What is the most famous dress of all time? Is it Audrey Hepburn’s LBD? Marilyn Monroe’s billowing white number? Jennifer Lopez’s jungle print Versace piece? No way. I don’t think that anyone could argue that the number one spot is taken – and may always be taken – by Princess Diana’s wedding dress. Billowing, romantic and completely gorgeous, millions watched it emerge from a carriage outside St Paul’s on that fateful day in 1981. Millions more got another glimpse as The Crown’s Season 4 welcomed young Diana Spencer into the fold. And now the real deal is back as the star attraction of Royal Style In The Making, a new exhibition at Kensington Palace.
The Crown dress, it should be mentioned, is not a specific recreation of the original. ‘There was a bit of confusion originally,’ the dress’s designer Elizabeth Emanuel tells me over the phone, ‘when they said that we had lent the dress patterns: we would never do something like that.’ Nevertheless, she approves of the new version. ‘They've done a really good job, but I've always been a big fan of The Crown anyway', she says. 'I think what what they were trying to do is not so much go for the accuracy of reproducing the dress. It's about capturing that that moment: the spirit of the dress.’
Elizabeth will never forget that time in her life. ‘The whole journey really was a life changing moment, from the minute that we got the call from Diana asking us to make a wedding dress.’ At the time, she and her then-husband and creative partner David had a studio in Mayfair.
‘We knew at that moment that our lives would never be the same’, she recalls. ‘We knew that we would be creating something that would be an important part of history: we were dressing the future Queen. It was fabulous. It was like having the biggest catwalk in the world.’
The dress was a highlight in a long relationship between Diana and the designer pair. If anything, they grew and evolved together. ‘We met Diana very early on,’ Elizabeth explains. ‘She was so bright and bubbly, with her fringe and her cardigans. She hadn't really evolved her own style, and she didn't really know very much about fashion: it didn't really interest her that much! But she sort of grew into it, and developed her own very strong sense of style. She was fabulous.’
The royal seal of approval turned the world’s attention on Elizabeth and her designs, and her work has been worn by Madonna, Sigourney Weaver, Elizabeth Taylor and Christina Aguilera. But it is no criticism to say that Diana’s dress will always be her most famous creation. She created a copy for Madame Tussaud’s – personally requested by Diana – and plans to make another for her own archives. She and Davis also hope to shine a light on its history – and that of their career and other creations, via a documentary.
Any production company would be wise to confirm the commission soon. As The Crown shows, no one draws in an audience like Diana.
Visit Atelier Elizabeth, by Elizabeth Emanuel, here
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