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formidable lady. I got on with her very well but I had to be careful in everything I said
or did. Miss MacDonald to a great degree was the Queen’s eyes and ears at the Palace
and it didn’t do you any good to fall foul of Miss MacDonald. If things went wrong Miss
MacDonald would make more fuss than the Queen would. If you upset Miss MacDonald
it was for life…’ Elizabeth’s respect for Bobo’s utter integrity as far as she was
concerned, coupled with the habit of a lifetime since the nursery, meant that she would
give in to Bobo. ‘If the Queen said something and Miss MacDonald said something else –
then it would probably go Bobo’s way.’ ‘She was very protective of the Queen and she
made sure that no one took any advantage and she would also guide the Queen on the
track that she thought she should go with clothes or what she was going to do… if the
Queen was doing things she thought she shouldn’t, she’d tell her she was wrong but she
certainly didn’t boss her about.’ But Bobo, it was rumoured, was the one person at the
Palace who could make Elizabeth cry.
One of Bobo’s particular spheres of interest was dealing with the Queen’s
dressmakers. She would attend the sessions with Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies, and
later Ian Thomas and a tailor, John Anderson. Mr Rayne, who went to the Palace in a
morning suit, designed her shoes; and, in those days, her milliners were Aage Thaarup,
who was responsible for her much-criticized hats, and Simone Mirman. Today her hats
are designed by Frederick Fox and Philip Somerville. While Bobo was alive and in
charge, all of them were kept strictly in their place, but Hardy Amies, who once made
some unfortunate remark which was repeated to Bobo and interpreted by her as
criticism, was a particular bête noire. He was never forgiven. Elizabeth loyally stuck by
him, but there were battles which Bobo inevitably won. If she did not like a dress, it
would be put away, perhaps only to be brought out forty years later after she retired.
She would limit the dressmakers’ power by not allowing them any influence over the
accessories, be they shoes, hats or handbags. If one of them dared to make a suggestion,
Bobo would say tartly, ‘You know you’re here for the clothes not the accessories.’ She
would never let Elizabeth have an expensive handbag because it offended her Scottish
ideas of thrift.
Elizabeth has never been a fashion victim, but, one of her milliners said, ‘She’s
interested in the way she looks, likes to have clothes that work, that are easy. She likes
to be comfortable.’ To her, clothes are props, a part of her job, which is why she likes
clear colours that stand out, like cantaloupe or turquoise. ‘I can’t wear beige because
people won’t know who I am,’ she will say. Black is never allowed, which is a pity
because she looks fabulous in it, nor are dark colours because they photograph as black.
Elizabeth has very definite ideas as to what will suit her – ‘That’s too chic for me,’ she
will say. When wide power shoulders were fashionable, she would say, ‘Oh, it’s all right
for Miss [Joan] Collins but it’s not really for me, is it?’ She shortened her skirt lengths in
the 1960s, but always tried a dress out by sitting down in it to see how far it rode up.
Her yardstick is appropriateness, suiting the dress to the occasion – she always has to
look like the Queen. ‘When the Queen comes in it’s an appearance,’ one of her
dressmakers said, ‘so she knows that it’s got to be a hat, that’s politeness to her