Queen Elizabeth I Owned Two Thousand Dresses. Only a Scrap of One Remains.

The clues are convincing enough to have led Historic Royal Palaces to study it, restore it, and, in 2019, display it at Hampton Court alongside the famous Rainbow Portrait of Elizabeth I. This was no coincidence: the embroidery on the cloth resembles that of the dress worn by the queen in the painting, and some even speculate that they might have been part of the same garment. The name chosen for the exhibition, after all,…