A pioneer. Anna Wintour remembered her last meeting with Princess Diana while speaking at a Women in the World panel with journalist Tina Brown on Friday, April 12.
The Vogue editor, 69, and The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales author, 65, both met with the late royal at a Four Seasons in July 1997, just six weeks before she was killed in a fatal car crash at the age of 36.
“I remember she looked incredible, first of all,” Wintour recalled of the philanthropist, who showed up for their meeting in a mint green Chanel suit. “That was the most important thing, and she looked fantastic. I heard that she spent a lot of time deciding what to wear to that particular lunch,” she mused.
She wasn’t just blown away by her style, however. The publishing mogul recalled the striking differences in the royal family’s attitude toward the media versus Diana’s.
While Brown remembered Diana as a “terribly lonely” figure who “lovingly” spoke about her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, Wintour reminisced about her shrewdness — particularly when it came to the press. “What I remember her talking about quite a bit … is how the royal family … were not comfortable dealing with the media,” she said. “I think that part of her popularity was that she really was so good with the media and was so in tune with them and welcomed them.”
The Condé Nast artistic director continued: “She was certainly the first person in the royal family to understand the benefits of that.”
Wintour admitted that she sees another pioneer in Duchess Meghan, whom she credited with for her own recent penchant for suits.
“I think … she’s really bringing modernity to the royal family in a way that is inspiring,” she gushed. “I think the image that I have in my mind, that I think so many people all over the world have in their mind, [is] of the Duchess of Sussex walking down the aisle by herself. That, to me was representative of a modern woman. … Looking at her extraordinarily beautiful and proud mother [Doria Ragland] in the pews, to me, that symbolizes, ‘Goodness, this is going to be a different day for the British royal family.’”
Us Weekly reported in May that the Suits alum, 37, walked the first half of the aisle solo at her wedding to Prince Harry before being met by Prince Charles, who accompanied her the rest of the way in the absence of her father, Thomas Markle. (The cinematographer was recuperating from heart surgery at the time.)
“Prince Charles was very touched to be asked by Meghan to walk her down the aisle and he is very much looking forward to welcoming her into the family,” a source told Us at the time.
Wintour also praised the former actress’ choice of wedding dress in January during a “Go Ask Anna” session, calling it sophisticated, chic, and grown-up: “I think the two duchesses, the young duchesses that they have in Britain, the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex, are going to keep the royal family afloat quite frankly.”
