Princess Diana’s wedding dress is one of the most iconic royal wedding gowns (actually, one of the most iconic wedding gowns period), and it was made by none other than designer Elizabeth Emanuel. But apparently the dress—in all its floofy glory—was just one of two options Elizabeth created for Princess Diana’s big day. She also made the Princess of Wales a “spare” gown to wear just in case details about the main dress were leaked to the press.
As Elizabeth told Hello, “The spare wedding gown was made just in case the secret of the real dress ever got out. Fortunately, it was never used. The dress was made in pale ivory silk taffeta with embroidered scalloped details on the hem and sleeves. Tiny pearls were sewn on the bodice.”
She added, “People always ask you what it was like. It was similar in certain respects and both had the big skirt, but everything else was different. So it was really just a back-up to the original and I don’t know where it went. It just disappeared.” (Head to Hello to see a sketch of the spare!)
Elizabeth says that Diana asked Elizabeth and her staff to keep details surrounding her dress “very, very secret,” and on top of that it was “stored every night in a metal cabinet guarded by two guards, Jim and Bert. So there was somebody there 24 hours a day and we put shutters on all our windows, and we put false colour threads in the rubbish bins because people were going through our bins.”
Oh, and get this: Elizabeth also made Diana a bright pink pre-wedding dress, saying “The fabric was a rich silk taffeta in shocking pink–a sexy little number and one that was certain to attract attention! It had a low plunge neckline and was slashed to the knee. She looked stunning!”
Mehera Bonner is a celebrity and entertainment news writer who enjoys Bravo and Antiques Roadshow with equal enthusiasm, She was previously entertainment editor at Marie Claire and has covered pop culture for over a decade.