Princess Diana might have rewritten fashion history with a glamorous, never-before-seen, backup wedding gown, according to the designer Elizabeth Emmanuel.
In an exclusive interview with Hello! Magazine, the British creator admitted she strategically prepared for the worst ahead of the soon-to-be royal’s nuptials in 1981 with a second dress. Princess Diana married King Charles III at St Paul’s Cathedral in a voluptuous custom gown still engraved in the minds of enamored style fans. However, the 25-foot train and 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequin and pearl embellished dress may not have been the one debuted on the red-carpet aisle if news of it leaked.
“The spare wedding gown was made just in case the secret of the real dress ever got out,” Emmanuel proclaimed. “Fortunately, it was never used.”
Emmanuel drew inspiration from the 20-year-old’s initial design for the “spare,” pointing to a similar V-cut neckline adorned with a ruffle trim, puffy sleeves, and massive skirt in the never-before-seen sketch. The substitute was “pale ivory silk taffeta with embroidered scalloped details on the hem and sleeves” and detailed with delicate pearls along a tight-fitting bodice.
Though Emmanuel and her former husband David, who co-designed both gowns, always intended for Princess Diana to wear the number she did, increased attention surrounding the royal wedding warranted strict measures. Not only were the details of each dress labelled top-secret, but the physical forms were kept locked up in the Emmanuel’s Brook St, Mayfair studio.
“We had the dress stored every night in a metal cabinet guarded by two guards, Jim and Bert,” Elizabeth noted. “So there was somebody there 24 hours a day and we put shutters on all our windows, and we put false color threads in the rubbish bins because people were going through our bins.”
Speaking to E! News in 2021, David recounted the three-month lengthy process of creating Princess Diana’s wedding look, noting it was a “magical time.”
“She was going in Lady Diana Spencer, she’s coming out the Princess of Wales. So this dress had to be young and sweet, but it also had to be glam because she was going to be a royal princess. She couldn’t do a quiet-looking, low-key little gown,” he admitted.
Elizabeth, now 70 years old, lost track of the alternate gown which the Princess of Wales never actually tried on. Just before what would have been the royal pair’s 42nd wedding anniversary, Elizabeth told Hello!: “I don’t know where it went. It just disappeared.” However, when Princess Diana tragically died, her original gown was left to both Prince William and Prince Harry. The historic garment rests in Kensington Palace.
Princess Diana’s thoughtfully crafted wedding attire was just one of her notable looks that made waves in fashion and set a trajectory for certain fads in subsequent years. The Sandringham-born woman became the embodiment of understated elegance with simple-cut gowns, fitted blazers, and posh accessories. Her love for feminine embellishments like bows, pearls, and peplums were among the royal’s known style cues.
