Queen Elizabeth in fashion top 50 at age of 81

At the age of 81, Queen Elizabeth on Monday joined models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell on Vogue Magazine's list of the world's most glamorous women.

The style bible slavishly worshipped by dedicated followers of fashion decreed that age was no barrier.

Sensible brogue shoes, waxed jackets and headscarves knotted firmly under the chin are clearly no passing fad.

"It's a great compliment. She has a very practical approach to fashion and a great sense of occasion," a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman told Reuters when asked about the fashion icon's tip of the hat to the queen.

"This month she becomes the first British monarch to celebrate a diamond wedding anniversary and next month she becomes Britain's oldest ever reigning monarch," she added.

Even model of the moment Agyness Deyn has said of the octogenarian monarch: "She's cool."

Kate Moss is reported to have told her once at a Buckingham Palace reception "I love the stuff you wear. You have great fashion sense."

Vogue was gushing in its praise, declaring the queen to be "as glamorous in her brogues and headscarf at (her country estate) Balmoral as she is wearing the crown jewels."

Glamour, the magazine declared, is "about how you wear something, not about what you wear. You cannot buy glamour and you can't fake it."

Veteran fashion designer Hardy Amies, who spent half a century dressing the monarch, once told Reuters: "The Queen is very demanding. She knows exactly what she wants. She wants her clothes to be friendly. Chic clothes are usually cruel."

Hardy, who died in 2003 at the age of 93, said he was very proud of the dress he made for her silver jubilee celebrations. "A picture of it now adorns thousands of biscuit tins," he said.

When actress Helen Mirren took to the screen as the British monarch in the Oscar-winning movie "The Queen", sales of Barbour waxed jackets were given a major boost in the United States.

Mirren joined the Queen on Vogue's "definitive list" of glamorous women on the list. "She is as radiant as a lightbulb," the magazine said in its December issue dedicated to glamour.

The older generation certainly holds its own in the list with 70-year-old Vanessa Redgrave and 62-year-old Charlotte Rampling up there with the supermodels of today.