Diana - Style Icon of a Generation

[Moonmaiden23]

Within 24 hours of the announcement of Lady Diana's engagement her mother Frances took her over to British Vogue. For at least the next five years of her public life they were in charge of her sartorial image...and they did a fantastic job, imo!

 

[Mermaid1962]

I think that Diana's style was typical for a teenager. For helping out at the nursery, she wore practical clothes that matched. Everyone wore skirts more often in those days, even for things that ladies would likely wear jeans or casual trousers for now. After, her engagement, though, she was dressing more expensively and in keeping with her new status--with the obvious exception of the black strapless dress. That dress just didn't fit properly. In the winter of 1980/1981, I noticed that girls my age were wearing knickerbockers, a style that hadn't been around for quite some time. If that wasn't a Diana influence, I don't know what it was.

 

[Isabella]

Within 24 hours of the announcement of Lady Diana's engagement her mother Frances took her over to British Vogue. For the at least the next five years of her public life they were in charge of her sartorial image...and they did a fantastic job, imo!

Indeed. It wasn't an overnight change - there were plenty of hits and certainly plenty of misses - but from the mid-eighties onward, wow! And she just kept getting better and better from there, I think.

 

[Queen Camilla]

The Princesses of Monaco were in the public eye since they were children and had a mother living in with them to teach them how to dress.

Diana had to learn to dress for the camera all of a sudden in 1980. From pictures I've seen of that era, she dressed very much like her peers until her engagement.

Most children learn to dress by the time they are 4 years old.

Diana went for the fads.
Caroline and her sister dressed in classic style.
(mostly...)

Diana's supporters want to blame the decade, rather than the woman who followed the fads.

You can choose to dress like Madonna or copy Alexis from Dynasty or you can choose to dress in classic clothes that do not go out of style.

Diana followed the fads until she was 30.

 

[Honeybees]

I had a Diana hair cut and the blouses.

 

[Mermaid1962]

Obviously I mean things like co-ordinating colours and choosing styles that look good on a person.

Diana was never a designer, true. She had professional help. There's nothing wrong with that.

Princess Anne wears 'classic clothes that don't go out of style' and is generally considered dowdy. As a young woman, though, she followed the trends. I've seen the pictures of her in mini-skirts.

The Duchess of Cambridge dressed 'down'-wearing the kind of dresses that could be bought in the usual shops--and was criticized for it. Many people wanted her to wear couture or at least very-high-end ready-to-wear. She was blamed for skirts that were too short and 'blowy' and hair that flew around too much.

Diana had a good haircut and wore good clothes. She made people aware of what was happening in British Fashion.

I didn't like her evening wardrobe after her separation and divorce, but her day clothes were definitely classic by the early 90s. Her suits and shift dresses are still in style.

Most children learn to dress by the time they are 4 years old.

Diana went for the fads.
Caroline and her sister dressed in classic style.
(mostly...)

Diana's supporters want to blame the decade, rather than the woman who followed the fads.

You can choose to dress like Madonna or copy Alexis from Dynasty or you can choose to dress in classic clothes that do not go out of style.

Diana followed the fads until she was 30.

 

[Honeybees]

Years ago I visited Kensington Palace and seen some of The late POW's evening dresses and I was struck by the beauty and craft manship. No photograph did them justice in my humble opinion. I was also struck by how tall and slender she must have been.

 

[Daria_S]

I remember my mom wanting a 'Princess Diana' hairstyle in the 90s. She kept bringing pictures to her hairdresser, but the poor soul couldn't replicate it, no matter how hard she tried. My mom wore her hair short for as long as I can remember, and unto she saw Diana's style, she was happy with just your run-of-mill cropped cut. I think, in some ways Diana did set trends, and people who are dead-set on copying someone's style will do so, regardless of how awful it may look. In any case, I think like most of us, the woman had hits and misses when it came to her wardrobe items.


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[Curryong]

I don't think Diana would have been featured in so many magazines and on their covers if she had no sense of style. After all, Fergie wasn't! Nor would her clothing, including the wedding dress, have gone on display for years after her death if Diana hadn't been regarded as a fashion leader. Women who remember her will often reminisce, as they have this week when these unseen wedding photos have surfaced, "Oh, I bought magazines every week and pored over her makeup, her hair, her clothes and copied them."

 

[Mermaid1962]

That display must have been a gorgeous thing to see.

 

[Honeybees]

That display must have been a gorgeous thing to see.

. It was truly. It also contained a room of life size Mario Testino photographs taken shortly before her death and that was a truly sad. That such a vibrant, fun and apparently dynamic person was gone seemed so wrong. It did leave me to wonder whatever happened to all the gowns that were not sold, went on display and her day wear. I know the POW gave some to her sister Sarah, who wore them when she acted as Lady in waiting but where did the rest go? Are they in storable?

 

[Curryong]

Diana was probably giving away a lot of clothing to sisters and friends as well as donating quite a few items to charity, after her divorce. Didn't that butler of hers, Paul Burrell, supposedly secrete many of her personal items at his home, his reasoning being 'for safe keeping'? Perhaps some of her clothes went there. I do know that she did re-jig her wardrobe quite a lot in her final years, so maybe a lot was auctioned and given away then.

 

[Honeybees]

Diana was probably giving away a lot of clothing to sisters and friends as well as donating quite a few items to charity, after her divorce. Didn't that butler of hers, Paul Burrell, supposedly secrete many of her personal items at his home, his reasoning being 'for safe keeping'? Perhaps some of her clothes went there. I do know that she did re-jig her wardrobe quite a lot in her final years, so maybe a lot was auctioned and given away then.

. I have books from the time, which knowing what we do now are very ironic but they are full of photographs of her many gowns, day wear etc. Perhaps in the future more previously unseen photographs will appear?

 

[Dman]

Many of her wardrobe was auctioned off, but William & Harry now have a great deal of her possessions that used to be on display at Althorp. I think it's been placed in the Royal Collection.

 

[Honeybees]

If you are talking about the auction prior to her death, the shocking thing is going through her old photographs the lots appear to be a very small percentage of her evening gown collection and contained none of her day wear. The Royal Collection makes alot of sense.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I think that Diana's style was typical for a teenager. For helping out at the nursery, she wore practical clothes that matched. Everyone wore skirts more often in those days, even for things that ladies would likely wear jeans or casual trousers for now. After, her engagement, though, she was dressing more expensively and in keeping with her new status--with the obvious exception of the black strapless dress. That dress just didn't fit properly. In the winter of 1980/1981, I noticed that girls my age were wearing knickerbockers, a style that hadn't been around for quite some time. If that wasn't a Diana influence, I don't know what it was.

Ahhh yes...knickerbockers. I remember then 60-something year old First Lady Nancy Reagan even tried them out.

 

[Honeybees]

Ahhh yes...knickerbockers. I remember then 60-something year old First Lady Nancy Reagan even tried them out.

Thank for that, not a mental picture I wanted to have first thing in the morning. That first lady was way too thin, in my humble opinion.

 

[Curryong]

Yes, knickerbockers, that brings back memories. I had a dark brown velvet pair worn with a white long sleeved blouse with a frilly collar. (...)

 

[scook9187]

So weird to read that "no one copied Diana". I was 12 when Diana got married and my Catholic school was full of girls with the Diana cut. And we all wore her pie crust collars and pale sheer hoisery and flat shoes. I think to us she was quite fashionable until we went away to college.

 

[royal rob]

So weird to read that "no one copied Diana". I was 12 when Diana got married and my Catholic school was full of girls with the Diana cut. And we all wore her pie crust collars and pale sheer hoisery and flat shoes. I think to us she was quite fashionable until we went away to college.

Yes your right she was very much copied to say she wasn't isn't true


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[rubies]

I miss her spirit,beauty,and sense of fun.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

So weird to read that "no one copied Diana". I was 12 when Diana got married and my Catholic school was full of girls with the Diana cut. And we all wore her pie crust collars and pale sheer hoisery and flat shoes. I think to us she was quite fashionable until we went away to college.

I am the same height she was and I stopped wearing heels because of Diana. I would never have dreamed of wearing flat shoes until she made it okay by looking so chic and elegant in them!

 

[royal rob]

I am the same height she was and I stopped wearing heels because of Diana. I would never have dreamed of wearing flat shoes until she made it okay by looking so chic and elegant in them!

Oh wow that was me too ?


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[Mermaid1962]

I have a tall friend who says the same thing. I wore my long-sleeved-white-blouse-with-a-frilly-collar with a mid-calf gray skirt with soft pleats. Gray pumps, of course.

 

[RJC]

I was always interested in what Diana was wearing...and hesitate to say that my 80's wedding dress was quite similar. I'd always loved the sweatheart waistline.

And I had the blouses too with the frilly neckline that I'm sure I would not have otherwise worn.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I have a tall friend who says the same thing. I wore my long-sleeved-white-blouse-with-a-frilly-collar with a mid-calf gray skirt with soft pleats. Gray pumps, of course.

Me too...I had the same outfit. Long pleated skirt to mid calf. Low heels. White blouse with ruffled collar under a soft cardigan. I loved it...those days!!

 

[Jacknch]

Diana loved clothes and must have enjoyed experimenting with different ideas that the designers came up with. I especially remember the striped puff-ball skirt she wore a couple of times, which seemed to be a sensation and it was on the news that night.
I'm not sure the idea took off though and I think she only wore it a couple of times, but it is an example of the fun she sometimes had with clothes.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I loved her style in general, but I was not a slave to every look she tried. I distinctly remember when she appeared in ankle socks and high heels with a long polka dot skirt-a sort of 50's bobby-soxer look. I was not impressed.

This was in the summer of either '86 or '87.

 

[Mermaid1962]

That was a look that I didn't like, and fortunately I wasn't tempted to try it myself. I didn't like the pleated polka-dotted skirt with the red sweater either. The whole outfit was a 'fail' to me. Sometimes her casual clothes were 'off' in a way that her day clothes weren't.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Right. Her leather pants for example, did not impress.

But her evening gowns-particularly in the 90's under Catherine Walker-would often leave me dazed with admiration and envy!