Prince William and Prince Harry Now Own Princess Diana's Iconic Wedding Dress
On July 29, 1981, 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer stepped out of her horse drawn carriage and onto the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral and instantly became "The People's Princess." And it wasn't just because the young bride was about to marry Charles, Prince of Wales. Much of it had to do with the show-stopping wedding gown that came straight out of a fairy tale.
The voluminous dress—made by Elizabeth and David Emanuel—became instantly iconic. So, of course it had to be recreated for season 4 of The Crown, when we finally meet Princess Diana, played by Emma Corrin.
“We were filming the scene when you first see her in the wedding dress—I think it was Lancaster House in London—and I had a team of about 10 people helping me put it on, because it’s massive,” Corrin told British Vogue. “I walked out and everyone went completely silent. More than anything else I wear in the series, it’s so… It’s her.”
And what was on the minds of the designers nearly 40 years ago?
“It was all about drama and making Diana a fairy-tale princess,” Elizabeth Emanuel said. “The gown was typical of early '80s style—overblown, romantic, flouncy—but we had to get it right because we knew it would go down in history.”
Below, everything you may have wondered about Princess Diana's wedding dress.
Diana picked her wedding dress designers herself.
After commissioning a few formal gowns from little known British designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel, in spring of 1981, Diana had a life-changing request for the then-husband and wife duo. (They've since divorced.)
"Suddenly out of the blue, this phone call came into the studio and asked if we would do the honor of making her wedding dress, then it all happened very quickly," David, star of the UK's Say Yes to the Dress, told Woman's Own.
The pair had just three months to design the gown so it would be ready in time for the royal couple's July nuptials. In past interviews, designers explained that despite the frenzy surrounding her big day, Diana—just 19 as she was preparing—was down-to-earth and would often come to fittings alone, only occasionally bringing her mother.
“She would always run upstairs to say hello to the seamstresses,” Elizabeth told British Vogue. “Diana was very caring and never in any way grand. I think she found the whole experience a lot of fun—she stood still for hours and never complained about the pins. She was just fabulous.”
Princess Diana's gown was secured in a safe.
Unlike the creators of today's royal wedding gowns, the palace revealed the Emanuels were the designers months before the wedding ceremony rather than the day of. This of course caused extreme paparazzi attention, and they had to go to great lengths to keep the dress hidden from the public.
British Vogue explained that in order to not "risk exposure," rather than employ seamstresses to help sew the gown, the Emmanuels own mothers chipped in. The dress was also locked in a safe overnight and protected by two security guards around the clock.
Diana's wedding dress train was 25 feet long.
The Emmanuel creation set a record for royal wedding gowns with the longest-ever train at 25 feet. It was a separate attachment from the dress which was made of ivory silk taffeta and antique lace, in addition to 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequins that were arranged in heart shapes on the bodice. The larger-than-life sleeves and skirt were a product of the drama of the 1980s. The look's estimated cost was valued at ￡151,000 in 2019, which is roughly $195,355.49 today.
“We had no guidelines or instructions, so we came up with this amazing, completely OTT gown that we knew would stand out on the steps of St. Paul’s,” Elizabeth told British Vogue.
The princess finished off the look with a diamond tiara, which was a Spencer family heirloom. And the veil? At a whopping 153 yards, that was even longer than the train.
No, the gown was not meant to look wrinkled.
At the time when Diana arrived at the church and revealed her dress for the first time, a bit of a to-do was made about the wrinkles in the silk skirting. And as Elizabeth explained to ITV, the creases were definitely not intentional, but a product of the cramped carriage ride alongside her father.
"We did know it would crease a bit, but when I saw her arrive at St Paul’s and we saw the creasing I actually felt faint," she told the UK network. "I was horrified, really, because it was quite a lot of creasing. It was a lot more than we thought."
But both Elizabeth and David were present at the church to quickly re-shape the gown, and all was well.
The Emmanuels created a backup dress.
In 2011, the designers revealed to People magazine that they'd created a backup dress out of the utmost caution.
“At the time we wanted to make absolutely sure that the dress was a surprise,” Elizabeth told the magazine. “Had the secret of the real dress got out it’s possible that Diana would actually have worn this one.”
"This one" had similar oversized ruffles, but was unfinished and missing lace.
“We didn’t try it on Diana," the designer continued. "We never even discussed it. We wanted to make sure that we had something there; it was for our own peace of mind, really.”
The two also made an umbrella in the case of rain, and David had a jeweler fashion a gold horseshoe charm that was hidden in her skirts.
"We only told her on the wedding day," he told Hello magazine. "She didn't know about the horseshoe for good luck, she was very touched. She was traditional."
And we can't forget the shoes with a secret message.
Shoemaker Clive Shilton took six months to make Diana's ivory silk kitten heels for her wedding day. They themselves had 542 sequins and 132 pearls with a heart-shaped design that matched her dress bodice. And the soles were even hand-painted and personalized with the initials "C" (Charles) and "D" (Diana).
Prince William and Prince Harry currently own their mother's gown.
Six years ago, it was reported that Diana stipulated in her will that her iconic dress go to her sons, Prince William and Harry, once they turned 30 years old. This meant that it was officially turned over to them both, along with more of her personal belongings, on September 15, 2014—Harry's 30th birthday.
In the years before it was handed over to her sons, the dress was displayed in a number of exhibitions including at her family's home, Althorp House, where she's buried.
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