On July 29, 1981, Lady Diana said “yes” to Charles in a grandiose wedding ceremony celebrated in London. Aged 20, the princess trusted the designer Elizabeth Emanuel for her famous ivory wedding dress worn at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. A legendary dress that featured a ruffled collar, puffed sleeves, a voluminous skirt and a dramatic 25-foot train.
Interviewed by the magazine Peoplethe stylist revealed that she had made a second backup dress, as a precaution. “I was a little nervous and wondered what would happen if someone broke in and stole the dress, if something spilled, if there was a fire, or if the dress was stolen. So I thought, “I’m going to make a backup dress.”“.
The backup dress was not a replica of the first. She thus did not have a long train and the silk was white, “not the deep ivory the wedding dress was made of“. Additionally, while Diana’s wedding dress had puffed sleeves, Elizabeth confided that the backup dress had “thin sleeves, more fitted to his arms” with frilly cuffs.
A “rescue” dress brought up to date
As for the fabric, Elizabeth had hand embroidered the designs of the dress Diana wore on the big day, while the fabric of the backup dress did not have any. Ultimately, this second dress was never finished and the designer doesn’t even know exactly what became of it. Today, this 70-year-old London designer has reproduced it to exhibit it in an exhibition dedicated to Princess Diana.
“We never got to see this dress on Diana and thought it would be nice to imagine it“, explained Renae Plant, director and curator of the museum. “History is priceless“, she adds about this acquisition, the amount of which has not been disclosed.
