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Each of these dresses tells a story. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:06 | |
Each is part of fashion history. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
All of them were worn by the late Princess Diana. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
By the end of her life, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:15 | |
Diana had become the most fashionable woman on the planet. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
Elegance and style personified. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
To understand how she got there, | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
you have to unpick the sequins and pearls, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
and undo every stitch, to discover how Diana evolved, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
using the power of fashion | 0:00:34 | 0:00:35 | |
as a means of communication and self-expression. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:38 | |
She came to rely on a small number of trusted designers to fashion | 0:00:41 | 0:00:45 | |
a startling new image of a 20th-century princess. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
This is Diana's fashion story, | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
told through the designers whose clothes helped to transform | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
a shy teenage girl into Diana, Princess of Wales - | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
the greatest British fashion star of all time. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
2017 marks 20 years since the death of Princess Diana. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:18 | |
And to commemorate the anniversary, | 0:01:18 | 0:01:20 | |
Kensington Palace are exhibiting many of her most famous outfits, | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
lent by collectors around the world. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
Ahead of the exhibition, | 0:01:26 | 0:01:28 | |
each item has been painstakingly prepared | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
by the Hampton Court Palace conservation department. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
The collection here contains 10,000 objects of historic dress. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:37 | |
So what we're looking at here | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
is THE only surviving piece of Elizabeth I's wardrobe. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:43 | |
The dresses of Diana, Princess of Wales, | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
are as important as any of the pieces here, | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
and can be read in the same sort of way. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:52 | |
Diana was really an excellent silent communicator through her clothes. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
She really understood the language of clothes. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
Jasper Conran recalls that when she was trying on clothes | 0:01:58 | 0:02:00 | |
she would look in the mirror and say, | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
"What message am I giving off?" | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
Diana's fashion story begins here. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
With this dress by a little-known designer, Regamus. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
The first owned by teenage Diana, youngest daughter of the Spencers, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:15 | |
one of Britain's oldest aristocratic families. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
Diana, in those days, didn't follow fashion at all. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
And in fact, if you see her, kind of, early photographs, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
the frocks are very, very... | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
Well, I think you'd call rustic, they are nothing. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
It was the kind of thing that her contemporaries, | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
in that particular class, wore. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
Demure and pretty. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
Not have anything sensational. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:42 | |
That would be considered showing off. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
But everything changed in 1980, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
when the press discovered she was dating Prince Charles. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
-Have you any comments to make about that? -No. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
Lady Di? Lady Dianna? | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
No comment all round. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
Quickly nicknamed Shy Di, | 0:02:59 | 0:03:01 | |
her clothing was instantly scrutinised | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
and she became the figurehead of a new upper-class trend. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
I think Diana started with a disadvantage, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
because she was a Sloane Ranger. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
And they didn't really, in those days, actually have fashion sense. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:18 | |
They had a uniform. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:19 | |
Nice pullover, expensive blouse or shirt. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:23 | |
It was just quietly saying, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
"This is where I come from. I'm country, but I'm not country. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:29 | |
"We have a place in town, as well as acres in the shires. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
"And, really, we are a separate little enclave of people." | 0:03:33 | 0:03:38 | |
Diana had moved, aged 18, | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
to West London to live in a flat share with friends. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
And worked as a nursery assistant. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
She may have come from an aristocratic family, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
but she wasn't spending money on clothes. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
When Diana began dating Charles, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
almost everything she wears is borrowed from her flatmates, | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
and fashion is low on her list of priorities. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
It's hard to imagine now, but at that point in her life, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:06 | |
the sum total of Diana's wardrobe includes the following... | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
One smart dress. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
A shirt. And a pair of smart shoes. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:14 | |
For the announcement of their engagement, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
Diana picked and off-the-peg blue suit from Harrods. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
The press were disappointed to find Shy Di | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
dressed more like a politician than a princess. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
She looked a little prim, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
and I think she was a little prim then. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:31 | |
Probably, the Palace wanted her to look prim. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
There's no point in having someone marrying a young prince | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
who comes on like Zsa Zsa Gabor. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
But they wouldn't have to wait long for Diana's first transformation. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:46 | |
In a portrait by Lord Snowdon for British Vogue, | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
Diana had been dressed in a pink blouse | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
created by an up-and-coming designer couple called the Emanuels. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
And she decided | 0:04:57 | 0:04:58 | |
to visit their studio. | 0:04:58 | 0:04:59 | |
I'm a natural hoarder. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:03 | |
I hate throwing anything away. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
Elizabeth keeps everything from her years designing for Diana | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
safe under lock and key. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
I don't know where to start. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:13 | |
-Now, you remember the black dress? -Yes. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
Well, this is made from the same fabric. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
And I think it's very much the kind of style | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
we would have done for Diana. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:23 | |
The black dress was the first time that she'd been seen out in public | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
at a proper official function with Prince Charles. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
-As his fiancee? -That's right. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
We thought, "Well, black, classic. Fine, let's do that." | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
And we were so naive at the time, | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
because not only are you not really supposed to put the Royals in black, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
but also, she had to get out of a car that was quite low. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
-And as she lent forward... -An abundance of cleavage? | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
Yeah, and the cameras caught her just there. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
As Lady Diana entered the hall for the concert, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
there were audible admiring gasps from those present. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
I think it was just a wake-up call for everyone. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
That she was no longer that little girl. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
She looked super glamorous. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:08 | |
-She wanted to be grown-up in that dress, didn't she? -Yeah. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
His lady had well and truly arrived | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
in a manner few of those present were likely to forget in a hurry. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
Nobody really told her how to dress. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
She didn't know that Royalty | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
are not supposed to wear black unless they're in mourning. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
She didn't know anything. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
Grace Kelly, or rather Princess Grace of Monaco, was there, | 0:06:29 | 0:06:33 | |
whom Diana absolutely worshipped. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
And they got talking, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
and Diana was terribly upset about what had happened, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
and how she'd put her foot in it. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
So she's sort of complained to Princess Grace who said, | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
"Don't worry, dear. You'll see it gets worse." | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
So, for young designers who'd only been out of college, what, a year? | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
That must have been quite an amazing time for you. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
Well, it was. Also, at that time | 0:06:56 | 0:06:57 | |
we knew we were going to be making her wedding dress. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
-That early? -Yes. -How were you told? | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
We got a phone call. And it was Diana who said, | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
"Would you and David do the honour of making my wedding dress?" | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
And it was just the most amazing few moments. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
And our life, at that point, just changed. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:18 | |
But at the time of the black dress, you had no idea of protocol. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
No idea what was expected for royal dress. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
By the time you were making the wedding dress, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
were there rules you had to abide by? | 0:07:25 | 0:07:26 | |
No. Basically, no rules, no protocols. Nothing. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
We were just left to get on with it. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
So this is the only pattern that exists of the royal wedding dress. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:40 | |
-Here is some of the veiling, as well. -Oh! | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
You can still see the little sequins. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
-Oh, yes. -I think the veil might have been a bit long | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
cos we've obviously chopped it off. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:48 | |
Cos there's the actual hem. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
Which was all done on a zig zag machine, by hand. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
It took forever. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
We wanted it to be longer than any other wedding dress, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
so we made it 25 feet. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
Ah! Here's the girls. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
Ah, so it's not a massive team, is it? | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
-It's a small team. -We were a tiny little company. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
You know, she'd come to our studio | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
and it was a bit of a sanctuary for her, I think. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
And she knew she was safe there. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
She didn't want to disappoint anyone, you know. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
She knew they were looking forward to seeing this wedding. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:17 | |
And we all wanted to give everybody | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
the most beautiful vision of a fairy-tale princess. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
Hundreds of yards of veil. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:28 | |
Ivory silk tulle veil, spangled. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
And now here she comes. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:32 | |
If you can imagine, being at the top of the steps at Saint Paul's, | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
our first view of Diana was the top of her head. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:40 | |
And as she climbed the steps, more and more of her dress was visible. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:43 | |
And immediately, it was apparent that she'd got creases in her dress. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:47 | |
I was just... I mean, horrified, actually. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
David and I started to, you know, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
pull the creases out and arrange things. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
So by the time she actually walked down the aisle she looked perfect, | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
the dress looked perfect. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
I think we did accomplish what we'd set out to accomplish. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:09 | |
-To create a romantic princess? -We did. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
Diana now turned to a designer | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
with years of experience dressing royalty, David Sassoon. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:20 | |
And he found a headstrong princess | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
keen to keep the romantic style of her wedding. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
This is the fairy tale dress. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
Children related to it. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
It's their idea of what a princess should look like. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
As a 19-year-old, she had a very romantic idea of dressing, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:39 | |
but I have to say, | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
that that particular period of fashion was very romantic. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
So it was a period of pretty clothes. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
Pussycat bows at the neck, ruffled collars. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
Soft, very girlie clothes. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
Diana and young people across Britain | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
had fallen under the spell of the New Romantic trend. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
fashion dominated by foppish frills and excess. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:10 | |
Did she come to you with ideas or sketches? | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
On one occasion she did. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
It was the only time she ever did it. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:15 | |
She sent me a very rough sketch, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
because it was a rather important dress. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
It was her first dress she wore to the State Opening of Parliament. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
And she sent me a letter about it. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
Here we are. It was dated September the 15th, 1981. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:31 | |
"I have drawn in rough a diagram, which I hope you can understand! | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
"I wondered if it would be possible | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
"for the front and the back of the dress to be of the same shape, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
"as it is slightly padded. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
"If it is too difficult, for heaven's sake, let me know." | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
So she trusted you, but she wanted to experiment for herself? | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
Yes. I have to say, it wasn't her most successful dress. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:56 | |
She never ever asked us to do | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
something that was her own idea again. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
She relied on us | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
because she had gained enough confidence in us to be guided by us. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
And with their help, Diana navigated a rapid makeover in the early '80s. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:17 | |
She gave birth to both her children, | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
embarked on worldwide tours, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
and swapped fairy tale frills for a more experimental look, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:29 | |
modernising the codes of Royal dress. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
Fashion was changing in itself, and becoming much more relaxed. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
And the mood in lifestyle had changed. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:41 | |
She was the first to wear trousers. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
She was the first official royal lady | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
to stop wearing little white gloves. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
And hats. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:50 | |
She didn't wear hats and gloves with everything, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:52 | |
which is, like, the most traditional, | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
most important piece in a royal wardrobe. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
She, very tactfully, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
went through the idea of being slightly rebellious. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:06 | |
And she also liked to surprise. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
She loved the fun of saying, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
"Oh, the press are going to love this!" | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
So she knew what they would be like? | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
Oh, she absolutely knew certain dresses would cause comment. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:21 | |
And she enjoyed that. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
The press and the public | 0:12:24 | 0:12:25 | |
couldn't get enough of Diana's ever-evolving '80s wardrobe. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
Embracing their high-street trend for shoulder pads and glitz. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:33 | |
She looked more like a modern celebrity | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
than the royalty we were accustomed to. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
Whether seeing her in "Disco Di mode" | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
at a film premiere... | 0:12:43 | 0:12:44 | |
..skiing with Sarah Ferguson, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
or on down time as a young mum, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
Diana was remoulding not only the fashion, | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
but the public image of the monarchy. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
What Diana did was break with royal protocol | 0:12:59 | 0:13:04 | |
in a very, very significant way. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
Because she said, "I'm not just a member of the Royal family, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
"I am a multifaceted person. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
"I am a young mum, I'm someone who likes fun and excitement, sometimes, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
"depending on the me I am at the time." | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
And that's not what being a member of the Royal family is about at all. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
It's being, you know, stable and unchanging. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
So she really blew it away with the variety of her clothing | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
and the way that her clothing reflected an actual breadth of life. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:34 | |
But the best remembered of all Diana's '80s outfits | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
was the one that helped her to become fashion royalty, | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
created by designer Victor Edelstein. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
A classic couturier a trained at Dior. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
It is today remembered as the Travolta Dress. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
One big influence on her life, early on, | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
was the couturier Victor Edelstein, | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
who really took her in hand and made her look modern. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
Simplified her silhouette, and put her on the right road. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
When I first went to meet her, I was utterly enchanted. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
I really was. I just had never met anyone quite like her. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
I remember when I left, I walked down the stairs, almost in the air. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
I just, erm, was totally bowled over. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
She'd see the dresses sometimes | 0:14:29 | 0:14:30 | |
by coming to the rehearsal of our shows if she could. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
She never came to the actual shows because, obviously, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
nobody would look at the show, at all. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
There'd be so much attention, terribly unbearable. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
When she came to the rehearsal, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
I would always, obviously, sit with her. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
It did actually make doing the rehearsals | 0:14:44 | 0:14:46 | |
that little bit more tricky, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:47 | |
but I wasn't going to say, "Don't come." | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
But it was very nice that she did come. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:52 | |
It also made us get on with it, | 0:14:52 | 0:14:53 | |
because if she was coming at a specific time | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
we jolly well would begin at the time she came, | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
so that was quite a good discipline. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
I never quite knew what she liked during the rehearsal. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
She'd let me know later which ones she was interested in. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
I noticed her progression | 0:15:07 | 0:15:08 | |
in that she wore simpler and simpler things, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
which is always a good sign. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
The world was introduced to a more pared-back Diana | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
on a tour of America in 1985, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
when she met the Reagans and outshone Hollywood, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
dancing with film star John Travolta. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
Victor Edelstein, his clothing, | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
they look simple and straightforward, | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
but they are not. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:37 | |
So, for example, the very famous Travolta dress | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
as it's now been called, it looks quite simple, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
but the way that the velvet is ruched at the bodice, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
it is very difficult to achieve. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
It makes it look so classical, it must have moved beautifully. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
And I think, if it had been a different dress | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
that she was wearing, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:54 | |
it might not have made such an iconic photo. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
In the case of the John Travolta dress, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
I had various, faintly ridiculous telephone calls | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
from fashion journalists in America. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
How they got my telephone number in the middle of the night, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
I really don't know. Sort of asking questions. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
I don't know the answers they were hoping for. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
You know, "Why navy blue? Why a midnight? Why off the shoulder?" | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
All I want to say was, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
"Look, I just want to go back to bed, if you don't mind." | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
Edelstein became one of Diana's favourite designers, | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
and she learned the rule that less is more. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
By the tail end of the '80s, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:36 | |
she had developed a timeless signature style, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
and won universal fashion acclaim. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
But as she grew more confident on foreign tours, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
and increased her charity work, | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
she looked to fashion a new working wardrobe, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
and she came to rely on the designer Catherine Walker. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
Walker designed 1,000 pieces for the Princess, | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
often producing up to 40 outfits for each official tour. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
And today, the Chelsea atelier | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
retains the Royal connection, as one of the Duchess of Cambridge | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
Kate Middleton's preferred designers. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:13 | |
Catherine Walker is inseparable from Diana's fashion story. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:21 | |
Catherine took designing for Diana very seriously. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
She sort of treated it in that tradition of court dressmakers, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
and wanted to give Diana a royal uniform of sorts, | 0:17:27 | 0:17:32 | |
in that sort of old tradition of the Georgian court, something regal. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
What she called the dignified showstopper. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
Catherine Walker died in 2010. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
But her husband, Said, now runs the atelier. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
And was her co-designer through her time working with Diana. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
If anybody sees the end result of what we used to do for the Princess, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:55 | |
they may be surprised at the amount of research and background work | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
that my wife and I used to do in order to achieve the end result. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
We decided that we would research the roots | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
that defined modern British royal dressing. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
The chapter we are living in now, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
seemed to begin 100-years ago with Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:19 | |
This was an era of grace and calm. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:24 | |
Fine lace, fine silk, exquisite embroidery. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:29 | |
Whether you articulate the thought or not, unconsciously, | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
there's a distinct connection in the visual symmetry from 100-years ago, | 0:18:32 | 0:18:39 | |
brought into the 20th century in this shiny, polished, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
modern royal garment. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
In addition to creating these very glamorous evening outfits | 0:18:46 | 0:18:50 | |
and evening gowns, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:52 | |
Catherine also specialised in creating a very pared-back | 0:18:52 | 0:18:56 | |
day wardrobe for Diana. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
So two-piece suits, very simple sheath dresses, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
And that really chimed very well with Diana's move in the '90s | 0:19:02 | 0:19:07 | |
to become known as a workhorse, not a clothes horse. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
And she realised that the way to concentrate | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
the press' attention on her work was to dress down. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
Whether visiting children in hospital, | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
as an ambassador for a charity, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
or later, when raising awareness of land mines, | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
Diana converted her wardrobe into that of a professional woman. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
During the... Particularly, the later part of her life, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
what do you think her clothes were saying about her? | 0:19:39 | 0:19:41 | |
Towards the end, she'd moved out of that, sort of, | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
very vulnerable, demure look. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
And much more into a power-dressing statement. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
Quite slick, tailored, quite bold colours. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
These were clothes that actually lifted her up | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
and gave her much more a sense of authority. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
Of real cut and thrust in what was, by now, | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
a world that she was very confident in. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
But behind the power dressing during the first years of the '90s, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
her marriage was breaking down, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
and Diana's clothing at public appearances | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
suggested a growing independence. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
All fashion is a shield, and a sword, and a tool for everybody. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:25 | |
You know, everybody uses fashion to send out messages. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
It's just that, you know, Diana's messages were seen and amplified | 0:20:28 | 0:20:32 | |
and pored over around the world. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
So, for her, fashion was, you know, quite a nuclear weapon. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:39 | |
And never more memorably than on the evening when Prince Charles | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
admitted their marriage had irretrievably broken down | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
and she stepped out in what the press termed the Revenge Dress. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
Diana was mindful of what ever she wore, whenever she wore it, | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
and certainly got a dressing down in the early days for wearing black, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
but chose an occasion | 0:20:59 | 0:21:01 | |
immediately after the announcement of his infidelity. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
She not only wore a black off-the-shoulder dress, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:10 | |
but it was very short, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
revealing, sort of, acreage of toned legs. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:16 | |
And it was a kind of masterpiece, really, of image management. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
And I think that was, you know, the moment when she was saying, | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
"I've played by the rules and where did it get me? | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
"I ain't playing by them no more." | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
Diana now had a final transformation, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
moving away from monarchy and marriage | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
and toward self-definition as a newly-independent woman. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:41 | |
Her fashion was becoming ever bolder and more body confident. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
'Jacques Azagury created many of Diana's best-remembered dresses | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
'in the final years of her life.' | 0:21:53 | 0:21:54 | |
These dresses, which we see here, | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
so identifiable as the later part of her life. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
Now, she wasn't necessarily a risk taker, | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
but do you think she got more risque as she got older? | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
Yes, absolutely. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
She went completely away from the very, sort of, grand ball dresses, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
and went down to these more fashionable looks. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:18 | |
You know, it was the time of the supermodels. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:20 | |
It was the time of all those great girls, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
looking fantastic and wow, wow, wow. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
And, you know, she wanted to be on the same level. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
Dresses were getting shorter, cleavage was getting lower. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
For instance, with the little blue dress there, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
it ended up, really, very short on her. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
She was 5ft 10.5, 5ft 11 without shoes on. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
And from the waist to the hemline is 20 inches. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
And she wanted to go even shorter, but, of course, Paul Burrell, | 0:22:42 | 0:22:47 | |
her butler, said, "No way. You can't go any shorter than that." | 0:22:47 | 0:22:52 | |
So she did take many more risks towards the end. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
She started wearing black a lot more, | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
started wearing more figure-hugging dresses. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
Sexier dresses. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:01 | |
This black dress here, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
I saw her the night before the famous interview with... | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
-Martin Bashir. -..Martin Bashir. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
And she says, "Well, I've done this interview. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
"Tomorrow night, I have to be at an event | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
"when it's going to be broadcast." | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
And she wanted something black and something sexy, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
and something that says, | 0:23:20 | 0:23:21 | |
"I'm a free woman, I'm going to do what I want." | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
And that's why she went for this figure-hugging dress, with a train. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
Very, very simple. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
So it was saying a lot of things in the one dress. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
In 1997, Diana decided to sell | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
many of her most famous dresses for charity. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
Meredith Etherington-Smith was responsible for organising the sale. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:46 | |
She wanted to sell the clothes because she wasn't an HRH any more, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:50 | |
she would always be part of the Royal family | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
because she's mother of the future King. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
But she wasn't going to be Queen. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
And she could start to build a different life for herself. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
When we started taking photographs for the catalogue, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
Lord Snowdon took some wonderful portraits. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
But it was her past he was photographing, not her future. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
And I was much more interested in her future. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
Meredith called upon the help of fashion photographer Mario Testino | 0:24:14 | 0:24:19 | |
to create a set of pictures for a Vanity Fair article | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
showing off a new look and titled, "Diana Reborn". | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
She'd arrived with all her jewellery and I said, | 0:24:27 | 0:24:29 | |
"Look, no more chokers, ma'am. No more chokers." | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
And I said, "We want much less. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
"We want to make you look as if | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
"you've just stepped out of the shower." | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
We all had lunch together. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:41 | |
Sort of sandwiches and this, that and the other. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
And then Mario did a fantastically funny imitation | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
of Naomi Campbell doing catwalk. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
And not to be outdone, the Princess did a turn, as well. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
She could do no wrong in front of the lens. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
What I'd done was just strip away | 0:24:56 | 0:24:58 | |
all the props and the cascades of diamonds and things, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:03 | |
and just shown her as she now had become. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
Two weeks before the sale in New York, | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
what you saw was this shock. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
And that was a shock. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
That was Diana as you really hadn't seen her before. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
32,000. 35,000. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
The sale of the 79 dresses held in New York | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
made over 3 million for AIDS and cancer charities. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
Last time, at 65,000. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
For you, sir. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
The whole world has always followed her fashion moves, | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
and it is a complete collection. It will never happen again. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
With the Travolta Dress breaking records | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
as the most-expensive item of clothing ever sold at auction. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
I knew she was going to say that! | 0:25:49 | 0:25:50 | |
200,000! | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
It was a suitably momentous, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
metaphorical ending to Diana's royal fashion story. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
Now, this beautiful black dress, this was her last public outing | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
-that she was seen in this, wasn't it? -It was. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:08 | |
And this was actually the night after the Christie's auction. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
It was for her 36th birthday at the Tate centenary. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
Cos you gave it to her as a birthday present? | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
I gave it to her as a birthday present, yeah. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
Now, you were planning more pieces for her, which, sadly, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
she didn't get to wear. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:23 | |
When she was coming back from Paris, she was going to a premiere. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
A film premiere. And we did, actually, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
the last fitting before she went to Paris. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
And it was probably just about the most daring dress | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
she would have worn to that stage, | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
it was a very low-cut plunge at the front, very high slit, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
all black sequins. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
With a train, you know. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:44 | |
And, sadly, she never got back to wear it. Yeah. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
Now, looking back on it, I think, "Wow," you know, "I dressed Diana." | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
You know, Princess Diana, who's just like a big part of history now. | 0:26:55 | 0:27:00 | |
And I was one of the designers who was lucky enough to dress her. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
When Diana died on the 31st of August 1997, | 0:27:07 | 0:27:11 | |
the outpouring of grief was unparalleled in British history. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
She was buried in a black dress, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:18 | |
sent by her favourite designer, Catherine Walker. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
We would never get to see the reinventions that Diana had planned, | 0:27:23 | 0:27:27 | |
the way she'd mature and change. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
But in her short life, along with her trusted designers, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:33 | |
they managed to craft a new and lasting blueprint | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
for the modern royal. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
Diana understood how fashion could be a powerful tool of communication, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:44 | |
a means to design your own public image. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
And through her mastery of this, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:48 | |
she transformed herself into one of the most stylish | 0:27:48 | 0:27:52 | |
and influential women of all time. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:54 |