From John Galliano To Manolo Blahnik, 17 Fashion Insiders’ Personal Recollections Of Working With Diana, Princess Of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales’s death on 31 August 1997 prompted an outburst of public mourning on a scale never witnessed before or since. “The people of England went to bed on Saturday night, having just seen happy television images of a playgirl princess leaving Sardinia with her racy new boyfriend,” Tina Brown writes in The Diana Chronicles. “They rose to sombre bulletins about the return of her coffin.”
The shock brought a nation known for its stiff-upper-lip mentality to its knees. When the news broke at 4am that Diana’s accident on the Pont de l’Alma bridge had, indeed, proved fatal, electricity companies reported an unprecedented power surge as hundreds of thousands of Brits simultaneously roused themselves in the middle of the night, switching on their kettles, turning on their televisions, and rushing to their landlines to comfort one another. Before the princess’s burial at her family seat of Althorp less than a week later, more than 60 million flowers would have been placed outside the gates of Kensington Palace.
Of course, in Vogue House, British Vogue’s editorial staff – several of whom had grown close to Diana during her frequent visits to Hanover Square – immediately set about compiling tributes to the late royal. Published less than a month later, the cover of the October 1997 issue features a portrait of the princess in a red Ralph Lauren dress and Jimmy Choo heels taken by Patrick Demarchelier in the mid-’90s, while inside, the magazine contains not just an essay by Diana’s stylist, deputy editor Anna Harvey, but the fashion luminaries who had dressed the princess for the world stage.
As Part I of the final season of The Crown drops, revisit their recollections of working with Diana, below.
- 1/17
Caroline Charles
“We used to rehearse necklines, making sure they weren’t too low, thinking about how she’d have to decorously get out of a car and face the waiting photographers. A lot of international press and buyers came to London in the ’80s because of her, just as they’d come in the ’60s because of The Beatles. She brought some international glamour to British public life when we’d been loath to show it before.”
- 2/17
Bruce Oldfield
“I met the princess a few weeks after her wedding. I think for all of us there was always this problem that there wasn’t a clear idea of how she should dress. She was aware that even in some far-flung part of the world she was representing Britain, and she couldn’t be a glamorous clotheshorse. I remember one occasion where I urged her to shorten her skirt. But she still resisted going too far. I said, ‘You should look at the miniskirts Princess Margaret wore in the ’60s.’ At the very beginning she didn’t care about clothes, but gradually she grew to enjoy fashion. One thing I noticed was that she’d lock her knees backwards. She wore her skirts below the knee at that time and I’d look at pictures of her and think, ‘What the hell is she doing?’ Then I realised that she was pushing those knees backwards, I’d tell her not to and she’d say, ‘Stop nagging.’”
- 3/17
Philip Somerville
“We met in 1986. She said, ‘I apologise for not making an appointment, but I do love your hats.’ I had to have a special block made for her, as her head was a bit bigger than average. That made her laugh. Also, she always liked to show her fringe. I’d push it away, and she’d say, mock sternly, ‘Put it back.’ What I remember most about going to Kensington Palace for fittings is the room we’d work in – a small drawing room, with bowls of wonderful flowers. This terrific smell would hit you as you walked in. Afterwards, she would always take the time to walk back to the car with me.”
- 4/17
Ralph Lauren
“I was lucky enough to have her support for the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research, a cause that means a great deal to me. There have been many people in my life I feel fortunate to have known. I feel deeply honoured to have known Diana.”
- 5/17
Roland Klein
“On one occasion, she was due at the showroom at 9am and arrived early. The girl in charge was in the kitchen washing up. The princess stuck her head around the door and asked, ‘Do you need some help?’ She came to work to be greeted by the sight of Diana with a tea towel in hand. That kind of informality was typical. On one of her last visits she said that she wanted a dress to be really short. I demurred, but she said, ‘Whatever I do I’ll be criticised, so let’s just go for it.’”
- 6/17
Jasper Conran
“When the Princess of Wales came to my showroom, she knew that by going around and saying ‘hello’ she could brighten someone’s day. What one has to remember was her degree of politeness – she would always write thank-you notes. I used to receive flowers from her and I’d think, ‘But I’m supposed to be sending them to you.’”
- 7/17
Manolo Blahnik
“She took her kindness to a point beyond exhaustion. Three years ago I had a terrible accident and came home from hospital to a get-well message from the princess. It was the little things that touched me so much, like the Christmas cards that I cherished receiving, because she always put something charming and personal inside.”
- 8/17
Jacques Azagury
“She was always able to put people at ease immediately: one time when she was in the shop, one of the young assistants who was wearing an unusual mauve nail polish met her, and was mesmerised by her. Diana said, ‘God, that’s wicked nail varnish you’re wearing.’ The girl just melted. The princess went on to say when she wore strangely coloured nail varnish, her boys told her she shouldn’t.”
