© 2024
NPR News, Colorado Stories
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KUNC's The Colorado Dream: Ending the Hate State has arrived! Join us each Monday through Nov. 4 for a new episode.

Queen Elizabeth's Stylist: A Servant Breaks In The Queen's Shoes

A flag with Queen Elizabeth II's portrait made entierly of Legos is pictured in the window of a shop in central London.
Andrew Cowie
/
AFP/Getty Images
A flag with Queen Elizabeth II's portrait made entierly of Legos is pictured in the window of a shop in central London.

We'll get back to real news in no time, but we just couldn't resist a couple of curious details that a Sunday Times' interview (pay-wall) with Queen Elizabeth's sylist for 11 years revealed.

First, Stewart Parvin told the newspaper that records of the Queen's wardrobe are kept on a spreadsheet, which the Telegraph reports "lists every item she wears alongside the date, time and details of the engagement." This ensures the Queen will never use an outfit twice.

But the detail that really caught our attention is that the Queen has a servant wear-in her shoes so they never chafe. The Daily Beast quotes Parvin as saying:

"(The shoes) have to be immediately comfortable . . . she does get someone to wear them. The Queen can never say 'I'm uncomfortable, I can't walk any more.' She has the right to have someone wear them in."

The Queen, by the way, is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Related Content
  • Elizabeth was just 25 and visiting the then-colony of Kenya, when word came her father the King had died. The royals will celebrate her Diamond Jubilee by visiting the nations that once made up the British empire.
  • As the British government looks for ways to cut costs and get its budget back in balance, it has capped the money that goes to Queen Elizabeth II until at least 2015. She'll still get about $50 million a year to run her palaces and other expenses.
  • Queen Elizabeth is marking 60 years on the throne, and Johnny Walker wanted to do something special. The whiskey label released a new blend called Diamond Jubilee. It's been distilling since 1952, and a bottle costs $200,000.
  • Police say the female body may have been there a while and have launched a murder investigation.