Princess Margaret Rose Windsor was born on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Scotland, the ancestral home of her mother’s family. She was the second child of Prince George, Duke of York, later King George VI, and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. She was also the younger sister of the current Queen Elizabeth II.
As a baby, she had only to be seen in yellow for a new fashion to be born. Even before the coronation of her parents in Westminster Abbey, the little Princess and her elder sister were a magnet for the new popular press. Crowds gathered at the gates of their home at 145 Piccadilly to watch the young children play.
In 1937 the princesses moved to Buckingham Palace, where they were raised and educated. During the Second World War they were sent to the Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle where the princesses formed a tight bond as their parents stayed in London, occupied with matters concerning the war.
The princesses were naturally compared. Princess Elizabeth was said to take after her father - charming and unselfish. Princess Margaret took after her mother - naughty but fun. Her grandmother, Queen Mary, described Margaret as ‘so outrageously amusing that one can't help encouraging her.’
In 1945, the 15-year old Princess Margaret had her first solo public engagement when she opened a play centre run by the Save the Children Fund in North London.
Main image: The Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. Princess Margaret is standing in front of her father. (popperfoto.com)
Throughout her life, Margaret loved fashion. When her mother remarked that she did not wish to be a leader of fashion, her daughter interjected ‘I do!’ Even the clothes the princess wore at this early age have inspired contemporary designers.
Vivienne Westwood used the images of the young princesses in traditional double-breasted coats she remembered from her childhood as inspiration for her 1987 ‘Harris Tweed’ collection, which she occasionally calls her ‘aristocratic’ or ‘royal’ collection.
The epitome of hard-wearing traditional British cloth, members of the royal family have worn Harris Tweed for generations. Westwood declared that the colours of the cloth were so vibrant ’they’re like jewels’.
Westwood’s interpretation combined the most traditional of Harris Tweed velvet-trimmed overcoats, worn by the young princesses on many public occasions, with all the pomp and circumstance of the coronation. The velvet was printed to look like ermine, and the jewel-like Harris Tweed was also crafted into crowns.