Ahead of Lady Diana Spencer's wedding to then-Prince Charles, her wedding dress was perhaps the most anticipated detail of the whole event. Deemed the "most closely guarded secret in fashion history," the gown was kept a complete mystery until the wedding day.
After the dress was finally unveiled on July 29, 1981, it went on to be one of the most iconic fashion looks throughout history. While many were in awe of the dramatic gown, it may come as a surprise that not everyone was happy with the bride's final look on her special day.
Diana's wedding dress designers were left "horrified" after seeing Princess Diana emerge from her carriage before stepping into St Paul's Cathedral.
The 20-year-old princess was wearing a beautiful antique lace and ivory silk taffeta gown made by designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel, but a blunder made them less-than impressed about the final look.
The dress had become severely creased on the way to the cathedral, with Elizabeth admitting she "felt faint" when she saw Diana, during an appearance on ITV's Invitation to the Royal Wedding in 2018.
She said: "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.
"I was horrified, really, because it was quite a lot of creasing. It was a lot more than we thought."
The designers had worked on the gown for months, and Diana's team had gone to great lengths to ensure the design remained top secret.
The dress, which included six different fabrics, puffed-up sleeves and more than £10,000 pearls in total, is reported to have cost a whopping £9,000.
It also included 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of tulle crinoline and 150 yards of netting for the veil. The gorgeous gown was followed by a train of 25 feet of hand-embroidered silk.
As it was so important that the day ran smoothly, a dress rehearsal had been carried out beforehand, but using a different material, which hadn't caused the dress to crease nearly as much as on the day itself.
David and Elizabeth were well equipped for any emergency, and had even created a back-up dress.
David told People: "At the time we wanted to make absolutely sure that the dress was a surprise.
"We didn't try it on Diana. We never even discussed it. We wanted to make sure that we had something there; it was for our own peace of mind, really."
Diana was thrilled with how her dress turned out, and personally called David after the ceremony to thank him.
Speaking to HELLO!, he said: "After all the photographs, they went in to have the wedding breakfast and I went back to my studio in Mayfair. 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.'"
He added: "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. As long as the bride is happy that is all that matters. The fact she took the time before she went off on honeymoon ... that's genuine kindness."
However, the creasing disaster wasn't the only wardrobe malfunction on the day. Diana's makeup artist claimed that ahead of the princess walking down the aisle, she accidentally spilled Houbigant Paris Quelques Fleurs perfume on her dress.
Makeup artist Barbara Daly said she tried to frantically clean the dress, but there was still a large stain left by the perfume.
She reportedly told Diana to hold the dress up by the stained area so no one would notice.
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