She was, as former BBC royal reporter Michael Cole put it, “this Sloane Ranger with her sort of pie crust collars and Fair Isle sweaters and rather voluminous skirts. It was a culture where no matter how much you cared about your appearance, you had to seem like you weren’t trying too hard.ĭiana brought that style sense with her when she moved to London after leaving school and soon became the archetype of the Sloane Ranger, the media name for the wealthy young people who lived near London's Sloane Square and cultivated the look of bohemian aristocrats. This was a world of hunting, shooting and fishing, where Barbour coats and Wellington boots were everyday wear. One of the things the series does right is retrace Diana’s style journey, from the cardigans and bows she wore when she first stepped into the public eye, to frothy ballgowns with frills and flounces and finally to her becoming a global fashion icon in Versace, Dior and Chanel.ĭiana grew up in the country, looking to her older sisters for fashion cues. And, you know, I like to feel that we were close enough that if she was having huge issues that we might have been aware of it at the time, because those fittings are fairly intimate.” And throughout the hours they spent together, Diana came across as a happy, vibrant young woman, not the shrinking girl “The Crown” portrays as being buffeted by events beyond her control, Emanuel said. But also because she wanted to show another side of Diana, who Emanuel believes has been misrepresented by “The Crown,” the popular Netflix series that has brought the story of the princess and her ill-fated marriage to a new generation.Ī fan of the series’ first three seasons, Emanuel said she found it hard to watch the last two because of the way Diana was depicted.Ĭreating a bespoke dress is a long process, requiring multiple fittings that give client and dressmaker lots of time to talk. So she has re-created it, out of bolts of shiny, satin taffeta cut and stitched to match the dramatic sketches she made more than 40 years ago.Īcting on an idea that took shape during Britain’s long coronavirus lockdowns, she did it for herself, for her archive.

A Dress for Diana by David Emanuel