With a relevancy as eternal as her timeless style, Princess Diana remains a prominent style icon in both media and culture by which generations have looked to for inspiration. With trend cycles of everyday wear, television, film, and high fashion editorials, her style continues to be revered and adored in the hearts of many. Her codes of dress were an extension of her own heart, developing an entire distinct language throughout the development of her conscious style.
Her style is one that cannot be defined simply under one label. Diana’s image evolution has a great range from the Sloane Ranger uniform and athleisure ensembles to romantic looks, classic suits and daring gowns, her personal style surpasses a look and has become an extension of her spirit in the moment. Making fashion history time and time again. For instance, her image impact creating the solane ranger aesthetic, her infamous wedding train, The “Travolta dress,” the revenge dress, and the Dior slip to the Met Gala. Just to name a few iconic style moments out of numerous.
Despite her many style labels attained and sported over the years, she was never one to act in order to attain a look, but rather understood the means to develop a true style. It entails leveraging your own personality, intelligence, and experiences to produce the look. Even though others have the same style label as you, your personal style is unique to you as it is a culmination of all you think, feel, want, and do.
Diana’s approach to dress carried this concept, with statement living looks over statement pieces, cementing herself in the moment visually. More than words ever could.
Eleri Lynn, curator of “Diana: Her Fashion Story,” spoke to Vanity Fair about Diana’s style, stating, “It is very surprising how little footage there exists of the Princess actually speaking. We all have a sense of what we think she was like, and yet so much of it comes from still photographs, and a large part of that [idea] is communicated through the different clothes that she wore. [..] She had really sort of transcended fashion and achieved an incredible chic and elegance, all you saw was her, and the clothes became secondary to her own presence and her work.”
She was also deeply aware of how clothing might shape her public image and how clothing was a tool for her to express herself and speak to others in a nonverbal manner. Diana’s codes of dress did not follow suit to fashion of her time, but rather was mindful and well suited to her, hence the eternal elegance and timeless looks she is well noted for.
Diana’s styling goals were to not become this style icon she is dubbed today, but rather to appeal to the senses of sight and touch, in order to convey her gentle and charismatic nature. This would not only establish her public image but to garner personal connections with the people around her. One instance is her utilization of color psychology, she opted for hues of a cheerful nature to tangibly depict her warmth and openness. Another example of her styling approach would be to adorn herself with more prominent jewelry so that children could play with it.
The last example of this section is how she would often wear velvet when visiting the blind so that she was soft and substantial physically.
From these three styling techniques, we can see that her fashion served her as a person, allowing for her to ground herself and create a space for correspondence. Her infamous gesture of removing her gloves to hold hands is a simple movement, but one that balanced her glamour and natural presence all while carrying a heartfelt message through how she handled garments. Iain Hollingshead of The Telegraph wrote: “[Diana] had an ability to sell clothes just by looking at them.” With this awareness, she would utilize style to endorse charities and express herself.
Though people take style cues from Diana, her aesthetic is one not to be pinned down. She is adored for her taste in fashion, but unlike many style icons, she does not have a single garment that is well associated with her. Instead, she has moments by which the fashion is notable, rather than the other way around. Every look has a story, the look doesn’t make the story, it simply contributes to it.
Diana adored fashion as it was a personal interest in her upbringing. The term Sloane Ranger refers to an upper-middle or upper-class individual, who embodies a highly specific upbringing and outlook. Diana, prior to marriage is one such archetype. While remaining elevated and classy, the Sloane Ranger style is straightforward, simple, and unpretentious while reflecting the lifestyle, education, and social standing of the wearer to some extent.
With the newfound requirements for her public figure status, she developed an international presence. “She was always very thoughtful about how her clothes would be interpreted, it was something that really mattered to her”, according to Anna Harvey, a former British Vogue editor, and Diana’s fashion mentor. She was consistently photographed and what she wore was documented, and the dress codes to adhere to were established firmly.
In the beginning, Diana possessed more traditionally romantic looks and would often look to British fashion designs such as Murray Arbeid, Belville Sassoon, and Gini Fratini. These designers upheld classic tailoring for daywear along with evening wear of a romantic nature that dated back fifty years prior to her time. Her style would remain traditional and produce the look of the role she was growing into. For those fashion-oriented, the living nickname Dynasty Di was given in honor, of her eye that found wide-shouldered gowns, lush fabrics, and lavish pieces, even making the most casual look upscale, that would influence decades of fashion. Hats were an essential element of her fashion sense amid her early years in the press, and they always finished off her ensembles.
For her wedding in 81, she was dressed in a gown that embraced the modernity of this point in time with large sleeves and an over-the-top 25-foot-long train that flowed behind her, the longest in royal wedding history.
The short-lived ruffles and frills would transform her staple silhouette to become sleek with embellishments or adornments that would compliment her beauty for events and press photographs. Her dubbed “royal uniform” cast away the 80s nuances and romantic variables of her look for a fluid embracive silhouette that flattered the silhouette and went onto become a timeless option many opt for to this day. With the helping, talented hand of Catherine Walker, Diana’s style began into the renowned one she is more associated with her sleekly elegant, tailored looks that worked for her public image and own personal diplomacy of fashion.
Walker contributed to the formulation of Diana’s codes of dress from the 1980s forward so that she could maintain her modern look while catering to the image of her public life. For public events and in her travels, she would often color block, print play, or make use of leading lines to have diplomatic, eye-catching looks. She would consciously think of others’ cultures and adapt to pay respect to the people around her.
Diana’s style shifted following the events of her life, the most emblematic being the “Revenge Dress.” Anna Harvey, her former stylist, stated how Diana strived to look “like a million dollars” that night. Initially, she was meant to wear another dress, but the last-minute switch was made despite her hesitancy as she saw the dress as too daring. “[The princess] chose not to play the scene like Odette, innocent in white. She was clearly angry. She played it like Odile, in black. She wore bright red nail enamel, which we had never seen her do before. She was saying, ‘Let’s be wicked tonight!’” she was quoted as saying.
The Christina Stambolian dress was an off-the-shoulder form fit with a flowing back trail. Diana paired this with silk Manolo Blahnik heels, sheer tights, and a statement choker. It had a flowing black trail and a sweetheart neckline. Diana wore a pair of silk Manolo Blahnik high heels, sheer black tights, and her statement choker necklace to finish it off. Though the look was dark, her brightness shined through and her statement was made clear to events surrounding the night.
Her codes of dress were no longer necessary to cater to royal protocols and her fashion icon status would grow with her new independence. She began to wear more Jacques Azagury in the 1990s, which encouraged lower hemlines and low cuts.
However, she began to gravitate toward European designers, such as Versace, Valentino and Dior, Lacroix, and Chanel. With a refined and staple silhouette and a high visual interest to be found in the details. Her signatures included luxurious, well-crafted pieces with strong cutes paired with coordinating handbags, jewelry, and shoes as her calling card. Diana was regularly pictured holding distinct Gucci and Dior handbags during the 1990s. She made the purses legendary, and they became so closely identified with her that they were dubbed Gucci Diana and Lady Dior, correspondingly. Her language of style contributed greatly to the enduring look of fashion in the late twentieth century.
For example, Princess Diana wore an all-white ensemble to go shopping in Knightsbridge in 1994.with a foundation of white streamlined trousers and turtleneck, An olive green jacket and a black chunky belt accented and pulled together the look.
Unlike before, her natural waistline is highlighted and the structured blazer refines the look while maintaining the elevated casual essences. The outfit is completed with white and brown loafers paired off with a matching tote.
Often designers on the runway pay homage to Diana through their creative visions that carry on her spirit in the modern world. For example, Virgil Abloh’s Princess Diana-Inspired Collection For Off-White and Tory Burch Spring Summer 2020.
Editorials have as well such as Hailey Baldwin as Princess Diana’s Vogue Paris’featuring Diana’s relaxed, chic, laid-back looks with athletic undertones. Sunniva Vaatevik paid tribute to Princess Diana For Spanish Vogue, styled by Sara Fernandez Castro, to recreate the earlier princess style through brands such as Chanel, Dior, and Valentino.
The fashion of Diana is one that is not just timeless visually, but her presence and aura has made her imagery eternally elegant, as she as a person, was simply that. Her glamour and vulnerability have made the many garments and styles hold further meaning.
In and out, she was a gorgeous woman who was unabashedly herself at all moments, her wardrobe was caring, a sartorial share from her heart that the world carries on to this day into the future.
SOURCES: Solane Ranger- https://thedailyomnivore.net/2012/03/14/sloane-ranger/ Eleri Lynn, curator of “Diana: Her Fashion Story” Interview- https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/02/princess-diana-fashion-icon
