King Charles and Queen Camilla have given a warm welcome to the Sultan of Oman this week, stirring up memories of the British monarch's previous state visits.
One of the late Queen Elizabeth's only formal state visits to Oman took place in 1979 during her Gulf tour aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Proving that royalty often encounters difficulties with weather, the late monarch fell victim to strong winds, which caused a fashion mishap on stage in front of an audience at Al Alam Palace in Muscat.
The royal looked elegant in a white belted coat, which was likely weighted down with penny weights to protect her modesty in windy weather, alongside matching gloves and metallic heels.
Standing alongside Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the late monarch displayed her trademark unflappability when a gust knocked her wide-brimmed hat sideways off her head, seamlessly catching and adjusting the accessory with a neutral, deadpan expression. Meanwhile, her husband Prince Philip watched helplessly in the background.
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Queen Elizabeth's fashion mishaps
The late monarch has previously brushed off fashion mishaps, including at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia.
© Getty
© Getty
© Getty
Queen Elizabeth's dresser Angela Kelly confessed in her book The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe that she realised the coral hat that arrived wasn't suitable for the royal, and was forced to improvise.
"As soon as I had it in my hands, I knew, deep down, that it was not going to suit the Queen. With a commanding shell-like brim and a very large flower on the reverse, it was certainly an interesting and beautifully made piece, but I had a gut feeling that it would not complement the outfit or enhance Her Majesty’s features," she wrote.
Angela said she had an honest conversation with the Queen, who took a "pragmatic" approach and consulted her husband, Prince Philip, about the suggestion to wear the hat backwards.
© Getty Images
"She had consulted His Royal Highness and, after an amusing conversation, in which I imagine The Duke didn't hold back, the Queen had decided to wear the hat the wrong way around, as I had suggested," she said.
Nobody noticed that Elizabeth wore the headpiece in an unusual way, opting for the shell brim to curve around the nape of her neck and the oversized floral detail to sit above her forehead.