British novelist, fashion writer and biographer Justine Picardie and Oriole Cullen, Head of Modern Textiles and Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, share anecdotes from Picardie’s most recent book, Fashioning the Crown, which explores a tumultuous half-century of British history through the lens of royal fashion and image-making.
Following the talk, there will be time for an audience Q&A and a book signing.
Friday, 6th March 2026
British novelist, fashion writer and biographer Justine Picardie and Oriole Cullen, Head of Modern Textiles and Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, share anecdotes from Picardie’s most recent book, Fashioning the Crown, which explores a tumultuous half-century of British history through the lens of royal fashion and image-making.
Following the talk, there will be time for an audience Q&A and a book signing.
Talk and Lunch tickets include access to the talk, welcome refreshments and lunch in the Ox Barn - a £30 allocation towards your bill.
Key event details:
10am arrival, 10.30am talk begins.
11.30am audience Q&A and book signing.
Talk & Lunch ticket includes a 2-course lunch in the Ox Barn.
We aim to seat all guests as quickly as possible for lunch.
If you have any questions, please email reservations@thyme.co.uk.
10-10.30am - Guest Arrival and Refreshments
10.30-11.30am - Talk
11.30am - Audience Q&A and Book Signing
12pm - 1.30pm - Lunch
Friday, 6th March 2026
British novelist, fashion writer and biographer Justine Picardie and Oriole Cullen, Head of Modern Textiles and Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, share anecdotes from Picardie’s most recent book, Fashioning the Crown, which explores a tumultuous half-century of British history through the lens of royal fashion and image-making.
Following the talk, there will be time for an audience Q&A and a book signing.
Talk and Lunch tickets include access to the talk, welcome refreshments and lunch in the Swan - a £30 allocation towards your bill.
Key event details:
10am arrival, 10.30am talk begins.
11.30am audience Q&A and book signing.
Talk & Lunch ticket includes a 2-course lunch in the Swan pub.
We aim to seat all guests as quickly as possible for lunch.
If you have any questions, please email reservations@thyme.co.uk.
*Talk and lunch tickets include access to the talk, welcome refreshments and lunch in the Ox Barn or The Swan - a £30 allocation towards your bill. Guests may be seated on a communal table - if you have a seating preference, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you on the day.
Justine Picardie
Photographer: Richard Phibbs
Justine Picardie is the author of seven books, including the international bestsellers Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture and Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life.
Previously the Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar, she was an investigative journalist for the Sunday Times, columnist for the Telegraph, Editor of the Observer Magazine and Features Director of Vogue.
Fashioning the Crown
From the bestselling author of Miss Dior and Coco Chanel, a compelling history of the Crown told through the lens of royal fashion, sharing the secrets that lie beneath its sumptuous surface.
Published ahead of the centenary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, and featuring more than 100 beautiful images, this book reveals the reinvention of British monarchy, as it fought to survive a tumultuous era of two world wars.
From the birth of the house of Windsor in 1917, its leading women – Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II – faced the perils of abdication and assassination, revolution and the rise of fascism, the threat of invasion and all-out war. Their sartorial decisions, alongside those of their royal husbands, projected power and perpetuity, diplomacy and defiance.
In this cinematic story of espionage and exquisite couture, Justine Picardie reveals the undercover lives of the creators behind the facade – including Hardy Amies, Cecil Beaton, Norman Hartnell and Edward Molyneux – and traces the ways in which visual iconography safeguarded the monarchy, even when their reign seemed to be hanging by a thread. Drawing on original research in the Royal Archives and her own experiences at Balmoral, Windsor. Castle and Buckingham Palace, Picardie explores the family feuds and international conflicts that challenged the Crown, and how royal fashion has long been wielded as a weapon.