Princess Diana’s Wedding Dress Designer Recalls Bait-and-Switch to Keep Her Gown Secret

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That goes for royal weddings as well, where the subterfuge meant to throw the press and public off from details of the day’s details ahead of time is as high as the fashion the royal brides exhibit. Fascination around the late Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding to the then-Prince of Wales, King Charles III, was fevered enough that her dress designer, Elizabeth Emanuel, recalled chaos outside the atelier she shared with her then-husband and co-designer, David Emanuel.

“When Diana came in for a fitting, there would be hundreds of people outside waiting to spot her,” Elizabeth told People in an interview about the experience.

In more recent years, the designers of Kate Middleton’s gown for her 2011 wedding to Prince William, and Meghan Markle’s 2018 nuptials to Prince Harry were kept secret until the day of, Kate in a long-sleeved Alexander McQueen gown designed by Sarah Burton, Meghan in a boatneck Givenchy masterminded by Clare Wright Keller. However, it had been confirmed ahead of time that the Emanuels were creating the popular Princess Diana’s wedding day look.

They took measures to prevent any leaks of the dress’s final design ahead of her walk down the aisle, trailed by that now-iconic 25-foot train.

“We had to put shutters up on our windows, and we used to put bits of fabric, in different colors, in the bins just to throw the journalists off the scent,” Elizabeth said of the process, recalling that Diana loved being in the studio and chatting with the sewists, seeing the space as an “oasis of peace” away from her extremely public life.

Additionally, the Emanuels designed and began constructing—but never finished—an entirely different second wedding dress for Diana, in case of a physical disaster like a spill, or a PR crisis such as a leak to the media of the original dress.

“I just thought, ‘If anything happens, we’ll finish it off and have it ready,’” Elizabeth said of the backup garment. They didn’t need to, though now, decades later, the dress has been recreated based on old sketches, and will be displayed at a virtual Princess Diana museum.

Diana never knew about the contingency plan.

“Neither of us wanted to worry her,” Elizabeth said. “It was a complete secret.”

In previous interviews, the designer has revealed other backup plans, like the parasol they constructed to match the dress just in case it rained, and that a small gold-and-diamond horseshoe charm was hidden in the garment for good luck.