Farewell to an icon

Fashion Edit #6

Andy Warhol, Reigning Queens (Royal Edition): Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom 1985, part of the British Royal Collection

On September 8th, 2022, the world lost a piece of history. While monarchy and the Queen herself are rife with political and social debates, there is no debate she was an icon of our time, reigning over England for most if not all of our individual lives.

Already in 1985, Andy Warhol said ‘I want to be as famous as The Queen of England’, the most circulated figure in the world. The Reigning Queens series brings together many of Warhol’s central themes – celebrity, portraiture, consumerism, decoration and the extremes of social hierarchy. Part of it,his series about Queen Elizabeth II contained 4 versions in pop colors, the artist’s signature inspired from the catchy colors of 70s and 80s advertising in the United States. The works were based on an official photograph of Queen Elizabeth taken in 1977 for her Silver Jubilee.

What is certain is that both Warhol and the Queen mastered the power of image and display. Warhol created icons as much as he was inspired by them, understanding the power of reproduction and multiplication in order to mark the public minds.

The Queen, over her 70 years reign, understood the power of self-display and invented the concept of sartorial diplomacy: how dressing a certain way conveys a message, and if she was always perfectly proper according to the dressing rules of the British royal family, her choice of colors was never dull.

Therefore, here is an homage to her daring use of color, oh, and I might have gotten inspired by British designers!