The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer: 29 July 1981

[Dman]

BBC News video:
Princess Diana: Unseen pictures of 1981 royal wedding auctioned-
Princess Diana: Unseen pictures of 1981 royal wedding auctioned - BBC News

 

[Honeybees]

Some pics and a beautiful sketching from gettyimages

That photograph from the rehearsal, of Lady Diana Spencer makes me so sad. Knowing what we now do, the weight loss was obvious in that photograph.

 

[Honeybees]

I remember reading somewhere (or perhaps it was one of the people close to her who said it in a television programme, not sure), that Diana felt like "a lamb on its way to the slaughter house" when she walked up the aisle.
I also remember, in the same way, that she had doubts whether to go through with the wedding (and even asked Camilla Parker Bowles for advices). She advised her to go through with it and the other people Diana told about her doubts apparently said that she had no choice but to go through with it, as "her face was already printed on towels and coffee cups and sorts."
It's kind of strange to think that, at one point, Diana and Camilla were friends (of some sort).

. Didn't the lamb to the slaughter comment come from POW herself in the Morton Book?

 

[royal rob]

I remember reading somewhere (or perhaps it was one of the people close to her who said it in a television programme, not sure), that Diana felt like "a lamb on its way to the slaughter house" when she walked up the aisle.
I also remember, in the same way, that she had doubts whether to go through with the wedding (and even asked Camilla Parker Bowles for advices). She advised her to go through with it and the other people Diana told about her doubts apparently said that she had no choice but to go through with it, as "her face was already printed on towels and coffee cups and sorts."
It's kind of strange to think that, at one point, Diana and Camilla were friends (of some sort).

They weren't friends Camilla was making sure she would tow the line

 

[JessRulz]

A number of posts stemming from the obvious agenda illustrated in certain comments have been removed.

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

Nothing new in here for almost a year. Well to try to get some conversation going again, I am one of those who funds Diana beautiful on that day despite her horrible dress. It is truly one of the worst royal wedding dresses in history and I am not even counting the wrinkles. I have never seen the hair problems she apparently had that day, I thought her hair looked fine much better than Kate's or Sarah's. Speaking of Sarah her dress is 10x better than Diana's as she also got married in the 80s and fell to some of the bad fashion cliches, but overall her dress was a masterpiece.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

So agree with everything you posted XC...I appreciate Diana's dress a little more than I did when I first saw it all those years ago but not by much. I almost cried when I watched her get out of that carriage and they were not tears of joy.

All I could think was what a mess. But gosh Diana herself was so gorgeous, the most naturally beautiful English Royal bride I have ever seen in my life.

Sarah had a far more beautiful gown and so did Kate but they both had awful wedding day hair, in fact they wore rather similar hairstyles.

Diana's hair was a flop too, quite literally.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

India Hicks the bridesmaid spoke about Diana's bridal train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZvHxLNdSk

 

[Curryong]

I think the designers of Diana's wedding dress were fairly inexperienced and didn't realise that pure silk would crush as it did in the small carriage she rode in to the Abbey.

I agree that Diana's dress was very '80's' and would probable have looked absolutely foul on anyone else. I have read that it was a copy of an 18th century ancestor's dress that featured in a portrait at Althorp. Don't know how accurate that is, though. I was amused to read once that Diana was determined on an extremely long train, just the sort of thing a very young bride would have insisted on.

And yet, somehow it all worked. Yes, Diana's dress was crumpled and rather unspectacular, and her hair wasn't the greatest, but if you look at her face it's radiant with youthful beauty and excitement and happiness. Even that hugely long train filled in the massive aisle at St Pauls.

Huge spaces to be filled, and maybe a full skirted dress and lengthy veil fitted the bill, more than a more modest size gown and veil would have done. What I like about Diana on her wedding day was the fact that she wore little makeup, allowing a natural glow to shine through. She looked beautiful.

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

From what I've heard the silk was meant to be a little crumply like linen - it adds to the fabrics character. It just got a wee bit too rumply in the coach .

Looking at the dress it seems to be a pastiche of styles from various periods: The colour of the fabric is similar to a dress worn by one of the Granddaughters of John and Sarah, the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, Lady Diana Spencer, later Duchess of Bedford. Diana was the daughter of Anne Churchill and Charles Spencer 3rd Earl of Sunderland. There is a portrait of her by Charles Jarvas at Blenheim Palace - the family tried to marry her off to another Prince of Wales - Frederick Louis, son of King George II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Russell,_Duchess_of_Bedford

The volume of the skirt and the crinoline are 1860s and this was meant to be inspired by Vivian Leigh in Gone with the Wind, along with Dior, Valentino, and Norman Hartnell. That and a big puffy skirt just says "princess" regardless.

The sleeves are half 1890s and half 1630s - both Edwardian and Stuart. An unintentional reference to the brides ancestry maybe? The rounded, relatively high (at least to my eye) waist also seems inspired from the Jarvas portrait, but also looks quite Van Dyke to me along with the sleeves as well. The Frills and relative height of the neckline and the lace paneling on the bodice are dead ringers for Edwardian influence too.

It actually in terms of size, scope and poofiness reminds me of Queen Alexandra's wedding dress oddly enough.

The 25 foot (7.6 m) train I think is still the longest for a royal wedding - previous record holder was Queen Anne Marie of Greece who had a 20 foot (6.1m) long train.

You also can't go wrong with a sparkly veil either - makes a change from the usual choice of the moth eaten table cloths that pass as antique lace veils. It also links Diana's dress to that of the Queens, who also had a considerable amount of sequins and spangles on her veil, train, and dress.

A big dress was needed to fill a big building, so the scale made sense for that reason as well as the fact that Diana was a tall, big boned lady, it made her look smaller next to Charles. It also needed to look good on camera, so the colour and the sequins did help with visibility and ivory was less jarring on camera than pure white and worked better with Diana's skin tone.

This monster has always been a sentimental favorite for me and although, casting a critical eye over it I can see how it does not work (waist line is unforgiving, a v-point would have been more flattering, shrink the sleeves a little, and make the neckline a little lower and more defined and less frilly). But it did stick in peoples minds, Diana looked the part of the fairy tale princess in it, and it set the dominant trend for wedding attire for good or ill for the next two decades.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

WreathofLaurels, The above description of Lady Diana's dress is excellently written. One learns so much history about the aristocratic Spencer family.

 

[Osipi]

Thanks for a totally different insight into Diana's wedding gown. I can remember going "wow!" when I first saw it but then again, it was the 80s and BIG was the way it was done.

Now I look back at the dress and think "what was she thinking???" as it does remind me more of a cupcake with loads for frosting or a costume for the stage but one thing for sure, the dress was unique and we'll never see the likes of it again. At least I hope not.

 

[EllieCat]

I remember watching the wedding live on TV and as Lady Diana came out of the coach in her wedding dress, all I could think of was, "Oh, no, it's wrinkled!"

 

[Mermaid1962]

The dress also had echoes of Queen Victoria's dress. I still like it. Queen Victoria’s wedding dress: the one that started it all – The Dreamstress

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

http://https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dress-Diana-David-Elizabeth-Emanuel/dp/1862057494

If anyone wants to know more the Emanuels have written a book about the making of the dress - a dress for Diana- it's very comprehensive on the technical aspects of the dress and just how much of the design and construction was rooted in Royal and spencer family history, the dominant new romantic/Laura Ashley trends of the 1980s, and the designs of courtiers like Norman hartnell, Dior, Valentino and others. In all fairness it hasn't aged well, but what gets me is that a lot of discordant design elements taken from differing time periods were able to look quite cohesive and like something of its contempary time period, while still paying homage to its roots and inspirations. It does look traditional at a distance but would have in fact been considered avant grade from a design standpoint during the early 1980s - hard to believe now but the contempary reaction was very enthuastic about it.

It's also worth nothing that all the materials used in the dress were of British origin, lace, silk, shoes, tulle, the lot. The dress was also a huge advert for the British fashion industry and the emanuels have both gone on to have successful careers in the industry. Combined with public displays (I saw it as a kid at the Diana's dresses travelling exhibit when it was in New Zealand - it really is enormous!) and the influence it had on wedding gowns, it is along with princess graces dress, one of the most influential designs of its kind. It merits are debatable but you can't deny its impact or the fact that it has payed for itself many times over.

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

So agree with everything you posted XC...I appreciate Diana's dress a little more than I did when I first saw it all those years ago but not by much. I almost cried when I watched her get out of that carriage and they were not tears of joy.

All I could think was what a mess. But gosh Diana herself was so gorgeous, the most naturally beautiful English Royal bride I have ever seen in my life.

Sarah had a far more beautiful gown and so did Kate but they both had awful wedding day hair, in fact they wore rather similar hairstyles.

Diana's hair was a flop too, quite literally.

I have often heard Diana's hair criticized and I admit I haven't seen where it looked bad. I definitely agree that despite the ugly dress she was the most beautiful English bride. The close ups of her face just showed that she glowed. I honestly can't decide whose hair was worse Sarah's or Kate's.
Try cupcake analogy works well, I usually compare her dress to a 6yr old creating their own sundae; no rhyme or reason just chocolate syrup on top of strawberries, whip cream, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles and a cherry. What a travesty, its not as bad as Mabels's and I don't know if I can say its the worst of the English bride . I go back and forth on what is the worst part of it, the limp skirt, washed out color, the bows or lace.

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

The dress also had echoes of Queen Victoria's dress. I still like it. Queen Victoria’s wedding dress: the one that started it all – The Dreamstress

I completely forgot about victoria - but her influence on Royal clothing and formal attire is still around today - mainly the justifaction of the wardrobes being of British origin as a way of supporting local industry - not just design but also textile and manufacture. This is why Diana did not start wearing the more cliched foreign labels until after her and Charles divorce. It's also why when Royal ladies insist on spending too much on the French/Italian lables it looks really bad (at lest to me) as the justification of supporting local design and industry is one of the main reasons for being able to get away with such grand dressing and epic spending.

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

As for hair and tiara - although short hair was Diana's thing, this was a time when she probably could have done with either more volume in the form of a more choppy do with extra wave fto hide the tiaras base as the more traditional solution of hair extensions would probably have been too much. It's interesting that an earls daughter was never taught how to wear a tiara properly, and that the hair dressers seemed to have lost the ability to do good tiara do's. Either that or they have all gone to Sweden.

 

[Mermaid1962]

When the great (at least in the minds of the tabloid writers) Diana/Sarah fashion wars were in swing, I remember Sarah being criticized for going with such European labels as St. Laurent. The justification for it at the time was that she didn't want to use the same labels as her sister-in-law.

It's also why when Royal ladies insist on spending too much on the French/Italian lables it looks really bad (at lest to me) as the justification of supporting local design and industry is one of the main reasons for being able to get away with such grand dressing and epic spending.

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

I don't think a royal lady should be forced to only wear her countries labels. They can mix it up but if you don't like British fashion (or another country if that is where you are Princess of) then you shouldn't be forced to wear those labels all the time. And if Fergie wore foreign labels then the Dior's and St Laurent's were playing a cruel joke on her.

 

[TLLK]

As for hair and tiara - although short hair was Diana's thing, this was a time when she probably could have done with either more volume in the form of a more choppy do with extra wave fto hide the tiaras base as the more traditional solution of hair extensions would probably have been too much. It's interesting that an earls daughter was never taught how to wear a tiara properly, and that the hair dressers seemed to have lost the ability to do good tiara do's. Either that or they have all gone to Sweden.

I recall that her hair was straighter during that time period and as a result her bangs looked rather flat on her forehead. In later years she did adopt a fuller hairstyle and her tiara placement was much better.

 

[Denville]

She never wore a tiara because she didn't do any social events where she would need to wear one. Anyway I think that mostly they are for married women or royal women...I think she looked lovely on her wedding day. She was beautiful enough to pull off the very OTT dress and it was suitable for being married in a huge place like St Pauls.

 

[Denville]

I don't think a royal lady should be forced to only wear her countries labels. They can mix it up but if you don't like British fashion (or another country if that is where you are Princess of) then you shouldn't be forced to wear those labels all the time. And if Fergie wore foreign labels then the Dior's and St Laurent's were playing a cruel joke on her.

yes they should. They are there to fly the British flag, not to wear just any clothes they like.
And sorry but I do think that to call someone's wedding dress ugly is unkind. OK some wedding dresses are not very nice, but i'd never publicly call them ugly, as they are so special to a bride...

 

[Pranter]

That Spencer Tiara was a stunner on her as well.


LaRae

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

The base was still visible and for someone who I could swear had been born with perfect hair it seems like a bit of an oversight

The spencer tiara is still one of the nicest around and Diana always looked good with it on. It's a shame it's not a Royal tiara as I don't get to see it as often as I would like.

 

[Curryong]

Yes, I think Diana liked wearing the family tiara rather than the Lovers Knot because of the discomfort of the latter, pearls on it tinkling etc. I like brides wearing their family tiara if they can. Also, the 1980's was rather an ugly decade fashion wise, so we could blame Diana's look as a bride at least partly on that!

IMO tiara's seem to look much better on women with thick rather springy hair, like Queen Sylvia of Sweden. When Diana had 'big' hair in the late 1980's her tiaras looked stunning, though I can't remember her wearing a large variety.

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

The dress was designed to harmonise with the tiara - the lace mimics the floral and swirly motifs of the tiara and the sparkly veil added to the glittering effect of the tiara.

As I said earlier, this ensemble isn't everyone's cup of tea but its very well put together and coherent for something that was put together with relative speed and in cramped conditions, makes the misfires of larger fashion houses for other royal wedding gowns all the more glaring and unforgivable.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Was the decision up to Lady Diana to choose to ride in the Glass Coach to St. Paul's Cathedral? Or did Diana have the option to choose to ride in an automobile or a different carriage to the cathedral?

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

Was the decision up to Lady Diana to choose to ride in the Glass Coach to St. Paul's Cathedral? Or did Diana have the option to choose to ride in an automobile or a different carriage to the cathedral?

I think it was a protocol decision as this was the coach that had been used for other state weddings (Queen, Margaret, Anne) until that point - I don't think they will be using it for any weddings anytime in the future as its quite delicate.

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

yes they should. They are there to fly the British flag, not to wear just any clothes they like.
And sorry but I do think that to call someone's wedding dress ugly is unkind. OK some wedding dresses are not very nice, but i'd never publicly call them ugly, as they are so special to a bride...

Then don't call it ugly, I don't think it's unkind I so I will call it ugly. And there are different ways to support your country rather than just wearing clothes from someone inside the country. Princess whoever can wear Versace or Dior while still doing work to better the country.