FASHION

Designer David Emanuel Reflects On Princess Diana’s Wedding Dress

He reveals why he ripped up the original design.

Princess Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles was an extravagant affair, and her wedding gown was one of the most memorable parts of the event!

35 years since the Royal couple’s wedding day, the designer of her dress, David Emanuel, ghas opened up in an interview with Express.co.uk about the design process and why he and his wife made the choices they did.

750 million people were estimated to have watched the wedding, and her dress stole the show. It was made of ivory silk taffeta and antique lace, and decorated with 10,000 pearls and sequins with a 25-foot long train.

Princess Diana came and bought some dresses from David and his wife before they knew she was famous, and all of a sudden one of their dresses was on the news. Later, Princess Diana herself called them personally and asked them to take on the challenge of making her wedding dress.

“We didn’t say a word and then we wondered if perhaps it was a hoax call and a bad joke,” he said. “Suddenly, Diana rang again and apologised as she’d been busy. But I had no idea how designing her wedding dress would have an effect on the rest of my career.”

The process of designing it was top secret, and David described the lengths they went to to protect the design. “I showed her a sketch and ripped the sketch up because we didn’t want it floating around,” he said. 

Princess Diana and David Emanuel

When asked what it was like dressing Diana, he said he loved the experience.

“She was delinquent, delicious, wonderful, real and adorable. She was simply young and fresh. I wanted the dress to reflect that but she was going in as Lady Diana Spencer and coming out as the Princess of Wales. St Paul’s Cathedral was very grand,” he said. “If you did a subtle little number it’s not going to work to an audience of seven hundred billion people!”

When Princess Diana saw the dress, apparently she said it was ‘fabulous’! And the rest is history.

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