Royal Style in the Making: Princess Diana’s wedding dress goes on display at Kensington Palace – plus the real story behind the iconic gown
- Netflix’s The Crown recreated some of Princess Diana’s most famous outfits, now a Kensington Palace exhibition is showcasing royal style
- Prince Harry and Prince William are expected to unveil a long-awaited statue of the Princess of Wales at her former home
Princess Diana’s wedding dress for her 1981 marriage to Prince Charles was one of the best-kept secrets in fashion history.
The gown sparked such intense interest that young designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel locked the ivory silk dress, which had a 7.6-metre (25-foot) long train, in a safe at night.
Plucked from obscurity for the commission of a lifetime, the pair even took to putting dummy bits of fabric in the studio’s bins to throw anyone rummaging through them off the scent, according to an exhibition of royal fashion, including Diana’s iconic dress, that opens on Thursday, June 3.
The exhibition – “Royal Style in the Making” – at the Orangery at Kensington Palace, Diana’s home until her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997, focuses on the work of designers who dressed not just Diana but also Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and the queen mother.
Trimmed with vintage lace, pearls and thousands of sequins, the train of Diana’s dress was the longest ever for a British royal bride and memorably appeared crumpled as she emerged from her carriage at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Luckily, the designers were on hand to smooth it out.
“I think it goes to show that you can plan for everything, but on the day there’ll always be something,” the exhibition’s curator Matthew Storey told reporters ahead of the opening.