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If you're in the abbey, a huge building, and the queen's there, and she was quite a small lady, she was very young, and then you have this massive train following behind her would be very hard to miss.

There's a very famous picture of the Queen with Marilyn Monroe and Marilyn Monroe is wearing a wonderful black evening dress.

Your eye doesn't go to Marilyn Monroe. It goes first to the Queen who has got the tiniest waist and is so glamorous. And you think, oh, how

amazing she looked. Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service. I'm

Daniela Ralph, the BBC's senior royal correspondent. And I want to talk about the member of the

royal family, who was probably the most

recognizable woman in the world, the late Queen Elizabeth II. She would have been a hundred

years old this month, and it's her clothes which will be our guide to her life. The main thing

that has surprised me is just how she kept this close-knit circle of designers.

Caroline DeGito is in charge of the Royal Archive, from fine art to priceless tiaras.

She's also the curator of a new exhibition in London, Queen Elizabeth II, her life in style. I asked her

how she chose the pieces to go on display. That was quite a challenge. There are over 4,500 pieces

in the archive. It's very, very large, representing long life. But the selection really was made on

a few principles. The idea that I wanted

to include all the key designers and courtiers who had worked for Queen Elizabeth II to represent

the different aspects of her dressing, be that on the global stage for overseas tours, tailoring,

which of course is the foundation of British Couture or the glamour of

evening wear. And the accessory is matter too? They really do, particularly millinery, I think.

We picture the Queen wearing a hat when we think of her. I think it was Stephen Jones who said

she was the patron saint of hats. What does this exhibition tell us about her interest in fashion and what her style was?

Did she have a style? I think she definitely had a style, something very elegant, something with

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