The Queen has chosen her close friend Bruce Oldfield, who was also a favorite of Diana, Princess of Wales, to design her coronation gown.
Camilla secretly worked on the creation with Oldfield, who once claimed he gave the royal family “trust” in her.
The design of the dress, which will be one of the most important in the Queen’s life, will remain a secret until she is crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6.
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Oldfield, 72, has long been one of the Royal Family’s favorite couturiers.
He is synonymous with the late Diana, Princess of Wales, with whom he worked closely for 10 years, designing many of her most iconic dresses in the 1980s.
The designer said in 2014: “I gave Diana her glamor and Camilla her confidence.”
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The Queen Consort with designer Bruce Oldfield in 2017.
But a source added: “Camilla has had a very close friendship with Bruce over many years, so in many ways it’s the natural and obvious choice.
“Camilla trusts Bruce because he has been delivering dresses for her for so many important occasions lately.”
Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation gown is considered one of the most important examples of 20th-century design.
She asked if the dress, made of white satin, would match the line of her wedding dress.
Designer Norman Hartnell submitted eight designs and the late Queen asked him to merge specific details from two into a ninth. She also asked him to supplement the four national emblems of the UK with the emblems of all the dominions of which she was monarch and suggested embroideries in different colors instead of just silver.
Hartnell also designed the dresses worn by all the most important ladies in the immediate royal family, including Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, as well as the cream satin dresses worn by the bridesmaids, creating a “coherence of style” that a unified effect.
After the coronation, the late Queen wore the dress six more times, including the opening of parliament in New Zealand and Australia in 1954.
The Queen, Camilla, has often chosen Oldfield’s evening gowns and gowns at royal engagements.
She received critical acclaim for a light turquoise lace dress he made for her for a tour of Sri Lanka in 2013 and the dress she wore to the James Bond premiere No Time To Die two years ago.
The designer was born in London to an Irish mother and a Jamaican boxer father.
However, he never met them and spent the first 13 years of his life with his foster mother, Violet, a seamstress from County Durham who first sparked his interest in sewing.
He made dresses for his sisters’ Sindy dolls, but became a “bad boy” and was placed in a Barnardo’s house after being deemed “uncontrollable”.
Overcoming a debilitating stutter, Oldfield attended Ripon Grammar School and became a teacher in Sheffield.
However, he said he had “no patience” and only lasted three years before asking Barnado’s for a loan to help him attend art school, later taking a fashion course at Central Saint Martins, London.
He started making couture clothing in 1978 and opened his first shop in 1984.
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Bruce Oldfield with Diana, Princess of Wales, in his design in the 1980s.
He is said to have met the late Princess of Wales by chance and once described her as the “perfect client”.
He said: “Looking back, it was brutal for her. We dressed her every day like she was going to a wedding.”
Oldfield’s relationship with Diana ended with her divorce from Prince Charles. He told the Sunday Telegraph in 2021: “When Diana quit royal duties, she left us too.” In 1990 he was awarded an OBE.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.