Flashback Friday: Queen of Trousers

One of the most shocking things from this week's royal sartorial news did not come from one of our usual fashion experimenters, but from one of the most consistent and safe:

The Queen wore trousers! Shocking, I say! To board a rented yacht for a little family holiday time, she sported this mint green pant suit with an Hermès scarf and, in another shocker, no brooch! Thankfully the pearls, the handbag, and the sensible black shoes are still intact so we can recognize her. So rare are the occasions we've seen her in trousers, I have to wonder: why? Let's flashback to our previous glimpses of the Queen in non-skirt attire and investigate.

Did she wear them...out of event-specific necessity?

Doubt it. Task specific, maybe?

Not unless she was planning on chipping in to get the yacht moving. (Mechanic training from World War II would translate, right?) Hopefully it wasn't medically necessary...

...as it was when leaving the hospital in 2003. Maybe it was just a fashion experiment?

I doubt that too. This official event (during a visit to Canada in 1970) is the only time she's worn trousers while going about her job, I believe.

Or, is this a peek at the true off duty Queen?

Perhaps a return to the Groovy Queen that vacationed on the royal yacht Britannia in the 1970s, with the groovy toned down according to the passing decades? If that's the case, I'm truly bummed we didn't get another peek at the royal bell bottoms.

Photos: Reuters/fashion-era.com/AP/Getty/Telegraph/Daily Mail/Daylife