The wedding gown Diana Spencer wore to marry Prince Charles on July 29, 1981, still remains one of the most iconic dresses in history. A product of its era, the gown was adored the world over—but the dress’ designer, Elizabeth Emanuel (who created the look with her husband, David) wasn’t impressed with the final look, The Mirror reports.
The antique lace and ivory silk taffeta dress had taken months of preparation, and the designers had gone to great lengths to ensure that the gown’s design remained top secret. The dress was reported to have cost around £9,000 pounds and included six different fabrics, classic puffed-up sleeves, and more than 10,000 pearls, 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of tulle crinoline, and 150 yards of netting for the veil. Its train was made of 25 feet of hand-embroidered silk.
As Diana stepped out of her carriage at St. Paul’s Cathedral to marry her groom, Elizabeth was “horrified” after seeing how creased Diana’s dress had become, admitting she “felt faint” on an appearance on ITV’s Invitation to the Royal Wedding. “We did know it would crease a bit, but when I saw her arrive at St. Paul’s and we saw the creasing, I actually felt faint,” she said. “I was horrified, really, because it was quite a lot of creasing. It was a lot more than we thought.”
Though they had carried out a dress rehearsal beforehand, they’d used a different material, so it wasn’t anywhere near as creased as how the gown looked the day of.
In addition to the gown Diana wore down the aisle, the Emanuels also created a backup dress just in case. “At the time we wanted to make absolutely sure that the dress was a surprise,” David told People. “We didn’t try it on Diana [the second dress]. We never even discussed it. We wanted to make sure that we had something there—it was for our own peace of mind, really.”
And, though Elizabeth may have been horrified at the creasing of the gown, Diana seemed to love it, personally calling David after the ceremony to thank him for his work on the gown, per Hello. “After all the photographs, they went in to have the wedding breakfast and I went back to my studio in Mayfair,” he said. “All of my workroom ladies were there, so we had a glass of champagne. We had a little party and just as I’m about to lock up, the phone rings. I thought, ‘who’s calling?’ It was Diana! She said ‘I just wanted to say thank you so much for the gown. I loved it. Prince Charles loved it. All the family loved it.’ It couldn’t have been more special for me to hear from the client. When you design for a bride, you want her to be happy.”
The creasing of the gown wasn’t the only mishap of the day—Diana’s makeup artist, Barbara Daly, said that before Diana walked down the aisle, she accidentally spilled Houbigant Paris Quelques Fleurs perfume on the gown. Daly said she frantically tried to clean the dress, but that the perfume still left a large stain; Daly instructed Diana to hold the dress up by the stained area so it would appear she was just trying to avoid stepping on it. Even royal brides have mishaps!
