The Great British Fashion issue on May 15 brings together the best post-war design from the fashion houses which put Britain at the forefront of world couture.
Printed in litho by Cartor, in se-tenant strips of five, the stamps were created by Johnson Banks, who commissioned fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø to shoot the outfits.
Live models were used to achieve dynamic postures and a sense of movement, but they do not appear on the final designs.
Royal Mail is marking the culmination of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with a set of eight stamps featuring archive photographs of her taken at a variety of significant events over the past 60 years.
The stamps will be issued on May 31, in time for the Jubilee bank holiday events of June 4-5.
Issued in four se-tenant pairs, each comprising one colour and one black-and-white design, they give an insight into the diverse duties the Queen performs, from delivering Christmas broadcasts to reviewing troops as the head of the UK’s armed forces.
Royal Mail’s alphabetical journey around UK landmarks, which began with the letters A to L in October last year, concludes with the letters M to Z on April 10.
Comprising no fewer than 14 1st class stamps, this is Britain’s biggest single special stamp issue to date.
The stamps are being issued in three sheets of 30: one has the designs from M to R in se-tenant strips of six, another has S to X in se-tenant strips of six, and the third has Y and Z in se-tenant pairs; this arrangement also makes vertical strips of each individual design available.
The Germans call it Englandschlacht, but to the rest of the world it is better known as the Battle of Britain – unique in the history of warfare in that it was fought entirely in the air.
The campaign which followed the fall of France in June 1940 was simply for control of the skies over England.
If it won, the German war machine would be able to press home its advantage with an attempted invasion.
Switzerland had first introduced Landscapes definitives in 1934, focusing on its famously spectacular scenery of mountain peaks and passes, gorges, waterfalls and lakes.
But in 1949 a completely new set was released, with a rather different take on the subject.
The set of 12 had ‘technology in the landscape’ as its overriding theme, and therefore majored on industrial design, with images of railway viaducts, man-made reservoirs, ports, power stations, survey marks and even electricity pylons.
Royal Mail is celebrating the life and work of 10 significant but in some cases lesser-known citizens, in a special stamp issue on February 23.
The Britons of Distinction set celebrates distinguished individuals from the realms of engineering, computing, architecture, music, politics, literature and design, with a secret agent added to the mix for good measure.
Some are quite familiar names but others less so, certainly in comparison with the Eminent Britons set of 2009.
The second miniature sheet in Royal Mail’s railway tour of the UK will be released on March 8.
Classic Locomotives of Scotland features four different types of engine, two in colour photographs and two in black and white, with a background image of LNER Class K2 2-6-0 crossing Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Highlands in 1947.
The sheet was designed by Delaney, and printed in litho by Cartor.
The Kings & Queens series of stamp issues which started in 2008 concludes with the House of Windsor & Saxe-Coburg-Gotha set on February 2, bringing the story of the British monarchy up the present day.
The five most recent monarchs are illustrated through contemporary portrait paintings, as in previous sets, with Queen Elizabeth II taking pride of place on the top value in her Diamond Jubilee year.
Following the style of the earlier issue in this series, a miniature sheet of four stamps highlights landmark events that have taken place during the dynasty.
