Making Of A Wedding Dress

When other royals got married, no one treated their wedding dresses as fashion statements, until the young Lady Diana Spencer became a headline-making royal bride and was soon the focus of intense fashion interest. British designers had been longing for a royal subject of Diana's kind for years, and though she seemed a bit uncertain at first, they sensed that here was the young woman who would lead royalty back into the fashion spotlight.

It was taken for granted that Lady Diana would go to one of the long-established royal couturiers, such as Norman Hartnell or Hardy Amies, who had been providing tasteful styles for the royals since the days when the Queen Mother was Queen Consort. Diana, though, had her own ideas. She wanted something less mature than vintage Hartnell or Amies. Considering she was only 20, she was right.

Diana's wedding dress typified romance

The designers Diana chose were David and Elizabeth Emanuel. They had first come to Diana's attention when she saw one of their blouses, a shell-pink chiffon creation with a high frilled neck. This was precisely the sort of feminine, romantic style which appealed to the young Diana, who liked high frilled necklines. She also chose Emanuel for her first outing as Charles' fiancée in March 1981, wearing their off-the-shoulder evening gown, which revealed more bust than she intended.

As the Emanuel set to work on designing the wedding dress, the fashion world and fashion journalists buzzed with curiosity and anticipation. The secret was, of course, meticulously kept for over five months, but on the wedding day itself, the first glimpse was a teasing one. Diana looked as if she had stepped straight from the pages of a fairy story book, or from one of those rich, glowing royal portraits which were fashioned to flatter by Renaissance artists. This was no flattery, though, Diana looked superb.

Made from heavy ivory taffeta woven and spun at Lullingstone, the only silk farm in England, the dress was romantic. Its shape recalled the days, over 150 years before, when wide crinolines were in fashion. The dress had all the romantic trimmings - bows, lace, big puffed sleeves, a tracery of flower-shaped lace along with hem and a wide deep lace collar which fluffed out over the shoulders and a 25 foot train. The front of the bodice featured a panel of lace which reached down to merge with yet more lace encircling the waist.

'Something blue' was a blue bow, sewn to the waistband. A taffeta bow was placed where the two halves of the collar met, echoed by similar bows at the point where the full sleeves reached a veritable froth of lace looping around Diana's arms. The lace was the traditional Honiton, made famous by the royal robe in which generations of royal infants were christened. Thousands of tiny mother of pearl sequins sparkled from the lace, the result of hours of toil with needles by Elizabeth Emanuel and her mother, who had not dared to farm the work out for fear of breaching the strict security.

Diana's bridesmaids were dressed to look like miniatures of the new Princess

For luck, Diana carried an 18 carat gold horseshoe made by jeweller, Douglas Buchanan, and she wore the Spencer family tiara and earrings which were one of the heirlooms belonging to her aristocratic family. Fashioned from diamonds, the tiara was made in a beautiful leaf design with flower stems and leaves forming swirls and enclosing, at the front, the ideal motif for the occasion, a heart. Diana's bridesmaids were dressed to look like miniatures of the new Princess, with similar puff sleeves, wide skirts and frilly lace collars. Each carried a bouquet and they were all crowned with circles of flowers.

Diana was considered the lucky girl who had won the heart of the most eligible bachelor in the world. The beautiful  Emanuel wedding dress was seen as a tribute to a heartwarming love match.

Reference: Diana: An Extraordinary Life, a tribute magazine in 26 issues. Published in 1997.