During a recent trip to London, I was so lucky to be able to see the Crown to Couture exhibit at Kensington Palace. Featuring over 200 items from ball gowns to court suits and handbags to jewelry, the exhibition was designed to compare today’s red carpet world and the Georgian Royal Court in the 18th century.

One of the most beautiful gowns was the ivory lace flared dress designed by Edith Head for Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. It was later altered by Givenchy for Audrey to wear to the Oscars in 1954.

Another amazing gown is known as a mantua, below. In England, this heavy and very wide dress would only have been worn at very special court occasions like a royal wedding. These were worn from the early 1700s until the early 1800s.

There were also a lot of amazing gowns from past Met Galas, including the incredible custom Moschino chandelier dress designed for Katy Perry and worn at the 2019 Met Gala.

The attention to detail in the gowns and fashions is so similar, no matter which century is featured. And imagining the fact that women wearing those mantuas would not be able to sit down reminds me of the Met Gala dress worn by Kendall Jenner, who famously had to stand up to travel from her hotel to the gala. You can see it below.

I also loved comparing the fabrics and patterns from the Georgian court dress and more modern gowns. It’s fantastic how intricate and advanced the designs were from close to 300 years ago.