The Queen Sets Trend with Her Fashion Umbrellas

It wasn't until few years ago that Queen Elizabeth II, who hasn’t always been considered stylish in the past, finally started having her moment as a fashion icon. Many of the styling tricks she enjoys — like monochrome outfits, headscarves, and neon brights — have all been recent runway trends. Now the queen's signature styling trick for rainy days: a Transparent Fashion Umbrella also appears to be trending at New York Fashion Week!

In the same way fashion editors don't let rain keep them from the front row, the queen can’t let it get in the way of her royal duties either. Whenever she steps out into the rain she is spotted almost exclusively with her trademark umbrella: Fulton's transparent Birdcage model. According to the Scottish company, which has the royal warrant for umbrella manufacturing, the queen prefers the transparent model because it allows her subjects to clearly see her at all times, even in bad weather. However, The Queen adds her own special touch to her fashion umbrella choices, the trim on each is always specially coordinated to match her outfits. "The Queen’s senior dresser sends us a colour swatch of the outfit she’ll be wearing in advance of an engagement and we’ll create an umbrella with a perfectly matched trim," claims the company. You know who else likes to be seen by the public no matter what and appreciates going the extra mile to coordinate an outfit? Street-style stars and fashionistas. So the only surprise in the way fashion types have adopted the queen's umbrella of choice as their own is that it didn't happen sooner! We noticed, transparent, birdcage-shaped fashion umbrellas are almost as present at New York Fashion Week right now as the rain itself. Fashion brand Rodarte certainly helped the trend along. The brand returned to New York after a brief time in Paris, and held their Spring 2019 show in a graveyard. Unfortunately, weather was not cooperating , so the brand's team handed out umbrellas reminiscent of the queen's to guests and models.The transparent umbrella style kept being spotted throughout the week -- with some users even adopting the queen's trick of matching the fashion umbrellas to their outfits. Queen Elizabeth II would likely approve.