Before Kate Middleton’s lace Alexander McQueen number and Meghan’s gorgeous Givenchy gown, there was Princess Diana’s iconic wedding dress. Even now, almost thirty years since she stepped out from her carriage and into the glare of the spotlight, it is a breathtaking piece of fashion history.
Designed by husband and wife duo David and Elizabeth Emanuel, the ivory silk taffeta and antique lace creation boasted a 25-foot train, and set the tone for bridal fashion over the next twenty years: Lady Di is most likely the reason why your mum and aunties opted for frilly, leg-of-mutton sleeves and a ruffled collar on their wedding days (and still recommend that you do the same)
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – JULY 29
The design of Diana’s dress was a fiercely guarded secret, but 35 years after her wedding to Prince Charles, David revealed what it took to bring the dress to life.
David and his now ex-wife Elizabeth had worked with Diana before she was linked to Prince Charles, but the Emanuels were still seen by the press as an outside choice when it came to designing her wedding dress. ‘Later, there were double-page spreads in newspapers and magazines speculating as to who would be the designer of her wedding gown. My ex-wife and I were ranked outsiders,’ he said.
Diana arrived alone for her first few fittings, before asking whether her mother could attend in the final stages, to which David’s answer was naturally, ‘yes, of course.’
Such was the secrecy surrounding the dress that David’s sketches had to be destroyed. ‘I showed her a sketch and ripped the sketch up because we didn’t want it floating around,’ Emanuel revealed to the Express.
‘She was simply young and fresh. I wanted the dress to reflect that but she was going in as Lady Diana Spencer and coming out as the Princess of Wales. St Paul’s Cathedral was very grand. If you did a subtle little number it’s not going to work to an audience of seven hundred billion people!’ he added
‘I was just leaving my studio at six o’clock that evening and she rang me and said it was “fabulous”. Job done. As long as she was happy, I was happy. It was a pleasure to do.’
The dress, which was famously hand-embroidered with around 10,000 pearls, was inherited by Diana’s sons Prince William and Prince Harry on Harry’s 30th birthday in September 2014.
