Diana - Glimpses of a Modern Princess

The exhibition at Kensington Palace of Diana's dresses is very small but it is perfectly formed.  Photos without flash are now allowed at KP so I was delighted to be able to take some photos of some of Diana's dresses - one of which was a great favourite of mine.

Black Versace cocktail dress.

A beautiful Bellville Sassoon cocktail dress -
one of my all time favourites.  This dress
was sold to Paris Match Magazine in the
1997 Dresses Auction and subsequently
won by a reader in a competition - after that I do
not know what happened to dress but I was
thrilled to see it on display.  It has a velvet skirt and
then a sequinned bodice and sleeves
(apologies for the reflection it couldn't be helped!)

A close up of the bodice.

David Sassoon's design and
fabric swatch.

The famous Emanuel black strapless 

gown worn on Diana's first official evening

outing after her engagement -it was 

recently found by David Emanuel  in a bin 

bag in his garage(OMG!) and then auctioned

It was bought buy the Fashion Museum 

in Santiago, Chile who loaned it to KP for 

this show.

The Emanuel's design and fabric
swatch.

The display cabinets included some 

drawings by the designers and 

photos of Diana wearing the creations.

A Catherine Walker evening gown 

first worn on tour to Thailand - this 

dress was bought by the Daily Mirror 

newspaper and then given away in a 

reader competition - again I do not 

know what happened after that whether 

the winner still owns the dress or not.

And another Catherine Walker cream

creation seen from the back - this

dress was worn by Diana privately 

and for the Testino photo shoot to 

promote her Dresses Auction as 

seen below:-

Testino's portrait of a relaxed Diana.

I really liked the "D" for Diana logo that KP have come up with - it encompasses Diana's love of ballet with the ballet shoes, her heritage with the Spencer Tiara across the top, her love of fashion - the Jimmy Choo shoe and a rose - England's Rose and a ribbon for Diana's charitable work.

And finally KP have commissioned a special wallpaper which depicts Diana's life - it is by the artist Julie Verhoeven and I think it is really great and a very different idea!

It is well worth a visit to KP if you have a chance.  You can read more about it here