The Queen emerged from the church at Sandringham wearing a striking fox fur hat and a cream wool coat trimmed with matching fur cuffs. Her daughter-in-law Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the wife of Prince Charles, wore a Russian style fur hat which is reportedly made from a piece of her mother’s vintage fur coat. The Duke of York’s daughter Princess Eugenie, 20, sported a fur-trimmed trilby.

This very public endorsement of fur is to be welcomed at a time when the material is a continued favourite on the fashion cat-walks of the world with some 400 designers using fur in their 2010/11 collections.

A spokesman for the International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF), comments:
“The British Queen and her relatives chose to wear fur in icy temperatures at a traditional annual event which the world’s media cover extensively. It’s a matter of freedom of choice to wear fur and in doing so the Queen has admirably demonstrated”.