from the Georgian period, it is a rare example of dazzling beauty and elegance. In keeping with European tradition, it is characterized by the use of silver thread, despite the growing trend of white wedding dresses in the late 18th century. According to Royal Collection Trustthe dress has been significantly altered from its original form – the Georgian practice of reuse and recycle became increasingly common around this time.

Born 7 January 1796, Princess Charlotte of Wales, who wore the dress on her wedding day in 1816, was the only legitimate child of King George VI and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, and was christened Charlotte Augusta in honor of her grandmothers, Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Queen Charlotte (who was married with King George III). A fictionalized reconstruction of the life of Queen Charlotte, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, will be released by Netflix on May 4 as a prequel to the blockbuster series, Bridgerton.

As she grew older, Princess Charlotte of Wales became a healthy child and an accomplished pianist. Though her father wanted her to marry the Prince of Orange, she eventually married a lieutenant general of the Russian cavalry, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She was expected to ascend the British throne after her father’s death, but sadly predeceased him, along with her grandfather King George III, at the age of 21, having given birth to a stillborn son. In his place, King George VI was succeeded by his brother, King William IV.

Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians will exhibit over 200 works from the Royal Collection and can be visited at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace starting Friday 21st April. The exhibition also includes a miniature left eye portrait of Princess Charlotte of Wales and a circa 1781 painting by Thomas Gainsborough showing Queen Charlotte in magnificent court dress. This will be complemented by a dress of a similar style, worn at the court of Queen Charlotte in the 1760s.

Anna Reynoldscurator of Style & Society, said: «Dress is so much more than what we see on the surface and it is fascinating what we can learn about a historical period when we look at it through the lens of fashion history. Visitors might be surprised to find how much the Georgian period has in common with the fashion landscape we know today, from influencers and fashion magazines to ideas about the value of clothes and how they can be recycled and reused.”