Queen Elizabeth’s Longtime Dressmaker Reveals the Royal Is Frugal and Loves a Good Bargain
Money might not be an issue for the members of the royal family, but a current worker for Queen Elizabeth insisted that Her Majesty is actually extremely frugal. In a 304-page book titled The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, dressmaker Angela Kelly detailed why she considers the royal matriarch a very prudent person.
In the new book, which was released into stores on Tuesday, October 29, Angela explained why Elizabeth, 93, is one of the smartest shoppers she knows. Although the queen doesn’t need to be careful with her cash, the author — who has served as a personal assistant and senior dresser to the royal since 2002 — dished that she loves the idea of shopping at thrift stores.
Angela explained that each time she goes to the thrift shop in search for Elizabeth’s next ensemble, she makes sure to always look in the “bargain basket.” Although the royal doesn’t join Angela on her visits to the consignment store, the dressmaker dished that she will typically pick up “a vibrant fabric, given her fondness for bright colors.”
Angela even divulged the one time she almost missed a flight home because she was so caught up on getting a good deal on silk in Singapore. The British fashion designer, who has been creating dresses for the queen for the last 25 years, recalled the hilarious story to Hello magazine.
“A few years ago, after Her Majesty’s Ladies-in-Waiting and I had collected our parcels of silk, I went to make the payment and the stall owners advised me that I could claim tax back on the purchase,” she explains in the book, according to the outlet. “The queen is always keen to keep costs down, so off I went in search of someone who could help.”
She continued, “A few minutes later, as I was getting the tax back, another member of the royal staff rushed up to me in a panic, shouting that we had to go straight away as the plane was leaving right that second. Soon I was running across the tarmac, flying up the steps to the plane just in time,” Angela remembered. “I was so thrilled, I shouted over the plane’s engines a phrase I am sure the queen does not hear very often: ‘I’ve got your tax back!’ The look on the Queen’s face was priceless as I handed her the tax refund.” Ha!
A source close to the royal family previously told Closer Weekly that the queen is especially careful with her money when it comes to things at Buckingham Palace. “She regularly wanders around the corridors of her homes switching off electric lights,” Paul Burrell, Princess Diana’s former butler, exclusively told Closer in mid-October, adding that she doesn’t even like to waste “paper, ribbons and rubber bands.”
Who knew Elizabeth was so thrifty?!
