May Queen attends His Majesty King Charles III’s Coronation, London 2023
May Queen – aka – artist Clare O Hagan, will attend the Coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort at Westminster, London on Saturday 6th May, 2023. The May Queen will be in procession along the Coronation route celebrating new beginnings and paying tribute to time honoured ritual.
The May Queen will wear a full-length dress skirt and jacket of opulent fabrics with intricately designed floral patterns, adorned with precious jewels.
Clare O Hagan designed and made the outfit and will wear it at the Coronation.
May Queen’s Spring crown will include lily of the valley, believed to be a longstanding favourite flower of the Royal Family.
It was a famous favourite of the King’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and featured in her Coronation bouquet in 1953.
About the May Queen and Coronation
The May Queen’s tenure on this earth is timeless whose roots are found in the Earth Goddess of Springtime. She has witnessed every Coronation for as long as a Monarch has sat on the Throne.
Making May Queens Coronation Robes
Four years in the making, the May Queens Coronation Robes are now complete.
March 2000
With London in full lockdown, artist Clare O Hagan fashions a new outfit for MayDay. Taking inspiration from “Say Yes to the Dress”, O Hagan buys a 5 tiered underskirt to make the basis of a sizeable skirt. Onto this is sewn a light green bedsheet, adorned with textile offcuts from a chic fabric house near Sloane Square, London.
1st May 2020
The May Queen processed with her favored canine companion Widget, at Woodhouse allotments, Finchley, London
1st May 2021
With lockdown restrictions easing, the Queen processed down the Mall to Buckingham Place, and onwards to the banks of the River Thames.
1st May 2022, The May Queen visits Belper, Derbyshire.
Winter 2022
Followed the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and in an effort to cheer up these dismal times, a ceremonial jacket was added to the costume. The jacket, made in Clare’s artist studio in Derbyshire is made of printed cotton canvas with ribbon decoration.
February 2023
The jacket was displayed to the public at The Bankside Gallery, London, forming part of a PMC Printmakers Council exhibition.
Clare writes: ‘The May Queen’s ceremonial robes demonstrates how with making art you can transform challenging events. You never know where the art you make ends up.
This is what I do and can’t wait to celebrate the May Queen in the Coronation.”
This is not my first Royal Celebration and you can read about my “Royal Raft”, built to celebrate the Queens Jubilee in 2012.
I was and will continue to be a bit of a punk…
Clareohagan.artist@gmail.com
www.wyllieohagan.com
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