Diana's Fashion

Official photographs of her wearing a deep green taffeta silk ball gown before her marriage shows a romantic Diana.

The full skirted taffeta silk crinoline ball dress with puffed sleeves was widely copied by stores such as Laura Ashley and it became the dress style to wear to May Balls and similar yuppie events.

Getting out a romantic fantasy prom style ball dress was an occasion to shed the power suit showing the woman of aspiration and taste beneath.

Diana's Wedding Dress Set a Trend for Meringue Styles
The Princess supported many British designers beginning with Elizabeth and David Emanuel who designed her much criticized puff ball meringue wedding dress in 1981. The beautiful dress was based on a romantic look of huge puffed sleeves with a full skirt of ivory silk pure taffeta, old lace and hand embroidery incorporating 10,000 pearls and sequins.

The dress had a twenty five foot train and when the princess emerged from the carriage at the cathedral the world saw how creased the dress appeared. The creases soon dropped out, but the fabric and construction method used was criticized worldwide.

David Emanuel complained in a TV interview that the carriage was far too small for both Diana and her robustly built father along with her full skirted dress, hence the inevitable creases.
I think he was probably right - no fabric deserves to be treated that way.

Diana in her Emanuel designed wedding dress that set a trend for weddings of the 1980s
Diana's going away pert pink ensemble was made by David Sassoon of the Couture design house Belville Sassoon.He made many other garments for the Princess.

Many brides must have loved it because the style became affectionately known as a meringue dress. Whilst many might not choose the crinoline meringue style in the 21st century, thousands did in the immediate following decade.

Only in 1992 was there a move toward straighter, more simple, less girly styles, but it took some years for the majority of brides to notice this fact.