In the fourth season of The Crown, which premieres on Netflix on Sunday, Princess Diana makes her entrance. Of course, the famous wedding scene is not missing, including a replica of Diana’s wedding dress. NU.nl dives into the story behind the original and simulated version of the famous dress.
July 29, 1981. Princess Diana and Prince Charles enter St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where they will say yes to each other.
All eyes are on Diana thanks to her grotesque, ivory-colored dress and train, which measures over 7.5 meters. The design comes from David and Elizabeth Emanuel, who were hand-picked by the princess.
“We wanted to make something that could make history,” the designer duo says in the book Diana: The Portrait. The design was conceived in no time, the implementation took much longer. The dress consisted of a crinoline, luscious puffed sleeves and a lace-studded bodice, which came from clothing worn by Queen Mary, Elizabeth’s grandmother.
The gown was also decorated with embroidery, sequins and ten thousand pearls. An 18-carat horseshoe with diamonds was stitched into the petticoats of the skirt to bring good luck to the bride. On the day itself, the dress was still altered: Diana suffered from bulimia and had lost a lot of weight within a short time.
–
–
–
–
Diana and Charles pose on the balcony for the press. (Photo: BrunoPress)
Gold standard for bridal fashion
The meter-long veil – which, incidentally, was made so long at the request of the princess – did not fit well into the glass carriage that took Diana to the cathedral, and the princess therefore walked with a creased train towards the altar.
The response to the wedding dress, which cost nearly £ 150,000 in total, was no less. “She looked like a butterfly crawling out of her cocoon,” said Elizabeth Emanuel Vogue. “She was beaming.”
The design was considered ‘a gold standard’ for the bridal fashion created in the 1980s. Every bride-to-be who got married at the time wanted a dress with a long skirt, puffed sleeves and soft fabrics. The dress was temporarily shown in an exhibition about the princess who died in 1996, but it is now in the possession of her sons Harry and William.
–
–
–
–
Diana poses at her wedding. The marriage was watched live by over 700 million people (Picture: BrunoPress)
‘It looks great on Emma’
The makers of The Crown sSo there was a big job in store, because Diana (in the series played by Emma Corrin) had to appear in the same dress before the fictional altar. A job that was reserved for costume designer Amy Roberts. “The dress is like an elephant in the room,” Roberts told the newspaper website of the Golden Globes. “People have a feeling about it. Even if you weren’t born then, you know what the dress looks like.”
The designer therefore enlisted the help of David Emanuel. He no longer had the original patterns in his possession, so he guided the design team step by step through the regeneration of the famous wedding dress.
A total of three people worked on it. Six hundred hours later, there was a dress. According to Netflix this process took four months, with Corrin having five fitting sessions. 95 meters of fabric and 100 meters of lace were used. The people who made the train for Diana’s dress also set to work for the one that is on display in The Crown. This one is even 30 meters long.
Elizabeth Emanuel, now divorced from David, is very pleased with the result. “It looks fantastic and looks great on Emma,” said the designer People.
24-year-old Corrin told in Vogue that everyone was very impressed during her first fitting session of the historical dress. Ten people had to help her into the enormous robe. “I walked out and everyone fell silent. Of all the clothes I wear in the series, this one is ‘the most Diana’. I now feel like I know her, like she’s a friend.”
– .
