Budget Queen

Kate gets all the credit for wearing Main Street bargains, but she's only following in the path of her role model. The Queen’s legendary thrift is celebrated today in a charming piece in (paywalled) British magazine The Lady.

Quoting from an archive of some 20 letters exchanged between the Queen and designer Hardy Amies, author Thomas Blaikie writes, ”The Queen asked Amies to be sure to show the purchase tax separately on his bills, as it was the only way she could get the accounts department to believe they had been paid."

In one letter, the Queen writes, "Thank you for your enormous bill, which will take a little time to pay.”

On another occasion, she writes that the cost of a pink brocade dress was ‘astonishing’ and he is to be ‘quite clear’ she can’t have dresses that expensive again.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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