The Heartbreaking Reason Princess Diana Altered Her Chanel Clothes

The late royal had a complicated relationship with the iconic fashion house's clothes.

Princess Diana

by Guy Pewsey |
Published on

We've all been there when a relationship ends and we're left heartbroken. We may recover, but scars remain, and we may avoid a certain place because it reminds us of a long-gone ex, or swipe left on a possible Tinder match simply because they share a name with the love we've lost. And it turns out, even royalty feels that way. Even the late Princess Diana changed her behaviour thanks to heartache: specifically with her fashion choices. She actively refrained from wearing clothes if the Chanel logo featured prominently.

Apparently, following her divorce from Prince Charles, Princess Diana dispensed with her Chanel. In a 2018 interview with Harper's Bazaar Australia, Jayson Brundson - the Australian designer - looked back to 1996, when they worked with Diana while she was in the country for a fundraiser.

'I was very good friends with Joh Bailey and Joh was appointed her hairdresser while she was here on the visit,' recalled Jasyon. 'She hadn't been divorced very long and Jo knew I was a massive fan. He had an assistant going with him every day to the Ritz Carlton in the morning to do her hair for the day. So he said to me, "Would you like to come as my assistant?" on the Saturday and I said, "Yes of course I would, I've love to."'

Sounds like a dream gig, no? But there were complications, which arose when Jayson suggested she wear a pair of Chanel shoes.

'She came out holding like handfuls of shoes and bags and just dumped them all down on the couch. Then said, "What do you think?", so I went through them all and I found a pair of Chanel shoes, and I said, "Well these would look great with the Versace," and she said "No, I can't wear linked Cs, the double C." So I asked why, and she said, "It's Camilla and Charles."'

That's right: Diana stopped wearing Chanel pieces that showed off the brand's iconic interlocking Cs. Perhaps she was still in pain from the divorce. Perhaps she simply feared what the press might say if they noticed the initials on her clothes. At that point, Prince Charles had already admitted that he had been unfaithful to his wife, although he said he only began his affair when 'it became clear that the marriage had irretrievably broken down.' But it seems that it was a truly deep insecurity: her former butler Paul Burrell suggests so at least.

'On the Royal Britannia on her honeymoon, Diana found the cufflinks with the intertwined Cs and had an almighty row with her husband and said "what is this?"', Paul recalled last year. 'It was a wedding gift from Camilla so that Charles would never forget her with the intertwined Cs. From then on, I had to unpick all the intertwined Cs off her shoes and off her handbags. Of course, it was Chanel and most girls would die for them, but not the Princess.'

She did keep wearing the brand, however: she was often seen in their gorgeous jackets and with their bags. But go through the archives, and you'd be hard pressed to find those two, interlocking Cs.

READ MORE: There's A Very Good Reason Why Kate Middleton Always Dresses To A Theme

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