The Real Reason Princess Diana's Wedding Dress Will Be On Display To The Public
Although there has been much turmoil within the royal family as of late — especially after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back from their royal duties and subsequently spilled the tea during their Oprah interview — it seems that the one thing everyone in the fam agrees upon is honoring Princess Diana's life, which includes her iconic fashion sense. Leading up to her 1981 nuptials to Prince Charles at St. Paul's Cathedral, Diana's dress was the "most closely guarded secret in fashion history," per Town & Country. It was designed by a husband-and-wife team, David and Elizabeth Emanuel, and was made of ivory taffeta, sequined embroidery, and 10,000 pearls, and was valued at around $115,000, per the outlet.
The train was 25 feet long, the longest in royal history, per Kensington Palace, and featured a fitted bodice that was filled with "panels of antique Carrickmacross lace that had originally belonged to ... Queen Mary." The palace explains, "Its gently scooped neckline and large puffed sleeves are trimmed with bows and deep ruffles of taffeta, a style popularized by the Princess in the early 1980s, while the full skirt is supported on a mountain of stiff net petticoats to create its famous silhouette." Elizabeth Emanuel told People of designing the garment, "We never had any special instructions about how to make the wedding dress. That added a bit to the fun of it all, made it bit of an adventure."
Now the dress is continuing on its journey and into a new home.
Prince William and Prince Harry are lending the dress out
For the first time since 1995, via Page Six, Princess Diana's will be on public display at Kensington Palace in London. The palace is borrowing the dress from Prince William and Prince Harry and can be seen between June 2021 and January 2022. The exhibit, "Royal Style in the Making," "explores the intimate relationship between fashion designer and royal client," per the website. The exhibit will feature never before seen items of clothing from three generations of royal women. "Original sketches, fabric swatches and unseen photographs from the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection will form part of the display, demonstrating the unique attributes each couturier brought to the royal wardrobe, set alongside examples of their most famous work," the website for the exhibit explains.
Elizabeth Emanuel, part of the design team, told People in 2018 that they had to sew Diana into parts of the dress. She remembered, "She was incredibly together and wasn't panicking [on her wedding day]. But I was really worried about all things that could possibly go wrong. We'd taken smelling salts, glucose tablets — what if she feels faint? What if she passes out? Spills something down her skirt? I had this kind of horror that maybe the train would drop off."
There's a lot of personality and history sewn into that dress as well, and now, everyone who can make it the U.K. can see it firsthand.