Canada: The Queen’s lingerie was made by the parents of a Vancouver woman, with the help of silkworms

Vancouver gardener divulges a Royal secret her family kept for 50 years

By Denise Ryan
Vancouver Sun
Sept 11, 2022

Excerpt:

Standing under a mulberry tree at the City Farmer garden in Vancouver three days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Angela Hoy held a long, blue silk negligee, made by her mother, and a letter from Buckingham Palace.

The mulberry tree, a symbol of faith, wisdom and growth, whose leaves are the only food silkworms eat, was a fitting place to remember the former Queen, and her own parents who were called to serve Her Majesty 75 years ago, on the occasion of her marriage to Prince Philip.

Angela Hoy’s parents made lingerie. Every day, when Angela came home from school in Woodgreen, North London, she would join her mother, a master seamstress, in the factory, to fold and pack the slippery silk garments in tissue-lined boxes to ship to the big stores in London: Marshall and Snelgrove, John Lewis and Harrods.

What she didn’t know was that in 1947, when she was four, her parents had made the lingerie for the Queen’s trousseau, including a silk nightgown and negligee edged in French lace. The royal commission had come with a request. The making of the lingerie for the Queen was to be kept confidential for 50 years.

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