The 80s: Fashion Disasters


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Poor Cristina...she looks so uncomfortable in that outfit (from this post). Oh & the dresses that the Infanta's are wearing in the same post as well (with their parents). :blink:
 
I was a teenager in the mid-80's an made some of the same mistakes Diana,Sarah,Astrid,Cristina and Elena made-big hair puffy dresses and on and on.It can of endears these women to me more when I look back and see we were all making the same mistakes!:ohmy: -we thought we knew wha we were doing though!
 
I have a question about Diana's first official engagement outfit. She wore the strapless black gown which apparently caused quite thr controversy. I have 2 questions:
1. Has anyone e heard that Charles commented on the outfit beforr they left? People make a big deal that it was black and revealing and I keep thinking that Charles should have said something to her.
2. To anyone who was alive at the time, how big of a fuss was it really?
 
:previous: According to Diana, Charles didn't think the dress was appropriate because of its colour. Royals only wear black for mourning. She said that it was the only dress she had to wear. I don't remember the fuss at the time, but perhaps that was because I didn't see any news coverage of it.
 
My recollection (and I was around 30 then) is that the gown was considered quite a daring choice for a young girl scarcely 20 years old, particularly as it was so very décolleté - especially as up to that date the image of her we'd seen was rather demure.
 
There was very little negativity about the black gown back then, just comments that it was daring and wowed the people who saw it.
 
Thank you to those who responded to my questions, i greatly appreciate it. I wonder why Diana was left on her own to find a gown to wear and no one with more experience was called on to help. I believe the last woman to marry so high into the family was either rhe Queen Mother or the Duchess of Windsor if she counts. Its no wonder she had no idea what shw was doing and its sueprising that onky Charles said something before the event.
As for the Queens gown, look how high the front is in comparison to Diana's dress.
 
I have a question about Diana's first official engagement outfit. She wore the strapless black gown which apparently caused quite thr controversy. I have 2 questions:
1. Has anyone e heard that Charles commented on the outfit beforr they left? People make a big deal that it was black and revealing and I keep thinking that Charles should have said something to her.
2. To anyone who was alive at the time, how big of a fuss was it really?

Prince Charles exited the car first and was widely quoted as gleefully telling the waiting photographers "Wait until you see this!" or something along those lines....in other words he wasn't exactly dismayed by his fiancée's ultra-sexy evening gown:cool:.

It was the Queen Mother who thought Lady Diana had given the hoi polloi too much of an eyeful.:lol:

Honestly the entire decade of the 80's was basically one long, never ending fashion nightmare.:eek: It would be simpler and less time consuming to list the rare standouts of that period.
 
With Coaches etc.. Princess Diana changed completely...

Princess Anne still wears clothes of the 80 ties ( dress for Prince Charles's Wedding).

Queen Paola and certainly Queen Fabiola remain classic.

In the years 80 you could find embroideries some with pearls you cannot find now.
The sizes wera real sizes.The quality was real quality

For a lot of my clothes I put off the leaves or their material.

Long dresses are coming back (Countess of Wessex green dress)
 
This is something for friends of vintage stuff! I know people who like the style of the 1970s or 1980s.
 
Prince Charles exited the car first and was widely quoted as gleefully telling the waiting photographers "Wait until you see this!" or something along those lines....in other words he wasn't exactly dismayed by his fiancée's ultra-sexy evening gown:cool:.

It was the Queen Mother who thought Lady Diana had given the hoi polloi too much of an eyeful.:lol:

Honestly the entire decade of the 80's was basically one long, never ending fashion nightmare.:eek: It would be simpler and less time consuming to list the rare standouts of that period.
I don't think it was the QM, more the media trying to whip up a storm. After all her daughters wore many strapless or low-cut gowns when she was young.For these check out the necklace to give an idea of the decolletage.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/29/ef/41/29ef41394c7d279e987f317e8720059f.jpg

http://www.edelweisspatterns.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/queen-elizabeth-ball-gown.png
 
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Diana first strapless low-cut black evening dress she wore when she was still engaged was a big mistake !
 
I think she looked perfectly stunning, simply amazing.;)
 
THAT dress sold in 2010 for $192,000 U.S.. It was bought in London for a museum in Chile.
I thought part of the controversy was that members of the BRF in those days didn't wear black evening gowns as the colour was kept for mourning. I believe one of the designers admitted later that they hadn't calculated on the effect of Diana bending over showing plenty of cleavage as she exited the car!
 
gosh.. thats a lot of money
 
Diana first strapless low-cut black evening dress she wore when she was still engaged was a big mistake !

I think she looked stunning, it needed to fit better and it was just unfortunate that cameras got great angle when she got out of the car. It was a risk and a leaning experience but I still think she should have had guidance.
 
:previous: I definitely think it was the bending over that was the problem taking into account that HM wore a strikingly similar strapless gown in black.

As to assistance, history tells us she had it, HM loaned her the best, but she didn't listen. Perhaps she thought they were all too old.
 
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She was a gorgeous, very voluptuous 19-year old who had not yet learned how to properly exit a car with scores of paps waiting to take her photo from every conceivable angle. This incident happened months after a photographer had convinced her to stand in the sunlight while wearing a long, sheer skirt, thus exposing more of her legs than she wanted to show.

Yes, of course someone should have shown Diana more guidance at that point but how do we know they hadn't tried and been rejected? She was very stubborn. And she apparently was not displeased with the sensation that she caused in the strapless black Emmanuel gown...this is the designer she chose to create her wedding dress.:whistling:
 
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I have a question about Diana's first official engagement outfit. She wore the strapless black gown which apparently caused quite thr controversy. I have 2 questions:
1. Has anyone e heard that Charles commented on the outfit beforr they left? People make a big deal that it was black and revealing and I keep thinking that Charles should have said something to her.
2. To anyone who was alive at the time, how big of a fuss was it really?

As to fuss, people were surprised, but in my memory, in a nice "well, she's very fashionable" way. At least in the US. The decolletage was no biggie - strapless, revealing in thin knit fabrics had come in in the 70s, so the wrapper was off the package by Di's time. Women knew they looked good and dressed that way starting in the 70s. IMHO.
 
Lady Jennifer, I love that dog.

I've seen this photos before and I think there were quite a number of times when the Queen wore strapless gowns and nothing was thought of it at all!

Diana allegedly almost had a wardrobe malfunction on the way out of the car. It was an Emmanuel dress and they went on to design her wedding gown. The woman was nineteen/twenty at the time and I really do believe we should remember just how young she was.

from post # 3 above:
On the photo 1 she looks like a lawyer (in the USA lawyer's dress style) on her way to court. Very elegant and serious outfit.
On photo 4 she looks terrible, I can almost hear Barry Manilow's Copa Cabana song in the background.
On photo 5, she looks like a discarded doll model for a Franklin Mint series on kitchen curtains used for Couture. Maybe the little known Gone with the Wind Scarlett O'Hara's curtains-coverted-to-outfits series :p

I'm glad Diana got over all that and became a Glamazon, I found some funny definitions of Glamazon below that could easily apply (except on the height) to Diana, Caroline, Rania and Lalla Salma, and Angelina Jolie:

glamazon - When beauty and brawn collide, a statuesque enchantress who is once, twice, three times a lady -- three times the height, three times the Chanel makeup, three times the Versace.

Glamazon Blend of glamour and Amazon The glamour of amazons, Greeks heroes, etc. (as depicted in recent movies such as "Troy"

A Physically Imposing Woman of inordinate shape and beauty, a "Glamorous Amazon" who stuns men with her overwhelming pulchritude.

Photo one has her sister, Sarah with her as I believe Lady in waiting.

That was cutting edge fashion for you at the time.
 
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The 1980's were not always that bad. Dresses were still real dresses, voluminous and rich. There will always be giggling but also the 1980's will make a revival. Who would ever have thought that the typical 1950's dresses, the sharp neat haircuts for gentlemen, the suits, the technicolor lipsticks, etc. would make a revival? Look at this immense but spectacular dress (very glittering but that did not stop her to add an eye-popping diamond broche). It still has something of an era which was carefree, happy and what-the-heck... ;)
 
IMO Beatrix is still dressing a bit in the 80's fashion with her shoulderpads and lush fabrics.
 
IMO Beatrix is still dressing a bit in the 80's fashion with her shoulderpads and lush fabrics.

Haha... it is still very beatrixian and voluminous, but the shoulderpads really have gone, I must say. See picture.

:lol:
 
Nope, I can see them :whistling:
 
Yep. P.Beatrix pretty much sticks to her style, this is probably what works for her so more power to her ;) for fashion risks we have Q.Maxima in the Netherlands ;)
 
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