Di dazzles as she finds her style
Diana took the Royal wardrobe from frumpy to fabulous and now Kate reaps the rewards
DIANA was not always the glossy fashion queen she was eventually crowned. Far from it. As a teenager she told me that she felt that she was a “podgy, no make-up” girl, the stay at home Cinderella.
She idolised her glamorous elder sister Sarah who was the first Spencer girl to date Prince Charles.
While the shy ugly duckling became a royal swan, it was hardly an effortless transformation. In the early days of her courtship with Prince Charles she had a modest wardrobe of long skirts and outsize sweaters, dressing in the uniform of the typical Sloane Ranger, those nicely brought up gals who lived near Sloane Square in Chelsea.
When she posed in a see-through skirt at the Young England nursery where she was a kindergarten teacher, she revealed not just a nicely honed pair of pins but a naïve fashion style.
Her innocence was exposed again on her first royal engagement when she wore a low cut black dress.
Not only did Prince Charles disapprove of the colour — “Only people in mourning wear black,” he complained — but as she got out of the royal limousine she revealed more of her bosom than she ever intended. “I learned a lesson that night,” she later told me.
She realised that her enemies were the wind, car seats and cameramen looking for that unflattering shot.
In the early days she played it safe, focussing on outfits with lots of bows and frills, rather like a little girl’s dream of what a princess looks like.
Her skirts were long to avoid any more fashion faux pas, and while her new look earned plaudits from fashion mavens, in truth she seemed rather frumpy and old for her age.
The move to a sleeker, more sophisticated style was marked by the night she danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985.
Her iconic Victor Edelstein dress was her graduation onto the stage of grown-up fashion. With the help of designers like Catherine Walker, her style became more pared down and focussed, reflecting her royal life.
Her separation from Prince Charles in December 1992 marked another turning point.
For many months afterwards she dressed mainly in black as if mourning the death of her relationship. The day she took the boys on a wild water ride at Thorpe Park in 1993 signified an inner resolution of her emotional turmoil. Wearing casual, tight black jeans and a leather jacket, her hair wet, the smiling princess looked like a woman reborn.
She was toned, healthy and happy, her style sexier, her heels — what she called her “tart’s trotters” — higher.
It all came together the night Prince Charles made his famous confession of adultery on prime time TV.
Diana arrived at the Serpentine Gallery in a stunning Christina Stambolian dress that knocked her husband off the front pages. Known forever more as the “revenge dress”, she only wore it by chance.
She had intended to wear a Valentino dress but was irritated with the Italian designer for sending out an early press release boasting of his prize.
That day she was chatting to our mutual friend, Dr James Colthurst, the man who was the go-between when she answered my questions about her life for my ground-breaking biography.
James knows nothing about fashion, but as he listened to her complaining about Valentino he simply suggested she wore something sexy and dramatic.
Hence her choice of Stambolian. It was a pure accident — but made history.
There was nothing fortuitous however about the way her style evolved. In the last months of her life she had never looked so good. She was genuinely a show stopper and the legacy she left behind was that you didn’t have to be frumpy to be a member of the royal family. Pastel shades, big hats and outsize handbags were no longer de rigeur.
Every day Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge must be whispering a prayer of thanks to Diana for giving her the chance to wear what she wants without attracting the attention of the palace fashion police.