HRH Queen Elizabeth II existed in a realm above fashion, but she was the icon of using clothing to speak for her.

Where to even begin when speaking of her sartorial influence? As the figurehead of English style and what it meant to ‘look royal’, her main style lesson was that of consistency.

Block colours, smart coats, sensible Anello & Davide loafers, silk headscarves, pleated skirts, gloves, quilted vests, a brooch with every formal look, a black Launer bag slung over the forearm: they are all singularly, and combined, instantly recognisable as the Queen’s.

My favourite photos of the Queen - and there are many of them - are those where she was in casual mode, captured as herself.

One is from 1947, as a young Princess, playing tag on board the HMS Vanguard, relaxed in a floral tea dress with a broad smile across her face.

The other is pretty much any image of her in her tweeds, rain jacket and headscarf at Sandringham, Windsor or Balmoral, dressed for country life, where she was at her happiest.

The latter is a very British look that has inspired countless fashion designers and fashion editorials - a look that the Queen made her own.

The very British fashion designer Luella Bartley released the book ‘Luella’s Guide to English Style’ in 2010, with the Queen referenced throughout (though feisty daughter Princess Anne was listed as one of Luella’s top ‘British birds’). In it, she wrote admiringly that “the Queen reigns as the original revivalist, refusing to deviate from a style developed the Fifties but tweaking it ever so slightly in order to remain just this side of eccentric”.

That English blend of tradition and eccentricity and dedication to a look formed the backbone of how the Queen chose to present herself over the many decades as Monarch.

She was not a fan of fashion but she and royal courtiers knew the power of it, from her signature technique of wearing bright block colours to be seen in a crowd to using her accessories and jewels to send subtle messages.

(The new King Charles III, the former Prince of Wales, has always been a vocal fan of British tailoring and craftsmanship, bringing his passion for sustainability to fashion too.)

The Royals’ relationship with fashion has always been somewhat complicated. In 1987 Vogue wrote about the ‘rock and royalty’ of Princess Diana, who represented a shift in the relationship.

“Queen Victoria’s remark, ‘Fashionable dressing - anything but that’ has echoed sternly down the generations and until very recently it has been family policy always to appear suitable, but never glamorous,” wrote Vogue.

“The Queen, distancing herself from an unseemly concern for clothes, calls her wardrobe ‘my props’, implying that it is the substance of her ‘art’, rather than her costume, that she considers to be the point.”

I think it’s probably incorrect that the Queen wasn’t interested in fashion. In her earlier years especially she wore some fabulously stylish and unexpected looks that showcased the fashions of the time.

Even in her elder years, as she embraced and relied on her Queen’s uniform, she would still surprise and delight with her bold colour choices (I’m thinking here of her lime green, hot pink and and canary yellow ensembles).

But the couture tastes of Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, and Wallis Simpson haunted the halls of the palace; with any extravagance kept strictly for ceremonial moments that represented the glory of the Crown.

The Queen always knew the importance of that sense of occasion, using photogenic regal gowns, furs, diamonds and tiaras to define, over many years, what ‘royal’ looked like for many of us here in Aotearoa and the western world.

Her wedding dress in 1947 was a perfect study in royal signalling through fashion - designed by one of her favoured dressmakers Norman Hartnell and featuring pearl and crystal embroidery and a dramatic 13ft train, but famously paid for with rations the Queen had saved.

Even before her passing, she gave the public what they wanted, photographed at one of her last public appearances in the drawing-room of Balmoral Castle, to meet Britain's new prime minister Liz Truss, wearing her plaid skirt, grey cardigan, three strings of pearls and her trusty Launer bag slung over the crook of her elbow. Her off-duty style signatures, for her final official duty.