Queen Elizabeth II’s 1947 wedding dress was decorated with 10,000 seed pearls.
Norman Hartnell designed the dress for Princess Elizabeth’s marriage to Philip Mountbatten on November 20, 1947. The ivory silk gown used a star-lily motif inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s painting Primavera, with floral embroidery, crystals, and thousands of imported seed pearls sewn into the design.
Because Britain was still recovering from the Second World War, the dress attracted unusual public attention. Princess Elizabeth famously received coupons from members of the public who wanted to help her save for the gown, although the coupons were returned because it was not legal to transfer them.
The pearl count is commonly rounded in summaries, but the frequently cited figure is 10,000. This dress should not be confused with Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation dress, also designed by Hartnell in 1953. The wedding gown’s botanical decoration and symbolism helped make it one of the best-known royal dresses of the twentieth century.