Recreating a dress for Diana in the spirit of memory

Elizabeth Emanuel wishes to share the history of this clothing.

The body-hugging, shocking pink gown was created by Emanuel for Lady Diana Spencer to wear to a Buckingham Palace reception a few days before her 1981 nuptials to Prince Charles. For the future princess, who had previously been mostly recognized for her conservative sweater-and-pearls ensemble, it was a moment of visual coming out.

Emanuel, who also created Diana’s wedding dress, said that this outfit “was absolutely not a wallflower dress.” This was an outfit to be proud of and seen in.

And it was quickly forgotten. The garment was mostly viewed by the partygoers, including Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Grace, and Nancy Reagan, in a period before cellphones placed cameras in everyone’s pockets and social media made private events public. Emanuel is unaware of its location or even its continued existence.

With the help of shimmering, satin taffeta fabric bolts that were cut and sewn to match the dramatic designs she produced more than 40 years ago, she has reconstructed the dress.

She carried out a concept that had developed during Britain’s protracted coronavirus lockdowns for herself and her archive. However, she also did so because she wanted to showcase a different side of Diana, who Emanuel feels has been underrepresented in “The Crown,” the well-liked Netflix series that has introduced the princess’s unfortunate marriage to a new audience.

Emanuel, who enjoyed the first three seasons of the show, said that the way Diana was portrayed in the latter two seasons made it difficult for her to watch them.

Bespoke dressmaking is a time-consuming procedure that involves several fittings when the customer and dressmaker have plenty of opportunity to converse. Diana didn’t come across as the shrinking girl “The Crown” depicts as being buffeted by forces beyond of her control, but rather as a cheerful, vivacious young lady during the hours they spent together, according to Emanuel.

Emanuel said, “She wasn’t like that. She was always optimistic. And while those fits are quite private, I like to think that we were near enough to be aware of any major problems she was experiencing at the time.

Retracing Diana’s fashion history—from the cardigans and bows she wore when she first entered the public eye to the frothy ballgowns with frills and flounces and eventually to her becoming a worldwide fashion hero in Versace, Dior, and Chanel—is one of the series’ strengths.

Diana was raised in the country and took fashion advice from her elder sisters. In a world where fishing, hunting, and wearing Barbour jackets and Wellington boots were commonplace. No matter how much you cared about your appearance, it was expected that you would appear unconcerned with your appearance.

After graduating from high school, Diana moved to London and quickly established herself as the poster child for the Sloane Ranger, the name given by the media to the affluent young people who lived close to Sloane Square in London and cultivated the appearance of bohemian aristocrats.

She was “this Sloane Ranger with her sort of pie crust collars and Fair Isle sweaters and rather voluminous skirts,” as former BBC royal reporter Michael Cole put it. She was an expression of rural England.

She started to embrace the glitz of being a princess, though, after she became engaged to the future King Charles III.

She had to make an effort to fit into that role, according to Cole. “She did recognize and grasp the significance of the power of appearance and clothing. She had good taste, which was very helpful, and I believe she had some excellent advisors.

In other words, she developed and figured out how to convey a message through clothing.

The hot pink party dress may have been the starting point of the journey.

Diana asked Emanuel, her ex-husband David, and their team to design a dress that would highlight her new supermodel figure and change the way she appeared to the celebrities and world leaders invited to the palace after she lost weight.

In her London studio, Emanuel said, “She wanted something really spectacular and eye-catching to wear for that because the whole world was going to be there at that party.”

“I really believe that this dress was intended to send a message. that although she had once been known as Shy Di, in this dress, she was unmistakably not Shy Di.

However, for Emanuel, the project entails more than just clearing up the record. It is about one friend remembering another and the support the princess gave to the other friend’s career.

She adjusts the copy on a mannequin who is roughly the same height as Diana, clearly remembering her famous client in a touching way.

She recreated a dress that belonged to the Diana she knew—the one who defied expectations, was courageous, and always eager to take the stage. Diana was also constantly on her mind as she worked.

Emanuel remarked, “As I look at it, I’m picturing her face.” “That party was the last time we saw her wearing the dress, and she was absolutely stunning. And then, you know, to recreate it again after all these years, it’s kind of odd.

She won’t let that stop her from continuing to delve into her memories, though. She delighted in the dress-making process and in holding a memory in her hand.

Emanuel now has plans to recreate Diana’s backup wedding gown, which she made as a backup in case the tabloids managed to get a picture of the main dress before the big event. The spare, however, vanished from view, and the dress never bled.

I want to explore all of those memories and see if I can do it correctly, she said. “I’ll get them. They will be present. They won’t just exist in people’s minds or exist digitally. They will be actual events that I can recall.