Diana
Currently at Kensington Palace is the Exhibition:
Diana – Her Fashion Story
The exhibition features sketches of some of the clothes I designed for The Princess of Wales.
I had the privilege to dress her over a period of 15 years. First, when she was Lady Diana Spencer and had just become engaged to the Prince of Wales. Vogue fashion editor Anna Harvey had been asked to advise the future Princess on her wardrobe. She chose for her this maroon taffeta evening dress, which became an instant success. The stores kept on re-ordering the “Lady Di Dress”!
Later, the Princess used to pop into our shop in Brooke Street. She purchased many outfits, including the knitted sweater and linen skirt she wore at a polo match, at the time Prince Harry was a little boy.
But her most photographed outfit was a navy and white silk three-piece she wore time a time again – at Ascot, on an official visit to Australia, at a friend’s wedding…
The last dress we made for her was this blue sapphire crepe dress. By then she was very confident about her look. When she examined the hemline in the mirror, she urged “shorter, shorter”. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Whatever I wear I’ll be criticised, so let’s go for it” was the reply.
Diana was the nicest client. She was very informal and we treated her like any other client. One morning, she arrived earlier than planned (the driver of a very ordinary little car was sitting outside waiting). The girl who ran our showroom was in the kitchen washing some cups. The Princess picked up a cloth, sat on the corner of the table, and helped with the drying up!
