Lady Diana imposes a lot of traits that people still to this day admire with their whole content hearts. She rewrote and redefined everything that is classified as elegance, resilience and kindness.
One thing that stands out the most and even to this day crowned on our heads is her wedding gown which she wore almost 42 years ago. Her gown till this day stands firm as an inspiration to many brides and designers alike.
In this blog you shall articulate the finer details of Lady Diana’s wedding look and how you can capture these details on your big day.
The Gown
Lady Diana’s wedding was quoted to be the, “Wedding of the century”. The wedding which was watched by more than 750 million in 74 countries with a gown that featured a 25 foot train and graced an estimate of 10,000 pearls which took months to design as it was hand embroidered with mother-of-pearl sequins.
What’s so interesting about this piece was the creators, David and Elizabeth Emanuel designed and created this in complete secrecy as they couldn’t afford for the design to leak to the press. To have their minds in peace, they even designed a sister gown, in case the original leaked in the media.
“The gown was typical of early ’80s style—overblown, romantic, flouncy—but we had to get it right because we knew it would go down in history.” David stated to People. It was a chaos for the designers to keep it a secret as phones rang constantly to get a bit of peep and they would also toss various colour discards in the garbage to throw the press off. There was security throughout he night.
Elizabeth stated that she gained a lot of inspiration from period dramas and films, mainly Barry Lyndon. The time period was all about ballgowns, voluminous sleeves, frilly necklines and Diana loved it all.
Also, Elizabeth took more inspiration from one of the most iconic trendsetters, Queen Victoria’s wedding gown.
The Details Of The Gown
The gown had signature puffy sleeves with rainbow sequins all around and gorgeous bow detailing. The lace was simple and looked absolutely elegant.
The entire body of the dress was made by silk taffeta which was dyed in ivory. With ruffled collars, frilly neckline and a voluminous skirt. Lady Diana’s gown was meant to mimic fairy dust and hence the amount of pearls and sequins were used to bring out the reality of the factor.
The train of the gown was so long that it had to be folded like a bed sheet to fit inside the carriage. Due to the folding, it created wrinkles on the silk which horrified Elizabeth.
Her look was completed by the spencer tiara, antique lace from Queen Mary as her “something old” and a blue bow inside the bodice as her “something blue” and of course a 18 carat horseshoe trinket studded with white diamonds for good luck.
The Netflix show Crown has replicated the gown repeatedly yet the exact replication of the original is far from being accurate.
The Shoes
When it came to Lady Diana’s footwear, the royal cobbler Clive Shilton created matching pair of shoes, which assembled the letters D and C for Diana and Charles in pearl encrusted lace floral appliqués. Diana was already standing at 5ft 10in so the heel of the footwear would have to be low feet.
The gorgeous silk slippers were covered in 542 sequins and 132 pearls which took half a year to make.
The Parasols
Elizabeth even created silk parasols in case it rained which she purchased from the Phillips auction house, covered them in ivory and white fabric, used the extra lace from the gown to embody trims and embroidered pearls and sequins into them.
Thankfully the day was dry and it was a relief as Elizabeth stated that they weren’t waterproof and wouldn’t be of much help to Diana.
The Iconic Global Trendsetter
Diana’s wedding gown has encrypted itself into today’s bridal world. It bodies the gowns that are designed today as brides nowadays want their gowns to feature a bit of the icon.
The laces and the voluminous skirts and sleeves are used by designers to add drama and layered body.
There are so many theories, and facts that still emerge and surprise us today in regards of the royal wedding and Lady Diana’s gown. Nonetheless we can’t deny that it still stands top tier as one of the most renowned and symbolic wedding gowns to be ever made.
NOTE- All the photographs in this article have been taken from various sources like Pinterest, People Magazine and much more. RaaHaa does not take any credit for these photographs.
