Princess Diana’s wedding dress was designed by husband-and-wife design team David and Elizabeth Emanuel, and it features a 25-foot train and elaborate embroidery. The gown was kept secret and heavily guarded to avoid leaks to the public before the wedding takes place.
The world finally got a glimpse of Princess Diana’s wedding dress when she stepped out of Clarence House on July 29, 1981, and people around the world were in awe upon seeing the future queen in her elegant ivory white gown. As revealed by the designers of the dress, they use antique lace that originally belonged to Queen Mary and sew 10,000 pearls and gold in the bridal gown that will never be replicated.
Thirty-eight years after the Princess of Wales wore her iconic wedding dress and almost 22 years after her death, where is it now and what happened to it? Did the royal family keep it or sell it on auction?
After Princess Diana died in a car crash in August 1997, her entire assets were distributed. Aside from leaving money to her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, she also made sure that her family, butler and godchildren will get something when she passed.
It was revealed that her other possessions, like her gowns and wedding dress, were also distributed to her family. And for decades, the bridal gown was in the possession of Earl Spencer, Lady Di’s brother, for safekeeping. Prince William and Prince Harry were still too young at that time. But when they got older, their uncle turned over their mother’s dress to their trust fund, where it truly belongs.
Prior to being handed over to princes William and Harry, their mother’s wedding dress was put up for an exhibit and traveled worldwide. In 2014, it finally arrived back in the U.K., and Prince William eventually got a hold of the heirloom. It was then put on display at Kensington Palace.
While millions of people know about Princess Diana’s bridal gown, there’s a little secret that many may not know about. The princess could have worn a different dress that day in 1981 if something went wrong while she fitted her gown.
The gown’s maker, Elizabeth Emanuel, divulged in an interview that they prepared a second dress as backup. She said that the ivory silk taffeta gown features the same design around the neckline but does not have the signature lace used in the original.
Emanuel revealed that this was created in case of emergency but was never completed. Still, this spare bridal gown of Princess Diana fetched around £84,000 at an auction.
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