Princess Diana’s wedding dress remains one of the most recognizable gowns ever created, and its designer is revisiting every unforgettable detail on the anniversary of her nuptials.
“It’s still of interest 45 years later, and the reason for that is because it was Diana’s dress,” Elizabeth Emanuel exclusively tells Us, revealing the late royal, who was known as Lady Diana Spencer before becoming the Princess of Wales, gave her creative liberty prior to tying the knot with then-Prince Charles on July 29, 1981. “She didn’t really have a vision in mind, so she came to us, and we worked it out together.”
All eyes were on Diana when she wore the gown with a dramatic ivory silk taffeta silhouette, featuring voluminous puffed sleeves, a fitted bodice and ruffled detailing on the neckline with a bow front and center. Eye-catching detailing included hand-embroidered sequins and pearls.
“Diana loved the dress,” Emanuel tells Us. “She was very happy, and there’s a portrait, a beautiful portrait of her that, when we used to go to Kensington Palace, it was hanging above the stairs on the landing, and so she really loved it. It was what she wanted, and, you know, that’s what our intention was. It was really her dress for her.”
Diana’s extravagant bridal look included her iconic Spencer family tiara, as well as the unmistakable 25-foot train that draped behind her glamorous gown. “We wanted to do the longest train because St. Paul’s [Cathedral] had a really big aisle, and we wanted to fill that aisle,” Emanuel says of the famed London venue. “And the longest, I think, had been like 23 feet.”
Fortunately, the late Princess of Wales was all for the long train, as Emanuel shares with Us, “Diana thought that was a fun idea as well, and I’m glad we did because looking back, you know, I think it made the whole thing look very dramatic.”
The couture gown also incorporated wedding tradition with something old, new, borrowed and blue.
“Borrowed was the tiara, and also the lace down the front of the dress, which was also old,” the designer recalls. “So you got two in one. Blue, we put a little blue ribbon on the back of the skirt, and we commissioned a little gold horseshoe, which was new as well.”
Diana’s dress became quite influential in the bridal world, which may come as no surprise. “It always happens with royal brides,” Emanuel points out. “You get copies of their wedding dresses coming out. So that happened straight away with Diana’s dress.”
She adds, “Up until that point, they’d all been very … white with an A-line skirt, and they all had the same formula to them, but this was entirely different to anything that had been before.”
Charles and Diana went on to welcome sons Prince William and Prince Harry before the couple split in 1992 and formally divorced in 1996.
Diana died the following year at age 36 after a high-speed car crash in Paris.
“She was just such a beautiful person with a beautiful soul, and very unique, and she met such a tragic end,” Emanuel tells Us. “The whole story, you know, is kind of quite poignant, really. We hold her very dear in our memories, really, because she was just so kind to all of us.”
