The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Fashion royalty
Over the decades Diana, Princess of Wales blossomed in the public eye – a journey reflected in what she wore. As a special new exhibition of her wardrobe opens at Kensington Palace, the Princess’s former stylist Anna Harvey talks for the first time about
Diana, Princess of Wales – in a coat by the Emanuels – on a royal tour of Italy with the Prince of Wales and their sons, 1985
Ifirst met Princess Diana when I was summoned into the office of Beatrix Miller – then the editor of Vogue, where I was the fashion editor at the time – and she was sitting there with her mother, Frances Shand Kydd. We’d photographed Diana for a shoot on society girls and on the day the pictures came out, the royal engagement had been announced. Still, I wasn’t sure why I had been called in. So when, after a little chat, they explained they were looking for shoes to match the ‘going away’ outfit, I naïvely replied, ‘What is the going away outfit?’
Mother and daughter glanced at each other and paused. Then they both nodded, Diana pulled out of her bag a cutting of apricot silk about the size of a £2 coin today – and our working relationship started. I trotted straight around to Manolo Blah nik and, without
knowing the piece of fashion history he was working on, he made her shoes to match the silk. I later learnt that Diana and I had been set up, if you like, by Beatrix and Felicity Clark,
Vogue’s beauty director, who was close friends with Diana’s sisters and had obviously briefed them that I was trustworthy and we would get on well together. It was a great mark of trust to confide in me so soon. But I guess they were right, because from there, Diana and I went on to work together, on and off, for 16 years.
Although I was a huge fan of the Emanuels, I didn’t play a part in Diana’s wedding dress – the Princess had been sent off to them before I became involved. The press didn’t react very positively to the wedding dress because it was so creased. That’s paper taffeta for you. I always thought the romance and the texture were wonderful, though.
Af ter t he shoes, my f irst job was to put together a trousseau for the Princess – clothes for her new life and her honeymoon. They were going off on the royal yacht Britannia, visiting different Mediterranean ports, so it was set to be hot and glorious. She’d be by the pool most of the day, then she’d need something ravishing for the evenings to show off a bit of a suntan. There was a fantastic shop in those days on the Pimlico Road called Mexicana, where they did all those beautiful pleated white cotton
In the beginning, there was a lot of indecision. Neither of us really knew that much about royal etiquette and what was expected of her style-wise
Mexican dresses. We bought two or three of those and a few peasant blouses, which we packed together. I never saw her wear any of them but she wrote me the sweetest letter a f ter wa rd s s ay i ng t hat ever yt h i ng had been perfect.
In the beginning, there was a lot of indecision. Neither of us really knew that much about royal etiquette and what was expected of her style-wise. ‘We’re going to Balmoral and we have to dress for tea,’ Diana would say, and then we’d have to guess about the style of dress she should wear and find lots of options. She very quickly jettisoned gloves. The Royal family all wore them, but Diana just preferred not to.
I used to rush out to buy the newspapers each morning to see what she’d been wearing the day before. In 1983, during a tour to Australia, she wore a one-shouldered, one-sleeved white dress by a little-known, London-based Japanese designer called Hachi who I’d introduced her to. It was a real ‘wow’ moment. We’d done a lot of pie-crust collars and frills for this tour but this was the first long, fitted, sexy dress that she ever really wore.
For us, it was a sign that Diana was growing up and becoming a woman – she wasn’t a 19year-old debutante any more. But it was not particularly well received. It was quite ahead of the game, fashion-wise, and considered a bit ‘much’
for the Princess of Wales – she looked too good. Still, I think that was when she realised that, if she was clever, she could make a huge statement with what she wore and where she wore it.
We’d have a meeting ahead of all the major tours, then I’d take a huge pile of options over to Kensington Palace and we’d spend a morning trying things on. Once, she put on a beautiful black velvet dress with a grey taffeta skirt by Murray Arbeid. ‘Would you mind if I call in my husband to have a look?’ she said. Prince Cha rles c a me i n, a nd stood t here quite bemused, seeing her in this ext raordinar y dress and me on the floor pinning the skirt.
Some of the things we chose together weren’t a ll t hat successf ul. I look at t hose pieces with big, padded shoulders and think, ‘Why on earth did I put her in that?’ or ‘Did she really wear that?’ But fashion is mercurial. We must have thought she looked good at the time. It’s the same if you look through the pages of Vogue at t hat t ime, t hose Dynasty shoulders look dated and rather ugly.
In terms of successes though, a real redletter day for me was the morning after the Princess wore that navy velvet Victor Edelstein dress to the White House, where she danced with John Travolta. André Leon Talley, who was the fashion news director at US Vogue at the time, rang me at Vogue House in London.
He said how impressed he was with her long navy suede gloves, which she’d taken off to dance, at a time when most people were wearing white ones. He thought the whole look ‘wonderfully chic’. I was so thrilled to hear from him – that meant we’d really scored. Almost by accident, Diana began to be an ambassador for British fashion – and as an industry, we were lucky to have her.
Like the Queen, Diana realised that people often waited for hours in the rain, cold or heat to see her, so incorporating colour into her wardrobe was important. She loved to play, too: in Portsmouth to launch a boat, she delighted in wearing blue-and-white stripes with a jaunty sailor hat.
Eventually her life moved in a new direction. She was braver, more confident and felt she could step out of the box. One day, Sam McKnight (who did her hair), Mary Greenwell (who did her makeup), the photographer Patrick Demarchelier, the Princess and I were sitting around gossiping on a shoot. ‘Don’t you think she’d look wonderful in Versace?’ Sam said to me. And from then on, a lot of the suits and dresses she wore were designed by Gianni Versace.
Towards the end, Diana was very much her own person and it was only occasionally that she’d ring and say, ‘I want a red suit, have you seen one anywhere?’ (I think perhaps she did this out of loyalty, just to keep me on board for my sake.) This was long before the days of being able to just go on to the internet and see 300 red suits. I had to remember, or if I knew a designer well I could call them and say, ‘Remember that suit you did in nav y last season, could you make it in red?’
Of course, by then desig ners and fashion houses felt honoured to work with the Princess and would instantly come to the Palace and do fittings.
I would like to give them all a vote of thanks for all their hard work and absolute discretion.
Everyone was always so nervous, but Diana put them at ease. She started off so shy and ended up so confident. It just shows what we can all still learn from her.