A designer has shared the story behind creating Princess Diana’s iconic black dress, which "shocked the world," in an exclusive interview with GB News.
Having the chance to attend "Princess Diana's Style & A Royal Collection Preview" at the Peninsula Hotel in London, I spoke with Elizabeth Emanuel, the designer who created the late Princess of Wales's wedding dress and numerous other garments.
On March 1, 1981, then-Prince Charles and his new fiancée, Lady Diana Spencer, arrived at Goldsmith Hall in London for a charity recital.
Diana made headlines by wearing a beautiful low-cut Emmanuel gown in black.
Designer shares story behind Diana’s black dress that ‘shocked the world’.
GB News / Getty
During the interview, Emanuel stood in front of a gown that had never been seen before, as it was designed for the Princess but never worn in her lifetime.
She told the People's Channel: "I call it the Sister Dress because it's made from exactly the same piece of fabric as Princess Diana's famous black dress that she wore that shocked the world."
Referring to that night in 1981, Elizabeth explained: "When she got out of the limousine, everybody said, 'Oh, you can see too much cleavage!'
"But we only bought a very small amount of the fabric at the time, enough for about two dresses plus some plain black fabric.
King Charles and Princess Diana arriving at Goldsmith Hall for a charity recital in 1981.
PA
"And I thought, well, we can span it out a bit. So she tried on this dress and it looked lovely on her. That's why we actually used the V-neck and the sleeves as something that we reproduced again for her pre-wedding ball dress, the pink dress of which I've got a sketch, and the spare dress, which has the same top bit as this dress.
"In the end, though, we decided we wanted a more daring look, more glamorous with the cleavage of that dress. And that's the one that she went with at the end of the day."
Explaining how Diana's fashion had already begun to evolve, Emanuel declared: "She looked fantastic in it.
"This was the very first black dress that she wore. It was a famous one at Goldsmith Hall when she transformed from the nursery school teacher wearing frothy, romantic, a lot of the Morales at the time, very soft pastel colours, to this absolutely stunning superstar, glamorous, future Princess.
Elizabeth Emanuel stood in front of the 'Sister Dress' that Diana never wore.
GB News
"And that's what made the press suddenly sit up and say, 'She looks amazing. We're going to now follow her and see what else she's going to be wearing.'
"Because everyone, I think, was quite shocked. I mean, we were quite shocked at the time because we didn't think there'd be such a reaction.
"At the time, we didn't realise that the rules stipulated you aren't supposed to wear black [as a royal] unless you're in mourning. So it's exactly the same. It's from the same bolt of fabric.
"We didn't know. We were just young and naive then. So we didn't realise there was a problem with the colour black. To us, it was just a grown-up colour that people love.
The Princess Diana 'Sister Dress' will be sold at auction in Beverly Hills later this month.
Getty
"I love wearing black, as you can see, and it's a great colour for evening, and it glittered - everything was right about it.
"She had great cleavage and shoulders and everything. It was going from the soft, romantic look suddenly to this very glamorous, starlet look. And then she was hanging out with Princess Grace there. There were lots and lots of pictures of her."
The largest collection of Diana, Princess of Wales's clothing, including Emanuel's "Sister Dress", will be auctioned at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills on June 26.
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