Queen's designer reveals royal wardrobe

UNDATED (WHDH) -- For years, she has been an icon of grace, beauty, and even fashion. Now for the first time, we're getting a closer look at Queen Elizabeth’s wardrobe -- what she wears, how she shops, and what defines her style.

Over the years all the dresses coats and matching hats, gowns, and diamonds and weather proof queen wear in all of her elegance. Yes before Kate, the queen was, is, a fashion icon.

Now Angela Kelly, the queen's dresser and designer of all of her outfits for nearly 20 years, has opened up the closet and says the queen is frugal; for the diamond jubilee they used fabrics they had on hand.

Everything she wears must be wrinkle proof, easy to wave in, hemlines often waited -- something Kate will learn.

In case of rain, she has a vast collection of clear umbrellas with trim to match any outfit. And the queen herself, historians say, has a passion for all of this.

“She would actually crawl around on the floor of her dressing room, she would look at the patterns and she would look at the fabrics,” said Sally Bedell Smith.

The queen approves every idea and painstakingly crafted detail. She helped design s gown with 2,000 hand sewn silk shamrocks, and her shoes are handmade.

And then there are the jewels presented to her in trays that her grandmother, Queen Mary, embroidered herself. Her tiara has places to hang gems, each one kept separately. And turns out, Queen Elizabeth likes to dabble in tiara maintenance.

“She enjoys her tiara time,” Smith said.

After her skit with James Bond at the Olympics, no one can say the queen isn't up for surprises. The dress had to be made in double; one for the stunt man -- for months dress makers had no idea why. And the queen has another surprise quality.

“It's the fact that she doesn't really perspire. Even in the hottest temperatures. As her cousin lady Pamela Hix told me her skin does not run water,” Smith said.

When you ask fashion experts why they admire her style so much, they always say that she looks perfectly put together and ladylike. She is willing to try new things, but always looks appropriate for the occasion.